Saint Guido Maria Conforti

Guido Maria Conforti was born near Parma, Italy, in 1865. As a boy he spent hours before a crucifix, and his dream of being a missionary grew from it. Poor health kept him from going to the missions, so in 1895 he founded the Xaverian Missionaries, named after Saint Francis Xavier, to send others in his place. He served briefly as archbishop of Ravenna and then as bishop of Parma from 1907 until his death in 1931, and in 1928 he finally visited his missionaries in China. Pope Benedict XVI canonized him in 2011.

The Xaverian Missionaries and the Xaverian Missionary Sisters he inspired serve today in Africa, Asia and the Americas, including Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and the United States.