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Show ST. FRANCIS' ARM VENERATED RELIC , I - " -v" -v. I H - i i" v - pHOUSANDS OF CATHOLICS In A the United States have venerated ven-erated the relic of the arm of St. Francis Xavier, who is one of the most renowned missionaries in the church, in each of the stops on its current tour of the nation. One of the largest single crowds to venerate the relic filled the fieldhouse of Xavier University, Cincinnati, where services were held October 5. More than 5,000 persons participated in the solemn ceremonies in honor of the remarkably re-markably preserved relic, the glass enclosed right hand and forearm fore-arm bone of the saint. The relic was brought to the United States from Japan where it was taken during the summer in observance of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of St. Francis, the first Christian Chris-tian missionary to reach the shore of Nippon. It will be returned re-turned to its permanent repository reposi-tory in Rome following concluding conclud-ing American services December Decem-ber 3 in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Cathed-ral, New York City. The Rev. Arthur J. McGratty, S.J., who has been custodian of the relic on its tour, estimated that well over 1,000,000 Catholics in the United States will have viewed the relic before it leaves the country. Cincinnati was the 14th diocese among 30 to be visited. In one day alone, 100,000 persons viewed the relic when it was shown in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in New Orleans. A continuous con-tinuous stream of people filed by the relic from morning until night there, Father McGratty said. Ir Spokane, he said, a 118-car mo lor The Rev. Edward T. Wiatrak, S. J., assistant pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine Chapel, Xavier university, Cincinnati, Ohio, touches the relic of the arm of St. Francis Xavier as it lies in state in the chapel before a painting of the saint in his ministrations. cade greeted him at the airport to escort the relic through the city. The American reception parallels par-allels the reception the relic was accorded in Japan. At one stop in Nagasaki, 15,000 Catholics Cath-olics attended solemn mass on the si! 3 of the atom-bombed v - i r- ch. -. born in 1506 , -.i - .... was one of the first Jesuit priests. He traveled through India, Malaya, and Japan in ten years of missionary labor during which he baptized approximately approxi-mately 1,000,000 people. He died in 1552 and a year later was re-buried re-buried in Goa, India, scene of many of his heroic accomplishments. accomplish-ments. His right arm was severed at the elbow from his body in 1614 and sent to Roma- |