Devotion to Francis (Francisco) Xavier has always been immensely popular as he fires the imagination with his heroic travels to distant peoples and lands across the globe.

This novena is nine days of prayer, in the company of St Francis Xavier, through the letters he wrote. As a Jesuit, Francisco underwent and then, in turn, led others through the Spiritual Exercises of his great friend St Ignatius Loyola.

His writings reflect the spiritual insights and preoccupations of the Spiritual Exercises. We pray to know ourselves better, to discern the will of God for each of us in the daily unfolding of our lives, to hear and generously answer Christ’s call to follow him, whatever the cost, and to understand that everything is unmerited gift from God, poured out lavishly upon us “as rays from the sun or waters from the spring.”

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The Novena of Grace is traditionally prayed either from 4th to 12th March (the day Francis was declared a saint in 1622) or from 25th November to 3rd December (St Francis Xavier’s feast day). But it is a devotion that may be prayed at any time.

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Download the text of the Novena below.