Join the Mission and Celebration of Fr. Francis Jordan
Jordan Awareness Week is September 5 – 13, 2015.
Salvatorians around the country are embracing their founder, Fr. Francis Jordan. Jordan’s empathy for social justice is heightened during this year’s celebrations to increase awareness of his mission and advance the movement toward his canonization.
Today there is a very structured process for becoming a saint. First, after the death of a holy man or woman, a history is written and his or her written works are collected and sent to a special Vatican Congregation for review. If everything is in order, then the person is given the title Servant of God.
Advancing past the level of Servant of God requires the testimony of a miracle — God’s confirmation on the matter. Once a miracle has been confirmed, the Servant of God can be declared Blessed in a process called beatification. Therese von Wüllenweber, co-founder of the Salvatorian Sisters, for example, is now Blessed Mary of the Apostles.
Our founder, Fr. Francis Jordan, is already recognized as a Servant of God. His cause is proceeding at the Vatican. His history has been submitted along with evidence of a miracle of cancer recovery in a woman from Augusta, Ga. Now we are awaiting the decree of beatification. Once decreed, another miracle will be required to advance Father Jordan to canonization, the final step in the journey to sainthood.
The more widely Fr. Jordan is known, and the more fervently he is venerated, the greater the chance of a second miracle and of his advancement to sainthood. It is one reason why we Salvatorians promote Jordan Awareness Week. More importantly though, we believe that Christians can learn a lot from Jordan’s life struggles: his unwavering trust in Divine Providence; his steadfast prayer; his unflagging zeal for souls; and his insistence that every baptized person is called to live an apostolic life.
Read more about Fr. Jordan, and our co-foundress, Blessed Mary of the Apostles to learn about Salvatorian history, specially during Jordan Awareness Week.