How did St. Ignatius get involved in education?

Born in 1491 the youngest of 13 children, Ignatius’ dad wanted to tuck him away in the seminary. Ignatius on the other hand wanted the romantic life of the Royal Circuit Court. In the Battle of Pamplona in 1521 Captain Ignatius suffered injuries to both legs. During his lengthy recovery, Ignatius went through a conversion and started working on his Spiritual Exercises. Not suited to his dream of a life in the Holy Land, at the age of 34, Ignatius decided to study for the priesthood and preach his Spiritual Exercises.

In January, 2019, we were blessed as Jesuits West sent Father Joe O'Keefe, S.J. to St. Francis Xavier. Sadly, Father Joe will be leaving St. Francis at the end of the month for his new assignment at Bellarmine Prep San Jose.

His thoughtful oversight of the Pastoral Department engaged our staff and parishioners as we implemented new programs that will unveil this Fall. His benevolent nature will be missed by all who had the good fortune to work by his side.

Please join us in wishing him our very best on his new assignment.

Father Joe, we hold you in our hearts.

With a sense of prudence we fully sanitized all public spaces, including the church, the weekend of June 26/27. We recognize that anyone may test positive due to the interaction we have with others on any given day. As we proceed in the coming weeks, we will follow these processes in accordance with Diocesan guidelines, as well as, CDC and AZ Department of Health guidelines:

1. Scheduled Mass will continue; we will practice physical distance, wear face masks. All of our sanitizing and cleaning protocols will continue as currently structured using commercial grade products.

2. Meetings outside of Mass will be monitored for physical distancing. We will keep these meetings to 10-12 persons. We will request all wear face masks and maintain physical distance.