Francis Xavier Seelos was born in Germany in 1819 and moved to Maryland, where he was ordained a priest in 1843. Known for his wit and compassion, most of his priestly service was spent in the archdiocese of Baltimore. In fact, he was pastor of St. Alphonsus for three years -- St. John Neumann's old parish. Now it turns out he may be a miracle worker as well.

The Vatican is now investigating whether or not the intercession of Fr. Seelos is responsible for curing an Annapolis woman of terminal cancer. According to Arthur Hirsch at the the Baltimore Sun, Mary Ellen Heibel , a parishioner at St. Mary's in Annapolis, was given six months to live after cancer was found throughout her body. She sought medical treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital to merely prolong her life, but to the surprise of everyone, the cancer disappeared. Doctors couldn't explain it, but the bill of clean health immediately followed a novena to Fr. Seelos at Heibel's parish. Heibel had also been wearing a relic of Seelos around her neck for some time.

Hirsch writes about the popularity of Fr. Seelos:

Seelos' following had been building for decades. In New Orleans especially, where he died at the age of 48 in 1867 of yellow fever while tending to victims of the disease, his reputation was enhanced in the early 1970s. That's when a local woman who had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer was found free of the disease after prayers calling on Seelos. An investigation similar to the one in Heibel's case affirmed this as a miracle, and Seelos was beatified in a ceremony in Rome in 2000.

An archdiocesan committee will explore whether this new case constitutes a miracle by speaking to Heibel and ten other witnesses -- including doctors, nurses and others close to the case. The findings will then be sent to Rome.

Although Fr. Seelos was born in Germany and died in New Orleans, he was a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It's always inspiring when things like this are happening in your own backyard.