St. Francis Xavier’s relic right arm. Unrecorded.

[Francis Xavier’s relic right arm]. Wunderbahrlicher Armb des Wunderthätigen H. Francisci Xaverÿ Soc: Iesu. Andacht, und Verehrung des Armbs des glorwürdigen Indianer, und Japoneser Apostels St. Francisci Xaverii. Mindelheim: gedruckt bey Jahann Peter Stainer, 1760. [14.0 x 8.8 cm], [2] ff., with full-page engraving. Folds with holes affecting a few letters, marginal mends and staining.

Unrecorded 1760 German prayer sheet dedicated to the relic right arm & hand of Francis Xavier (1506-52), which is preserved in the church of Il Gesù in Rome. Unusually striking is the full-page engraving depicting the “Miraculous Arm of the Miracle-Working St. Francis Xavier, Society of Jesus”.

The sheet was, somewhat unusually, printed in Mindelheim, Swabia. At the time of its printing, in 1760, Jesuit activity in Mindelheim was concentrated at the Franz-Xaver-Kapelle of the church of Mariä Verkündigung.

The letterpress prayers of such sheets are often generic. That is not the case here, and it is worth quoting the prayer in full (in translation):

“Devotion and Veneration of the Arm of the glorious Apostle of the Indians and Japanese, St. Francis Xavier. Great and mighty God! You who with Your divine arm always work power, might, and glory, I humbly adore You, praise You, and glorify You, that You continually bestow so many wonders upon the right arm and hand of Your glorious servant, my Savior, Father Francis Xavier. I thank you from my heart for this good deed. But you, O great saint, and mighty intercessor with God in all needs, I beseech you through your most tender love for Jesus the Crucified, through his rose-colored blood, through his most immaculate mother Mary, as well as those of your holy arm & right hand, with which you baptized so many hundreds of thousands of people, with which you so many thousands of times brought the newly converted Indians the Holy Spirit. The cross was marked, and the blessing was bestowed upon all the people, for you, as a fervent priest ever burning with divine love, offered so many hundreds of divine sacrifices of atonement in the Holy Mass, in which you distributed the divine food for the soul, suspended in the air and raised, among the faithful, thereby controlling fire, water, wind, and storms, destroying so many idols, driving out the devil’s wickedness, restoring health to the sick, and restoring life to the dead. Through that arm, in which your nerves were twice severely damaged by an unfortunate bloodletting, and thus you were brought to death. Through that arm, under which, dying, you pressed the cross to your loving, flaming heart, and which, even after death, remains completely uncorrupted, you work so many miracles. Through this wondrous arm and hand, I beseech you, O Holy Xavier! Be my ceaseless intercessor with Almighty God, that through you, by the power of his divine arm, he may avert from me all true evil, both of soul and body, and may my mighty arm be with me in times of need, especially in my present concerns, N.N., and at the time of bloodletting. But above all, when at the last hour of death the power of darkness should torment me, pray for me to dear God, that through the mighty arm of his divine grace all my enemies may be destroyed and driven away. Pray for me, O Holy Xavier, that I, as a child of your right hand, O dearest Holy Xavier, may be blessed. Father, live devoutly, and die holy under your fatherly protection, as also on that day of judgment, so that I may be placed on your right hand, where you will stand, among the elect, and enter into eternal life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, Amen. 5 Our Fathers, 5 Hail Marys, 5 Glory be to the Fathers, etc.”

This item is not located by OCLC or KVK, nor have I seen it mentioned elsewhere.