Autumn Michels, a 21-year-old who attends Mass at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Laingsburg uses the Mass Propers and once borrowed a Braille Bible from the Xavier Society. She has not only been helping teach faith formation to children but is also a lector and sings in the choir at the parish. 

Michels says she wasn’t blind from birth, but developed a tumor called an optic pathway glioma, which caused her to lose her sight at age 2. Her grandmother told her about the Xavier Society, and she started receiving Braille resources. 

“So then, because I was having trouble reading Braille and it was hard for me to concentrate,” she says, “we just stopped getting Xavier Society for the Blind books altogether. I was fine with listening,” but then she learned to read Braille.

Michels grew up Catholic and always had a strong faith in God, even with her illness, so the Mass Propers and other Catholic literature she receives from the Xavier Society enhance the foundation she already has. Other visually impaired readers like Bryan Howey found the resources beneficial for his journey into the church.

Bryan was raised in the Methodist tradition, but wasn’t practicing any faith for many years. “And then, God was persistent and kept drawing me in different ways, and I finally decided to join the Catholic Church.” 

It was then that Howey found out about the Xavier Society for the Blind and received his Braille New Testament. “It was good to get that, and that kind of got me started, and then I found out about all these other books that they have. I’ve gotten different books about spirituality and why we believe a lot of the things that we believe and some of the classics.” 

His wife Debbie was already Catholic, and like Howey, hadn’t been practicing her faith either, so they both attended RCIA together. By the two of them working together through the program, their faith and knowledge of the church became stronger, and he says they are better able to defend it. 

The ministry for the blind and visually impaired doesn’t just impact those who need the resources. Howey says his wife Debbie and those in their circle of friends also benefit. “I can’t say I’ve converted anybody or anything, but at least I can explain why I believe, and leave the rest to God.” 

Having the Mass Propers ahead of the weekend’s masses, Howey says he has the readings ahead of time and doesn’t have to have anyone find them for him or read them to him. “You know, I can ponder them a little better,” Howey says.

Being able to participate more fully in the Liturgy is what Margaret Coffey had in mind when she started the Xavier Society for the Blind in 1900 in Manhattan, New York. Coffey was a blind woman who taught blind children about the Catholic faith, says Aisling Redican, communications and fundraising manager for the society. 

Redican is part of the small staff who make sure Braille and large print materials are distributed to the visually impaired free of charge. She says Coffey was frustrated because her students didn’t have access to faith formation materials that sighted children did and they struggled to learn about the faith. So, with the help of a Jesuit priest named Father Joseph Stadelman and $300 of her own funds, she began providing religious textbooks to her students. 

Since its inception, the Xavier Society for the Blind has continued to grow, and it provides not only religious textbooks for faith formation but missals for Sunday Mass and feast days, as well as hundreds of books on the Catholic faith, spirituality, biographies of the saints, and other inspirational figures. 

They provide more than Braille books. By issuing Talking Books and other resources, the society makes sure that anyone with a vision impairment can get access to materials. 

Redican says it may have started as a way to serve students in Manhattan, but the Xavier Society for the Blind has grown into a worldwide mission. Locally, though, a handful of visually impaired Catholics rely on it to grow their faith. “Just for them to have access to that and to connect to their faith is incredible, and we’re super blessed to be able to do what we do,” she says.

Learn more

The Xavier Society doesn’t receive any funding from government sources and is entirely donor-supported. For information about the Xavier Society for the Blind or to apply to receive free resources, please visit the society’s website.