The hand that is said to have baptized 100,000 people will be traveling Canada this month on a cross-country pilgrimage.

The forearm and hand of St. Francis Xavier is considered an incorrupt, first class relic of one of the Catholic Church’s greatest missionaries and evangelists.

The Canadian tour spans 14 cities, including Toronto and Mississauga, from Jan. 3 to Feb. 2.

“This is the opportunity that most Canadians kind of don’t get because we’re a new country, we’re the new world,” said Angèle Regnier, co-founder of Catholic Christian Outreach, who is travelling with the relic.

“If you go to Europe, there are saints and relics everywhere in churches . . . but most of Canada doesn’t have that experience.”

St. Francis Xavier is considered one of the co-founders of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Born in 1506 to Spanish nobility, he led extensive missions into Asia.

John Sullivan, S.J., pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish said St. Francis Xavier was one of the most significant missionaries in the church.

“What’s beautiful for us, in our faith, (is) to see is someone who kind of gave everything, in going to share what we call the good news with those who hadn’t heard it before, or at least to present the faith to people who hadn’t had a chance to hear it before,” Sullivan said.

St. Francis Xavier died in 1552 off the coast of China. His body is buried in Goa, India, and usually his forearm is displayed at the Church of the Gesu in Rome. Both his body and his forearm are considered incorrupt, meaning they have not experienced natural decay since his death.

“Because you can tell that it’s a hand, it’s also an extraordinary relic because you get a sense of the humanity of St. Francis Xavier,” Regnier said. “This was his hand. He lived.”

Regnier compared a relic with the experience of going to a loved one’s gravesite to remember them.

“Relics are a connection with these holy men and women, in order to pray with them, remember them, venerate them, honour them,” she said.

Sullivan said relics are a physical reminder and a connection to a saint.

“In some ways, the veneration or devotion to relics isn’t as strong as it used to be,” he said. “I didn’t grow up with it. And when I first heard we were getting the relic, I was so excited. Then I googled a picture of it, I thought ‘oh my God, it looks like something from the Mummy.”

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Sullivan said he can understand that some people may think relics are “strange,” but emphasized that relics are “a connection we have, through that saint, through that person who has given their life to God.”

The relic will visit Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica on Jan. 12 and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish on Jan. 14. On Jan. 13, the relic will be at Mississauga’s St. Francis Xavier Church.

The tour was organized by the Archdiocese of Ottawa, the Canadian Jesuits and Catholic Christian Outreach. The full tour list can be found on their website.

Regnier said all are welcome. She added that visitors should prepare for line-ups, and will have only a few seconds in front of the relic itself.

“It’s really beautiful,” Regnier said of seeing people venerate the relic. “People are so touched that it has come to them … the reverence people have in approaching the relic is really beautiful.”