A Man Full of Sores by Francis KEN Xavier
- F M SHYANGUYA
- Jul 2
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 14
A Vision at Sacred Heart Church Salinas, CA
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To the best of my recollection, it is Friday, December 15, 2017, and my family and I are in Monterey, CA, having relocated from Hawai'i at the end of August of that year.
I have a desire to receive Holy Communion but the two Churches closest to our apartment, St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Seaside, CA, and San Carlos Cathedral, Monterey CA, do not have morning Mass on Saturdays.
I search Mass Times for Masses on Saturdays closest to me and Sacred Heart Church is listed as being only 8 miles away and Mass is at 7 AM.
On Saturday, December 16, 2017, I get up, shower, and dress for Mass. I first put on a sweater but decide, since it is winter and chilly outside, to take it off and put on a new jacket my wife had just purchased for me from Costco.
It is perhaps 6:30 A, it is still dark outside, and I borrow my wife's car to drive to Church. I drive, and drive. It takes about a half hour to arrive at the Church. I park the car on Stone St. facing W. Market St and I go to the Church and enter though the side entrance on Stone St. This is my very first time ever at that Church. I arrive at bout 7 AM. The Holy Mass is just beginning.
As I enter the Church, and to my right alongside the wall, there is a man who I take to be a beggar, and he is in a crouched position. I can see him without turning my head. He also sees me, and he has a certain expression of his face, which I eventually understand much later why he bore that expression[1]. He is full of sores and the whole Church reeks from the stench of his sores. The Tabernacle is to my left, and I genuflect before it just at the same time as the Priest and at least one server are processing in. I decide to go and sit on the very first pew to the right facing the altar.
Throughout the whole Mass, I can still see the crouched beggar without turning my head, and throughout the Mass, the whole Church reeks from the stench of his sores.
During Mass, I think to myself that after Mass, I will go up to him, embrace him and kiss him, and give him my jacket.
After my Thanksgiving after Mass, I go through the exit that I came in, the side entrance on Stone St., looking for the man with sores. I see no one. I walk towards W. market St turn left and perhaps walk till the school and I see no one. I turn back and just as I turn back onto Stone St., I meet with the Priest who said Mass. I enquire if he knows about the man who was crouched alongside the Church wall, Stone St side, and the priest says he does, and that he normally opens the door a little bit early before Mass so that the man and those like him can warm themselves. I told him that I was looking for this man but couldn't find him. Then I take off my jacket, and after taking out my wallet from it, I give it to the priest and ask him to give it to the man. This makes a deep impression on the Priest and as he takes the jacket, I then proceed take out ALL the money I had in my wallet and ask him if he would give it to the man as well. The Priest appears to be even more amazed, and says something, but I can't quite catch what it is that he says. He takes the jacket and the money. I believe we exchange names. I then head towards the car on the opposite side of Stone St while the Priest walks towards W. market St and turns left, the same way I had taken looking for the man.
As I am sitting in the car and getting ready to drive off, I notice the Priest returning back from W. Market St and walking onto Stone St. He still is holding the Jacket!
Just as I am about to drive off, I notice that I am not feeling cold, even though I have handed over my jacket. Then I realize something. Even though I remember taking off my sweater at the apartment to put on the jacket, I still have the sweater on! I am amazed.
I get home and at this time, a couple of the family members have awoken, and I relay to them what just transpired at Sacred heart Church Salinas, CA, and add that it parallels the story of St. Francis of Assisi with a leper.
Later on, that day, and few time after that, whenever I have looked up the story of St Francis of Assisi kissing a leper and exchanging clothes with him, for the first time, I also come across another story of him handing over some/all the money he had to another man, different from the leper. This amazes me because after my experience, I was expecting to come across him performing those actions to the same person, the poor leper.
The following week on Saturday, December 23, 2025, I returned once again to the 7 AM Morning Mass, hoping to see the man with the sores. I never saw him. I chatted with the Priest, and he said he hadn't seen him, but he said he would be sure to give the jacket and money to the man, the next time he saw him.
In 2019, I happened to relocate Salinas, CA and Sacred Heart Church Salinas, CA became my parish. Eventually I came to know some long-time parishioners who attended Saturday Morning Mass. When I relayed to them the story of the man full of sores, they told me that all the time they had attended Saturday Morning Mass, and specifically around the time I said I saw a man with sores crouched alongside the Church wall, Stone St side, they had never seen such a man nor had they ever experienced in the Church a stench from sores. I too, never saw the man again. The Priest had been moved to another parish to be the pastor.
In a previous post, The True Face of The LORD Jesus Christ, I referenced this story, God's Troubadour: The Story of St. Francis of Assisi - Sophie Jewett. This is the first time that I have ever looked up the story of St. Francis of Assisi, in which, in the same article, it had St. Francis of Assisi interacting with a beggar and interacting with a leper, a person different from the leper. It is clear to me that this was Heaven making it readily available.
Today [We 7/3/2025] Morning at about 12:30 A, Heaven played, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. Later, they revealed that it was time to make public the vision I received at sacred Heart Church, Salinas, CA, the morning of Saturday, December 16, 2017.
This vision is the reason the second time around I named one of my Twitter Accounts San Damiano Crucifix (@CrucifixDamiano). It is a war. My earlier Twitter accounts and blogs having been decimated by the enemy.
One note in ending. From the Apartment in Monterey to Sacred Heart Church, Salinas, CA, it is about 18 miles. If my search on Mass Times had returned 18 miles instead of 8 miles, even with a car, I probably would not have made the effort to travel so far. Also, there are additional things connected with this story and in general many wondrous deeds in my life and journey with Heaven, that as Psalm 40 says, 'were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be numbered.' None compares with our God!
'Great is our God, and Holy is His Name!' From Mary's Song, which Mother, Mater Domini Nostri Iesu Christi, has sung throughout the making of this post, guiding it, and reminding me of crucial details. Alongside me is Princess St. Catherine of Alexandria. This morning, the LORD Jesus Christ, calling Himself Yahweh, sung to me that He is always by my side, and I perceived Him at my right hand. All Night and All Day, His Angel, my Guardian, most glorious St Michael the ArchAngel, always watches over me.
[1] Much later, when Heaven revealed to me, and I finally understood that I had been granted a vision, they revealed it was St Michael The ArchAngel who posed as the poor man covered in sores, the stench from which filled the entire Church. The "quizzical" expression on his face [meant for me], that of someone in the know, 'does he (me) even realize what he is experiencing?'
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