Francis J. Finn, S.J. (1859 - 1928)

Father Francis J. Finn, S.J. (born St. Louis, Missouri, 1859, died Cincinnati, OH, November 2, 1928). wrote a series of 27 popular Catholic novels for young people. The books contain fun stories, likeable characters and themes that remain current in today's world. Each story conveys an important moral precept. The son of Irish immigrant parents, Francis J. Finn, S.J. was born on October 4, 1859, in St. Louis, Missouri; there he grew up, attending parochial schools. As a boy, Francis was deeply impressed with Cardinal Wiseman’s famous novel of the early Christian martyrs, Fabiola. After that, religion really began to mean something to him. Eleven-year-old Francis was a voracious reader; he read the works of Charles Dickens, devouring Nicholas Nickleby and The Pickwick Papers. From his First Communion at age 12, Francis began to desire to become a Jesuit priest; but then his fervor cooled, his grades dropped, and his vocation might have been lost except for Fr. Charles Coppens. Fr. Coppens urged Francis to apply himself to his Latin, to improve it by using an all-Latin prayerbook, and to read good Catholic books. Fr. Finn credited the saving of his vocation to this advice and to his membership in the Sodality of Our Lady.