Xavier Society for the Blind

Faith at their fingertips

Help us reach our goal this #GivingTuesday to produce the New American Bible in Unified English Braille (UEB)! We hope to raise enough money to make the Word of God available to braille readers throughout the English speaking world. Did you know...the Bible in braille amounts to over 4,400 pages! Braille takes up a lot more space than regular print, and is also much more expensive (approximately $3/page). Your gift will help us transcribe, emboss, and proofread the Catholic Bible in a format accessible to blind, visually impaired, and print disabled people all over the world - literally putting faith at our patrons' fingertips!

Our History

The Xavier “Free Publication” Society was founded in 1900.  Our mission was envisioned by a blind teacher of blind children, Margaret Coffey, who wanted her students to have access to the same catechetical materials their sighted peers had in preparing for the Sacraments. Margaret hit the ground running with the help of a Jesuit priest, Fr. Joseph Stadelman, SJ. The mission started off on 16th Street in Manhattan, in a single room at the College of St. Francis Xavier (now Xavier High School). At the time, Xavier Society was the only Catholic publishing house to make such writings available to blind people, and all services were provided free-of-charge, a tradition that continues to this day. We serve clients of all ages, both lay and religious, worldwide - from North Macedonia to South Africa.

For years and years Margaret had "prayed that God would inspire some one to take pity on the Catholic blind of the country for whom there was no Catholic book to be had."  In addition to providing inspiration for Xavier Society, Margaret provided $350 of her own resources, which was the amount of money necessary to purchase a recently developed stereograph machine which could produce a larger volume of books and magazines in “raised print”, e.g braille. While not considered a significant sum today, in 1900, $350 was the equivalent of $13,000 in 2023 dollars – a very significant investment for a young blind woman.

Xavier Society continues to provide all of our braille, audiobooks, and large print materials at no cost to our patrons worldwide thanks to the generosity of our donors. Our books range from biographies of saints to theological dissertations, as well as popular titles by contemporary authors like Bishop Robert Barron and Scott Hahn. One of our biggest lines of service are braille textbooks for CCD and RCIA - continuing the great work that Margaret Coffey started 124 years ago. In addition to books, we provide the Mass Propers (essentially the Missalette) for each month in braille, audio, and large print. Our patrons use these to lector at Mass or just follow along. We serve a handful of priests who use these to celebrate the Mass!

While the world around us has changed, we have remained faithful to our mission of 124 years. We need your help to continue to serve our clients worldwide by providing the Word of God in the accessible formats required to practice their faith day to day. Your generosity gives hope to countless blind and visually impaired people who are called to a vocation, or simply wish to learn about, develop, or practice their Faith. Thank you for your support!