Elixavier Castro St. John Vianney College Seminary (Junior Year) Home Parish: St. Francis of Assisi, Seffner

 Elixavier is a native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico.  His family moved around a lot when he was younger before settling in East Hillsborough County in 2005.  He has three younger sisters.  Elixavier graduated from East Bay High School in 2007 and then began college at the University of South Florida studying mechanical engineering.  He has been very involved in Spanish family retreats and has deepened in his faith over the last few years.  "Savie" (as he likes to be called) is known to have a very good nature and enjoys time with his friends and being involved in his parish.  He likes to draw and do math video games. Hearing God's call in the midst of his studies at USF, Savie has decided to turn his undivided attention to God's call to the priesthood and so transfered to St. John Vianney College Seminary where he is now a Junior.

Do your family and friends think it is a good idea that you’re becoming a priest? My family completely thinks that it is a great idea for me to become a priest, and so far thanks to God, I have had their complete support.

Do you ever have any fun?  What do you do in your free time?  I definitely have a lot of fun here. One of the things I do for fun in the house is play ping-pong, but outside the house I go to the movies, to eat in restaurants that I haven’t eaten before at, or just go and hang out at the mall with some of the guys.

If you were not a priest, what do you think you would be? If I were not a priest I would go back to USF to finish my mechanical/aeronautical engineering degree and to add to that maybe even become a deacon if God wills it.

How many brothers and sisters do you have?  I have 3 beautiful sisters: Aizuley, Jayrelix, and Zul.

What is your favorite TV program?  I enjoy watching Heroes, CSI, and ESPN, especially watching the Yankees.

Who is your favorite singer or music group?  I don’t have a specific group or person that I extremely like, but I do have some artist’s names: Jesus Adrian Romero, Linkin Park, Mana, Giberto Santa Rosa, Casting Crowns, and Son by Four.

Do you ever get bored while studying to be a priest?  Not really, I am usually extremely busy here doing a lot of work, not just studying, but cleaning, playing sports, watching some movies, and praying a lot since it is definitely needed.

How is a seminary different than a regular school?   Seminary is different from any other school because, of the environment mainly. All the teachers here are actually really cool and they help you without any questions. To add to that the classes are challenging, but the professors make it really interesting. Another thing really different is that the classes are really small to, so it is more comfortable than sitting with 200 other individuals; these are the differences that I have seen here.

How often do you see your family? I see my family at least every 1-2 months depending what events there are here and how often they can go down here.

Can you really be happy as a priest since priests don’t make much money?   I completely believe that I can be happy as a priest without earning money, mainly because as a priest I’m not looking forward to gaining but to giving to the church as Christ would have done.

Who helped you decide to become a priest?  It was a long process. Through out my life there have been small but impacting events that made be go in that direction, like me playing as a priest when small, all the retreats that I have gone to, and many more other small things in my life. But the thing that completely convinced me that it was time to go to the seminary was the retreat Juan XXIII. In that retreat I realized what God wanted me to do at this moment and that is to discern the priesthood. After that I went to the Vocation Awareness Weekend that was like icing on the cake. Finally the help of Father Rafael and Father Carlos Rojas lead me through the months of preparation for the seminary.

What do you think the best thing will be about being a priest? I think that the best thing about being a priest is that I’m doing God’s will and two that I’m able to help people in anyway possible. This is something that I have been praying over for a while, and I realize that this is the best way to help people in my case.