3 December: Saint Francis Xavier, Patron of the Missions
The Apostle of the Indies
Francisco de Jassu y Xavier, known as Francis Xavier, was the “Apostle of the Indies”, the Patron Saint of the Missions, the great Evangelizer of Asia and one of the first to follow Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
He was born in 1506 in Xavier Castle near Pamplona, to a noble family. In September 1525, he travelled to Paris to study at the College of Saint Barbe, where he shared a room with Pierre Favre, the first priest of the Society, who was joined by Ignatius of Loyola. At first, Francis and Ignatius had a strained relationship because Francis wanted to pursue his academic career. Ignatius described him as the “lumpiest dough he had ever kneaded”. In 1530, he became Magister Artium and obtained a chair at the College of Dormans-Beauvais.
On 15 August 1534, in the Chapel of Saint-Denis in Montmartre, Francis made private vows of poverty and chastity, as well as a vow to visit the Holy Land to convert the infidels. He moved to Venice, the port from which ships headed to the Holy Land departed. As he waited to embark, he travelled to Rome to ask the Pope for permission to visit the Holy Land. He was ordained a priest on 24 June 1537, by the Pontifical Legate in the Pope’s private chapel.
Paul III asked Francis to accept the request of King John III of Portugal to send two missionaries to the new colony in the Indies.
Francis and Simon Rodriguez were chosen as the two missionaries. Francis arrived in Lisbon in 1540, but had to wait for his departure until the following spring, because the fleet had already left. Meanwhile, he dedicated himself to preaching and to visiting prisoners. Pleased with the Apostolate of the two men, the King of Portugal asked Simon Rodriguez to remain in Lisbon to open a school. Francis, thus, left alone as the first Jesuit missionary. While he was onboard the ship, a messenger from the King delivered a letter to him with which the Pope appointed him Apostolic Nuncio. The ship set sail on 7 April 1541, Francis’ 35 birthday.
After a long and tiring crossing, he arrived in Goa, India, in 1542, and immediately set about preaching to the Portuguese. He visited prisoners and took care of lepers and the sick. He decided to live in the hospital and tried to learn Tamil. However, he had to use interpreters for his first mission among the Paravas, pearl fishermen who lived on the southeastern coast of India, above Cape Comorin.
They had already converted but they had no priest. Francis renewed their teaching in the faith, baptized those who were ready and trained catechists, who stayed with them when he visited various villages. At the end of 1544, he reached the western coast of India and Travancore. In November and December of the same year, he baptized 10,000 people. He then moved north towards Cochin, and then to the Portuguese city of Malacca in Malaysia. From there, he went to the Moluccas, the Spice Islands, where he arrived on 14 February 1546.
He first heard about Japan in 1547 from a nobleman named Hanjiro, and felt called to evangelize those lands. However, because he was unable to find a ship that was willing to take him to Japan, he asked a pirate to help him, and left on 24 June 1549, arriving in Kagoshima, southern Japan, the home town of Hanjiro, on 15 August. He began his evangelization work at great personal risk as baptizing people was punishable by the death penalty. The great missionary did not limit himself to Japan, but also wanted to convert China. He arrived on the island of Shangchuan in 1522, with the intention of continuing to Canton. Unfortunately, exhausted by all his efforts, he died on 3 December at the age of 46. He was buried on the island, but his remains were later moved to Malacca, and then to the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa.
He was beatified by Paul V in 1619, and canonized by Gregory XV in 1622. He was proclaimed Patron of the Orient in 1748, Patron of the Propagation of the Faith in 1904 and Patron of all the Missions in 1927, along with Saint Terese of Lisieux.