FRANCIS XAVIER, ST. (1506-1552).
Born in the family castle of Xavier, near Pamplona in the Basque area of Spanish Navarre on Apr. 7, he was sent to the University of Paris 1525, secured his licentiate in 1528, met Ignatius
Loyola and became one of the seven who in 1534, at Montmartre founded the Society of Jesus. In 1536 he left Paris to join Ignatius in Venice, from whence they all in
tended to go as missionaries to Palestine (a trip which never materialized),
was ordained there in 1537, went to Rome in 1538, and in 1540, when the pope formally recognized
the Society, was ordered, with Fr. Simon Rodriguez, to the Far East as the
first Jesuit missionaries. King John III kept Fr. Simon in Lisbon, but Francis, after a year's
voyage, six months of which were spent at Mozambique where he preached and gave aid to the sick
eventually arrived in Goa, India in 1542 with Fr. Paul of Camerino an Italian, and
Francis Mansihas, a Portuguese. There he began preaching to the natives and
attempted to reform his fellow Europeans, living among the natives and adopting
their customs on his travels. During the next decade he converted tens of thousands
to Christianity. He visited the Paravas at the tip of India. near Cape Comorin,
Tuticorin (1542), Malacca (1545), the Moluccas near New Guinea and Morotai near the Philippines (1546-47), and Japan (1549- 51). In 1551, India and the East were set up as a separate province and
Ignatius made Francis its first provincial. In 1552 he set out for China,
landed on the island of Sancian within sight of his goal, but died before he
reached the mainland. Working against great difficulties, language problems (
contrary to legend, he had no proficiency in foreign tongues ), inadequate
funds, and lack of cooperation, often actual resistance, from European
officials, he left the mark of his missionary zeal and energy on areas which clung to Christianity for centuries. He was canonized in 1622 and
proclaimed patron of all foreign missions by Pope Pius X. F. D. Dec. 3.
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