Francis Xavier , S.J.

(1506-1552)

Francis Xavier  (1506-1552), was the first and most famous Jesuit missionary .
He was one of the original group of seven men who founded the Jesuits,

Xavier was born in 1506 in Navarre, in the north of Spain, and there received his early education.

In September 1525 he went to Paris to begin university studies at the College of Sainte-Barbe where his roommate was Peter Faber, from the Savoy region of France.

Four years later everything changed when an older student moved in, Ignatius Loyola, a failed Basque courtier given to prayer.

Loyola soon won Faber over to wanting to become a priest and work for the salvation of souls, but Xavier aspired to a worldly career and was not at all interested in being a priest.

He earned his licentiate degree in the spring of 1530 and began teaching Aristotle at the College of Dormans-Beauvais; he remained living in the room with Favre and Loyola.

When Faber went to visit his family in 1533, Ignatius finally broke through to Xavier who yielded to the grace God was offering him.

Four other students also became close friends through their conversations with Ignatius who was became a spiritual guide and inspired the whole group with his desire to go to the Holy Land.

Xavier joined his friends on Aug. 15, 1534 in the chapel in Paris (Montmartre) as they all pronounced private vows of poverty, chastity and going to the Holy Land.

Xavier and Loyola began studying theology in 1534.
Two years later Xavier set out for Venice with the rest of the group except for Loyola who had returned to Spain earlier. Venice was the point of departure for ships going to the Holy Land. The companions spent two months waiting for a ship and working in hospitals, then went to Rome to ask papal permission for their pilgrimage and ordination of the non-priests among them.

Xavier, Loyola and four others were ordained by the papal delegate in his private chapel on June 24, 1537.

And they continued to wait for a ship, the companions then decided that Ignatius should go to Rome and place the group at the disposal of the pope. Meanwhile, they would go to various university centers and start preaching.

Xavier went to Rome in April 1538 and began preaching in the churches. Before Pope Paul III granted his approval of the plan, he asked Ignatius to accede to King John III of Portugal's request to send two of the companions to the new colony in India.

Ignatius chose Simon Rodrigues and Nicholas Bobadilla, but the latter got sick and could not go. Francis Xavier was the only one of the companions not already committed to a work so Ignatius asked him to go, even though they were the closest friends and the departure meant that they would never see each other again.

As Xavier boarded the ship Santiagio, the ship set sail April 7, 1541, on Xavier's thirty-fifth birthday.

It took 13 months for Xavier to arrive in Goa, including a long wait in Mozambique for favorable winds. As soon as he arrived, the energetic Spaniard set about preaching to the Portuguese, visiting prisons and ministering to lepers.

By the end of 1544 he is reported to have baptized 10,000 persons.

He moved northward  and visited the Christian villages and baptized over 1,000 persons at nearby Seran.

He learned about the people of Japan who were not Christian. 
He hired a pirate to take them!  The missionairies left June 24, 1549 and landed on August 15 at Kagoshima in southern Japan.

Xavier decided that the way to convert Japan was to begin with the emperor.

They arrived in January 1551, the first Catholic missionaries to see Asia's largest and most beautiful city. For months, they tried without success to secure an audience with the emperor.

The Jesuits rented horses and a litter and dressed themselves in colorful silken robes. When they ceremoniously arrived in Yamaguchi, they were received at the daimyo's palace without any suspicion that they were the same barbarians who had been brushed away only months earlier.

Xavier presented the daimyo with expensive gifts of clocks, music boxes, mirrors, crystals, cloth and wine as signs of friendship; and he presented impressive credentials: letters from King John III of Portugal and Pope Paul III.

The daimyo granted the Jesuit's request to preach the Christian religion in the empire, and gave people the freedom to become Christians if they wanted to. He also gave the Jesuits a residence in the city, where many people visited. Within six months they had gained 500 converts.

In April 1552 Xavier set out for China. 

On November 21 he came down with a fever and could not leave his leafy hut on the island's shore. Seven days later he fell into a coma, but on December 1 regained consciousness and devoted himself to prayer during his waking hours.

He died on the morning of December 3 and was buried on the island,
but his remains were later taken to Malacca and then to Goa.

He was canonized in 1622 (along with St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Therese of Avila) and was named patron of the missions.