THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER The Patron of Foreign Missions Feast Day: December 3
"Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians."
He was born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta on April 7, 1506 at Javier, Kingdom of Navarre in northern Spain to an influential noble family. He was the youngest son of Don Juan de Jasso y Atondo, Lord of Idocín, president of the Royal Council of the Kingdom of Navarre, and seneschal of the Castle of Xavier and Doña María de Azpilcueta y Aznárez, sole heiress to the Castle of Xavier. Miguel de Jasso (later Miguel de Javier), his brother, became Lord of Xavier and Idocín at the death of his parents.
In 1512, Ferdinand, King of Aragon and regent of Castile, invaded Navarre, initiating a war that lasted over 18 years. Three years later, Francis's father died when Francis was only nine years old. In 1516, Francis's brothers participated in a failed Navarrese-French attempt to expel the Spanish invaders from the kingdom. The Spanish Governor, Cardinal Cisneros, confiscated the family lands, demolished the outer wall, the gates, and two towers of the family castle, and filled in the moat. In addition, the height of the keep was reduced by half.
In 1525, Francis went to study in Paris at the Collège Sainte-Barbe, University of Paris, where he spent the next eleven years. In the early days he acquired some reputation as an athlete and a high-jumper. Four years later, Francis shared lodgings with his friend Pierre Favre. A new student, Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola (later Ignatius of Loyola), came to room with them. At 38, Ignatius was much older than Pierre and Francis, who were both 23 at the time. Ignatius convinced Pierre to become a priest, but was unable to convince Francis, who had aspirations of worldly advancement. At first, Francis regarded the new lodger as a joke and was sarcastic about his efforts to convert students. When Pierre left their lodgings to visit his family and Ignatius was alone with Francis, he was able to slowly break down Francis's resistance. In 1530, Francis received the degree of Master of Arts, and afterwards taught Aristotelian philosophy at Beauvais College, University of Paris.
Francis began his study of theology in 1534 and was ordained on June 24, 1537. In 1539, after long discussions, Ignatius drew up a formula for a new religious order, the Society of Jesus. Ignatius's plan for the order was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540.
Francis was sent as a missionary to India. After a voyage of 13 months, he began preaching in the Portuguese colony of Goa (a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region), defending the natives from injustices and abuses. He was particularly outraged that some masters counted the blows inflicted on the slaves on the beads of their rosaries. Five months later, he preached with such enthusiasm among the Paravas on the Pearl Fishery Coast that most of them asked to be baptized. He also knew how to accept defeat, as when he preached for 12 months among the Brahmans obtaining only one conversion.
In Malacca in December 1547, Francis Xavier met a Japanese man named Anjirō (or Yajirō). had heard of Francis in 1545 and had travelled from Kagoshima to Malacca to meet him. Having been charged with murder, Anjirō had fled Japan. He told Francis extensively about his former life, and the customs and culture of his homeland. Anjirō became the first Japanese Christian and adopted the name 'Paulo de Santa Fé'. He later helped Xavier as a mediator and interpreter for the mission to Japan that now seemed much more possible. Francis returned to Goa to attend to his responsibilities as superior of the mission there in January 1548. The next 15 months were occupied with various journeys and administrative measures. He left Goa on April 15, 1549, stopped at Malacca, and visited Canton. He was accompanied by Anjiro, two other Japanese men, Father Cosme de Torrès and Brother Juan Fernández. He had taken with him presents for the 'King of Japan (the Emperor)' since he was intending to introduce himself as the Apostolic Nuncio.
With Anjirō and three other Jesuits, Xavier reached Japan on July 27, 1549, but he was not permitted to enter any port his ship arrived at until August 15th, when he went ashore at Kagoshima, the principal port of Satsuma Province on the island of Kyūshū. As a representative of the Portuguese king, he was received in a friendly manner. Takahisa Shimazu, the fifttenth head of the Shimazu clan, the son of Tadayoshi and daimyo (feudal lord) of Satsuma, gave a friendly reception to Francis on September 29, 1549, but in the following year he forbade the conversion of his subjects to Christianity under penalty of death; Christians in Kagoshima could not be given any catechism in the following years. Francis was the first Jesuit to go to Japan as a missionary.
He brought with him paintings of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child. These paintings were used to help teach the Japanese about Christianity. There was a huge language barrier as Japanese was unlike other languages the missionaries had previously encountered. For a long time, Francis struggled to learn the language. He was hosted by Anjirō's family until October 1550. He resided in Yamaguchi from October tom December 1550. Shortly before Christmas, he left for Kyoto but failed to meet with the Emperor. He returned to Yamaguchi in March 1551, where the daimyo of the province gave him permission to preach.
Having presented some gifts to them, a music box, a clock and a pair of spectacles. He was allowed to evangelize the people. It was Francis' opinion: 'That among all unbelievers, no finer people will be found than the Japanese.'
During his trip from Japan back to India, a tempest forced him to stop on an island near Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, where he met Diogo Pereira, a rich merchant and an old friend from Cochin. Pereira showed him a letter from Portuguese prisoners in Guangzhou, asking for a Portuguese ambassador to speak to the Chinese Emperor on their behalf. Later during the voyage, he stopped at Malacca on December 27, 1551, and was back in Goa by January 1552. He set sail with Diogo Pereira on the Santa Cruz for China. He planned to introduce himself as Apostolic Nuncio and Pereira as the ambassador of the King of Portugal. But then he realized that he had forgotten his testimonial letters as an Apostolic Nuncio. Back in Malacca, he was confronted by the captain Álvaro de Ataíde da Gama who now had total control over the harbour. The captain refused to recognize his title of Nuncio, asked Pereira to resign from his title of ambassador, named a new crew for the ship, and demanded the gifts for the Chinese Emperor be left in Malacca.
In late August 1552, the Santa Cruz reached the Chinese island of Shangchuan, 14 km away from the southern coast of mainland China, near Taishan, Guangdong, 200 km south-west of what later became Hong Kong. At this time, he was accompanied only by a Jesuit student, Álvaro Ferreira, a Chinese man called António, and a Malabar servant called Christopher. Around mid-November, he sent a letter saying that a man had agreed to take him to the mainland in exchange for a large sum of money. Having sent back Álvaro Ferreira, he remained alone with António. He died from a fever at Shangchuan, Taishan, China, on December 3, 1552, while he was waiting for a boat that would take him to mainland China. He was 46 years old when he died.
Beatified by Pope Paul V on October 25, 1619 and canonized a saint by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622, his body is now in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, where it was placed in a glass container encased in a silver casket. This casket, constructed by Goan silversmiths between 1636 and 1637, was an exemplary blend of Italian and Indian aesthetic sensibilities.
In 1624, he was made co-patron of Navarre, and he is considered to be one of the greatest missionaries since St. Paul the Apostle. In 1927, Pope Pius XI published the decree 'Apostolicorum in Missionibus' naming Francis Xavier, along with Thérèse of Lisieux, co-patron of all foreign missions.
