Saint Francis Xavier:

Feast day : 03 December

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Francis Xavier, the ‘Apostle of the Indies’. He lived during the period 1506-1552 and is regarded as one of the greatest missionaries after St. Paul. He was born into a noble family and was regarded as worldly in his ways till he met St. Ignatius of Loyola. Soon, he had a conversion of heart which led him to become one of the first seven followers of St. Ignatius and a co-founder of the Jesuit Society. After his ordination, he began his missionary activities in 1540 when he set sail to the East Indies. In the next twelve years, till his death, he carried out his missionary activities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaya and Japan. He performed many great miracles of healing, raising the dead to life, prophesying, preaching the Gospel, instructing the people in their faith and building many Churches. His wish to evangelise China was not realised as he fell seriously ill and died at the age of 46. His incorruptible body is kept in the Bom Jesus Basilica in Goa, India though several body parts are enshrined as relics in Churches around the world. He was canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622 and was proclaimed by Pope St. Pius X as the ‘Patron of Missions’, a title that he shares with St. Therese of Lisieux. His feast is celebrated on December 3.

Early life:

St. Francis Xavier was born on April 7, 1506 in the royal castle of Xavier in the Kingdom of Navarre (which is in the present day Spain). His parents were of noble descent and he was by nature ambitious and aristocratic. He had the privilege to a good education and in 1525 he went to study further at the University of Paris. Five years later he received his degree of Master of Arts and began teaching Aristotelian Philosophy at the Beauvais College, University of Paris. During his years in Paris he met St. Ignatius of Loyola who slowly convinced St. Francis Xavier of the futility of his worldly ambitions and drew him to become a missionary for Christ. In the year 1534, seven students including St. Francis Xavier joined St. Ignatius of Loyola in making private vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the Pope. St. Francis Xavier thereafter began to study Theology and was ordained on 24 June 1537. In 1539 the Society of Jesus, popularly known as the Jesuits, a new religious order was formed by St. Ignatius and his followers and was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540.

Missionary life:

In 1540, St. Francis Xavier began his missionary activities when he set sail for the East Indies. He remained in Lisbon for a year and again for another year in Portuguese Mozambique, finally arriving in Goa, India on 06 May 1542. He began preaching and ministering to the sick and lay people. He was invited to head the Saint Paul’s College, a pioneer seminary for the education of secular priests which later became the first Jesuit headquarters in Asia. In October 1542 he set sail for Cape Comorin where he taught those who were already baptised but were uninstructed in their faith. He devoted three years preaching to the people in South India and Sri Lanka converting and confirming many in their faith. He also built nearly 40 Churches along the coast. In the year 1545, he set sail for another journey toward further East. He preached in Malacca for several months and then the Malaku Islands. Whilst in Malacca, he met Anjiro, a Japanese who became the first Japanese Christian, and who later helped St. Francis Xavier as a mediator and interpreter for his mission in Japan. St. Francis Xavier reached Japan in 1549 and though was welcomed by the daimyo of Satsuma as a representative of the Portuguese king, his missionary activities met with resistance when the rulers forbade against conversion to Christianity and placed all those who did under the death penalty. He still continued his missions and spent more than two years in Japan and returned to India.

Death and burial:

Later in 1552, pursuing his wish to evangelise in China, he reached the Chinese island of Shangchuan, accompanied by a young Chinese man called Antonio. There he fell ill of a fever and after suffering for two weeks he died on December 3, 1552 at the age of 46. His body was dressed in all the priestly vestments and laid to rest on the island by his companions.

Incorruptible body:

In his writings, the Chinese man Antonio later wrote that with the intention to quicken the decomposition of the body so that the bones may later be easily transported to India, they packed the coffin with lime and buried him on December 4, 1552. Ten weeks later, the body was found to be totally incorrupt when a ship bound for Malacca agreed to take the body to the Church of Our Lady, Malacca. Eventually, the incorrupt body was moved to the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India. In 1614, the body was again examined and found to be ‘beautiful and whole’. The right forearm was taken to Rome where it is enshrined in the Jesuit church of 11 Gesu. Over the years, the sacred body has undergone several examinations and some body parts have been given away as precious relics to be kept enshrined in Churches around the world. Today the remaining incorrupt body is kept enshrined in a silver casket in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India and is exposed at periodic intervals. The sacred relics were exposed last on 22 November 2014 to 04 January 2015 at the XVII Solemn Exposition.

Sainthood:

He was beatified by Pope Paul V on 25 October 1619 and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on 12 March 1622. Pope Pius XI proclaimed him the ‘Patron of Catholic Missions’. His feast day is celebrated on 3 December.