SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER

 

PATRON OF THE MISSIONS

FEAST DAY : DECEMBER 3.

 

Nobleman from the Basque region of Spain , near Pamplona , Francis was born in the Castle of Xavier , 7 April 1506. It is said that as a boy, Francis was inspired by the peaceful smile that was portrayed on the face of Christ on the crucifix in the castle chapel. He studied and taught philosophy at the University of Paris , and planned a career as a professor. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, who was already planning the foundation of the Society of Jesus, befriended him in Paris . He convinced him to use his talents to spread the Gospel. He challenged Francis, “What does it profit, Master Francis, to gain the whole world, and in the process, lose your soul?” He awakened the young man, who had got bogged down in life and its pursuits as he grew up. Francis became one of the founding Jesuits, and the first Jesuit missionary. He was appointed, at the earnest solicitation of John III, King of Portugal , to evangelise the people of the East Indies .

On 7 April 1541, he embarked in a sailing vessel for India , and after a tedious and dangerous voyage landed at Goa , 6 May 1542. The first five months he spent in preaching and ministering to the sick in the hospitals. He would go through the streets ringing a little bell and inviting the children to hear the word of God. When he had gathered a number, he would take them to a certain church and would there explain the catechism to them. He is said to have converted the entire city.

He scolded his patron, King John of Portugal , over the slave trade: "You have no right to spread the Catholic faith while you take away all the country's riches. It upsets me to know that at the hour of your death you may be ordered out of paradise.”

About October 1542, he started for the pearl fisheries of the extreme southern coast of the peninsula, desirous of restoring Christianity, which, although introduced years before, had almost disappeared on account of the lack of priests. He devoted almost three years to the work of preaching to the people of Western India, converting many, and reaching in his journeys even the Island of Ceylon . Many were the difficulties and hardships which Xavier had to encounter at this time, sometimes on account of the cruel persecutions which some of the petty kings of the country carried on against the neophytes, and again because the Portuguese soldiers, far from seconding the work of the saint, retarded it by their bad example and vicious habits.

In the spring of 1545 Xavier started for Malacca. He laboured there for the last months of that year, and although he reaped an abundant spiritual harvest, he was not able to root out certain abuses, and was conscious that many sinners had resisted his efforts to bring them back to God.

About January 1546, Xavier left Malacca and went to Molucca Islands , where the Portuguese had some settlements, and for a year and a half he preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of Amboyna, Ternate , Baranura, and other lesser islands which it has been difficult to identify. It is claimed by some that during this expedition he landed on the island of Mindanao, and for this reason St. Francis Xavier has been called the first Apostle of the Philippines. But although this statement is made by some writers of the seventeenth century, and in the Bull of canonization issued in 1623, it is said that he preached the Gospel in Mindanao, up to the present time it has not been proved absolutely that St. Francis Xavier ever landed in the Philippines.

 

 

By July 1547, he was again in Malacca. Here he met a Japanese called Anjiro, from whom he obtained much information about Japan . His zeal was at once aroused by the idea of introducing Christianity into Japan , but for the time being the affairs of the Society demanded his presence at Goa . He went, taking Anjiro with him. During the six years that Xavier had been working, other missionaries had arrived at Goa, sent from Europe by St. Ignatius; moreover some who had been born in the country had been received into the Society. In 1548 Xavier sent these missionaries to the principal centres of India , where he had established missions, so that the work might be preserved and continued.

He landed at the city of Kagoshima in Japan , 15 August 1549. The entire first year was devoted to learning the Japanese language and translating into Japanese the principal articles of faith and short treatises, which were to be employed in preaching and catechising. When he was able to express himself( although, to tell the truth, Francis never really learned the Japanese language) Xavier began preaching and made some converts, but these aroused the ill will of the bonzes, who had him banished from the city. Leaving Kagoshima about August 1550, he penetrated to the centre of Japan , and preached the Gospel in some of the cities of southern Japan . Towards the end of that year he reached Kyoto , then the principal city of Japan , but he was unable to make any headway here because of the dissensions then rending the country. He retraced his steps to the centre of Japan , and during 1551 preached in some important cities, forming the nucleus of several Christian communities, which in time increased with extraordinary rapidity.

After working about two years and a half in Japan he left this mission and returned to Goa , arriving there at the beginning of 1552. Here domestic troubles awaited him. Certain disagreements between the superior who had been left in charge of the missions, and the rector of the college, had to be adjusted.

This, however, being arranged, Xavier turned his thoughts to China , and began to plan an expedition there. During his stay in Japan he had heard much of the Celestial Empire , and though he probably had not formed a proper estimate of its extent and greatness, he nevertheless understood how wide a field it afforded for the spread of the light of the Gospel. In the autumn he arrived in a Portuguese vessel at the small island of Sancian near the coast of China . While planning the best means for reaching the mainland, he was taken ill, and as the movement of the vessel seemed to aggravate his condition, he was removed to the land, where a rude hut had been built to shelter him.

In these wretched surroundings he breathed his last, early on 3 December, 1552.

So, in short he was a tremendously successful missionary for ten years in India , the East Indies, and Japan , baptizing more than 40,000. His epic finds him dining with head hunters, washing sores of lepers in Venice , teaching catechism to Indian children, baptizing 10,000 in a single month. He tolerated the most appalling conditions on long sea voyages, enduring extremes of heat and cold. Wherever he went he would seek out and help the poor and forgotten. He travelled thousands of miles, most on his bare feet, and he saw the greater part of the Far East . He had the gift of tongues. He was also a miracle worker, and is said to have raised people from the dead and calmed storms. He was regarded as a prophet and a healer.

It is truly a matter of wonder that one man in the short space of ten years (6 May, 1542- 2 December, 1552) could have visited so many countries, traversed so many seas, preached the Gospel to so many nations, and converted so many. The incomparable apostolic zeal which animated him, and the stupendous miracles which God wrought through him, explain this marvel, which has no equal elsewhere. Not surprisingly he is often represented carrying a flaming heart, in addition to the crucifix. The list of the principal miracles may be found in the Bull of canonization.

St. Francis Xavier is considered the greatest missionary since the time of the Apostles, and the zeal he displayed, the wonderful miracles he performed, and the great number of souls he brought to the light of true Faith, entitle him to this distinction.

He was canonized with St. Ignatius in 1622, although on account of the death of Gregory XV , the Bull of canonization was not published until the following year.

The body of the saint is still enshrined at Goa (where he is looked upon as a protector) in the church which formerly belonged to the Society. In 1614 by order of Claudius Acquaviva, General of the Society of Jesus , the right arm was severed at the elbow and conveyed to Rome , where the present altar was erected to receive it in the church of the Gesu.

One of the primary sources for St. Francis Xavier's life is his letters, of which many are preserved, some of them very long and detailed; they give a living picture of this man and of the conditions in which he worked so unassumingly and selflessly.

 

Francis wrote to St. Ignatius :

 

“We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. The country is so utterly barren and poor. The native Christians have no priests. They know only that they are Christians. There is nobody to say Mass for them; nobody to teach them the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Commandments of God's Law. I have not stopped since the day I arrived. I conscientiously made the rounds of the villages. I bathed in the sacred waters all the children who had not yet been baptized. This means that I have purified a very large number of children so young that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand: "The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I could not refuse so devout a request without failing in devotion myself. I taught them: first the confession of faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; then the Apostles' Creed, the Our Father and Hail Mary. I noticed among them persons of great intelligence. If only someone could educate them in the Christian way of life, I have no doubt that they would make excellent Christians. Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. I wish the university students would work as hard at converting these people as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them. This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God's will and his choice. They would cry out with all their heart: ‘Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do? Send me anywhere you like -even to India !'”

 

“ Give me souls! Take the rest away!”

 

Francis' life was all about letting go of his own desires and letting God take over.

 

HYMN OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER:

 

My God, I love Thee, not because

I hope for Heaven thereby:

Nor yet since they who love Thee not,

Must burn eternally.

E'en so I love Thee, and will love,

And in Thy praise will sing;

Solely because Thou art my God

And my eternal King.

Solely because Thou art my God

And my eternal King.

 

 

Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me

Upon the Cross embrace;

For me didst bear the nails and spear

And manifold disgrace.

E'en so I love…

 

And griefs and torments numberless

And sweat of agony;

E'en death itself – and all for me

Who was Thine enemy.

 

Then why, O Blessed Jesus Christ,

Should I not love Thee well?

For Thou Thyself hast loved me.

O ever-loving Lord!

 

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, PRAY FOR US!