Francis Xavier, Saint

Francis Xavier, Saint (1506-52), known as the 'Apostle of the Indies', b. Spain.

Francis Xavier was a nobleman and a scholar.

He became a professor at the University of Paris and met there St. Ignatius Loyola who was starting a new order of priests. It was called the Society of Jesus and Francis was one of the first to join it.

Then King John III of Portugal asked for a priest to be sent to the Portuguese colonies in the East to preach the Christian faith. Francis was sent and became the greatest Christian missionary since St Paul.

He arrived at Goa in 1542 and afterwards he travelled in the south of India and went on to Cochin, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Malaya, several islands of the East Indies and Japan.

At this time, foreigners were not allowed to enter China, but Francis Xavier made up his mind to go there, too. He reached an island off the shore near Canton (now Guangzhou), and was waiting there for a junk to take him to the mainland. But he became ill and died at the age of forty-six.

His body was taken back to Goa and buried there.

See Albert F. Nevins Saint Francis of the Seven Seas (Young readers),  Carl W. Hoegel A Life of Blessed Francis Xavier