Francis Xavier grew up in a time in which pride, conflict and action were prized. The larger political story was the unification of the Kingdoms of Spain under Castille. His own story described his noble family in the Kingdom of Navarre, life in a castle entrusted to them by the king, his brothers fighting lost battles leading to the destruction of their Castle’s defences, his own travel to study in France in 1525 to make his name and fame, of his athletic prowess and gaining a university teaching position.
There he found himself four years later lodging with Ignatius from Loyola, an older, limping man, whose insistent prompting to ask what mattered most deeply Francis resisted. Ignatius won over him and some of his fellow students to put God’s love and Christ’s calling first. They decided to travel to Palestine to convert Muslims to Christ. That romantic project failed due to the impossibility of finding a boat. Instead, they decided to stay together. As a result, they formed the Society of Jesus, approved in 1539, with a commitment to go on whatever missions that the Pope gave them. They chose Ignatius as their Superior of their group and Francis became his right-hand man.
Almost immediately, however, he found himself unexpectedly on the way to India. The Portuguese King wanted an emissary to address the problems caused by Portuguese adventurers whose lives were a scandal and an obstacle to help the local people’s acceptance of Christian faith. He put pressure on the Pope to send a Jesuit; Ignatius chose two men to go; one fell ill, and Ignatius sent Francis.
Francis spent only 12 years on the Indian mission but travelled far. When he arrived in India with a catechism, a book on Christian morality, he taught children and visited hospitals in Goa. But he soon recognised needs beyond the colony and spent himself to meet them. He went first to Cape Comorin and the Fishery Coast to support Christian converts. They were pressured by local people who resented the Portuguese invaders and their Catholic faith. He was driven by the conviction that in his preaching the salvation of non-Christians was at stake. Those who accepted faith would be saved, others were destined to hell. Francis’ mission was characterised by the simplicity, urgency, and the self-sacrificing courage inculcated during his boyhood and conversion under Ignatius.
From Southern India he went to places where he heard there was great need – initially to the islands of modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia and then after a year spent in administration in Goa, to the far more complex Japan. There, to gain entry he found that he needed to arrive as an oversees grandee, and focus on commending Christian faith to the learned. In a sophisticated culture that was a difficult task, requiring great patience.
Later he learned of the mysterious Kingdom of China and was captured by the possibility of preaching the faith there. Because unauthorized foreigners were forbidden under pain of death to enter, and with similar penalties facing those who smuggled them in, he a faced long delay. While still waiting on an island off the Chinese coast he succumbed to fever and died. His body was later transferred to Malacca, a fortified Portuguese trading post, and then to Goa.
That was Francis’ life – one of immense energy, faith and simplicity, with desires and hopes always beyond achievement, but focusing for us the same questions that Ignatius posed for him about what really matters. It was appropriate that they were the first Jesuits to be canonised.
St Francis Xavier
7 April 1506-3 December 1552
Feast day: 3 December
Patron: African missions, India, Philippines, New Zealand, parish missions, navigators, plague epidemics, propagation of faith (among many).
Image: WikiCommons