Events

  St. Francis Xavier

Born in Navarre, Spain in 1506, he was one of the first companions of Ignatius Loyola, and therefore one of the founder members of the Society of Jesus, with his other great friend, Peter Faber.

Transformed completely through making the “Spiritual Exercises” under the guidance of Ignatius, Francis gave up all worldly ambitions – he had wanted to become an influential prelate -- and pledged himself to vows of poverty and chastity, and to whatever mission the Pope might entrust to the group. In 1542, Ignatius asked him at short notice to go to the Indies.

When he reached Goa on May 6, 1542, he was just 36 and had barely ten years more to live --- but what a fantastic ten years they were ! His journeys, his preaching, his ministries, his baptisms, his friendships, his letters, his all-consuming zeal to proclaim the good news of Jesus in every land, reads like an epic filled with danger, adventure and miracles. Xavier ceaselessly traversed the Indian peninsula – Goa, Bassein, Cochin, Tamilnadu, Sri Lanka ; and then crossed the seas – Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan. He died in 1552 by the Pearl River, attempting vainly to enter China.

Probably no other saint has so captured the imagination of Catholics of the last four centuries, and inspired generations of missionaries, as Francis Xavier.