Preach to All Nations

The most rigid Protestant and the most indifferent philosopher cannot deny to him the courage and patience of a martyr, with the good sense, resolution, ready wit, and address of the best negotiator that ever went upon a temporal embassy." Such was the praise given by the author Sir Walter Scott to St. Francis Xavier, one of the greatest missionaries of the Church.

Francis Xavier was born into an aristocratic Spanish family and at the age of eighteen was sent to study in Paris, where he met Ignatius of Loyola. After obtaining his degree and teaching philosophy, Francis eventually became one of the famous band of seven who vowed themselves to God's service at Montmartre on August 15, 1534, becoming the first Jesuits. Three years later, Francis was ordained and began his missionary life in 1941 when he sailed for India. What he accomplished in the following ten years before his death was truly astounding. Historian and Catholic novelist Louis de Wohl wrote this of Francis:

Father Francis Xavier had died fifteen years before St. Ignatius, but not before he had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India, Malaya and Japan, making converts by the tens of thousands. With the one exception of St. Paul, the Church has never had a missionary like him. He preached to pearl fishers in Southern India, to rajahs and Brahmins, to the fierce cannibals on Morotai Island, to Chinese pirates and Japanese samurai. Christian communities sprang up in his wake. (Founded on a Rock: A History of the Catholic Church, 1961)

Travels of St. Francis Xavier

By his preaching and holiness, as well as by many miracles, Francis Xavier won hundreds of Japanese to the Catholic Faith. He enthusiastically praised the spiritual understanding of the Japanese people and their openness to the Christian faith. When Francis Xavier set out for China in 1551, the other Jesuits came to Japan to carry on his missionary work. By 1587, there were about 200,000 Catholics in Japan. (All Ye Lands, pg 269)

Naturally such work was also accompanied by much suffering. When he died in 1552 at the age of 46, Francis was white-haired and prematurely aged by his continual labours. Yet, he wrote to St. Ignatius during this time: The dangers to which I am exposed and the tasks I undertake for God alone are inexhaustible springs of spiritual joy, so much so that these islands are the places in all the world for a man to lose his sight by excess of weeping; but they are tears of joy. I do not remember ever to have tasted such interior delight and these consolations take from me all sense of bodily hardships and of troubles from open enemies and not too trustworthy friends.

The saint's last heroic effort was to try to enter secretly into China, a country which did not tolerate foreigners; strangers who stepped foot on Chinese soil faced death or inhuman imprisonment. Nevertheless, Francis made his plans to enter China. His scheme, however, did not make it to fruition - becoming seriously ill and abandoned by his accomplices, he died six miles off the Chinese coast on the little island of Sancian. His incorrupt body was removed from its shallow island grave and is enshrined in Goa, India.

St. Francis is distinguished as the greatest missionary since the Apostles because of his great zeal, the many souls he brought to Christ and his wondrous miracles. Consequently, he was named the patron of foreign missions and has inspired many subsequent Jesuits who follow in his footsteps on foreign soil.

Additional Resources

St. Francis Xavier coloring page

Set All Afire by Louis de Wohl

St. Francis of the Seven Seas by Albert J. Nevins

Xavier: Missionary and Saint (DVD)