Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier This article is about the person. For schools and other uses, see St. Xavier (disambiguation). Francis Xavier, SJ, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552), was a Roman Catholic missionary born in Xavier, Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain), and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a study companion of St. Ig- natius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, (Paris) in 1534.[1] He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time. He was influential The castle of the Xavier family was later acquired by the Society in evangelization work most notably in India. He also ven- of Jesus. tured into Japan, Borneo, the Maluku Islands, and other areas which had, until then, not been visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and strug- self and confirmed by the sociolinguistic environment of gling to learn the local languages in the face of opposi- the time. tion, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. It In 1512 under Ferdinand the Catholic as King of the was a goal of Xavier to extend his missionary preaching first political unit referred to as Spain, joint Spanish to China but he died in Shangchuan Island shortly before troops from both the Crown of Castile and the Crown doing so. of Aragon commanded by Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, St. Francis Xavier was beatified by Paul V on 25 Oc- second Duke of Alba, first invaded partially the King- tober 1619, and was canonized by Gregory XV on 12 dom of Navarre. Three years later, Francis’ father died March 1622. In 1624 he was made co-patron of Navarre when Francis was only nine years old. In 1516, Fran- alongside Santiago. He is considered to be one of the cis’ brothers participated in a failed Navarrese-French at- greatest missionaries since St. Paul.[2] He is known as the tempt to expel the Spanish invaders from the kingdom, “Apostle of the Indies,” and the “Apostle of Japan”. In and the Spanish Castilian kingdom’s Governor Cardinal 1927, Pope Pius XI published the decree “Apostolicorum Cisneros ordered to confiscate the family lands, demol- in Missionibus” naming St. Francis Xavier, along with St. ish the outer wall, the gates and two towers of the family Thérèse of Lisieux, co-patron of all foreign missions.[3] castle, and fill in the moat. In addition, the height of the He is now co-patron saint of Navarre with San Fermin. keep was reduced in half.[5] Only the family residence The Day of Navarre (Día de Navarra) in Spain marks the inside the castle was left. In 1522 a brother of Xavier anniversary of Saint Francis Xavier’s death on December is found along with another 200 Navarrese earls staging 3, 1552. dogged but failed resistance against the Castilian Count of Miranda in Amaiur, Baztan, the last Navarrese territorial position south of the Pyrenees. 1 Early life For the following years with his family, till he left for studies in Paris in 1525, Francis’ life in the Kingdom Francis Xavier was born in the castle of Xavier, in the of Navarre, then partially occupied by Spain, was sur- Kingdom of Navarre, on 7 April 1506 according to a rounded by a war that lasted over 18 years, ending with family register. He was born to an aristocratic family the Kingdom of Navarre being partitioned into two terri- of the Kingdom of Navarre, the youngest son of Juan de tories, and the King of Navarre and some loyalists aban- Jasso, privy counselor to King John III of Navarre (Jean doning the south and moving to the northern part of the d'Albret), and Doña Maria de Azpilcueta y Aznárez, sole Kingdom of Navarre (currently France). heiress of two noble Navarrese families. He was thus re- In 1525, Francis went to study at the Collège Sainte- lated to the great theologian and philosopher Martín de Barbe in Paris. In 1529 a new student, Ignatius of Loyola, Azpilcueta. Notwithstanding different interpretations on came to room with Francis and Pierre Favre. By the time his first language,[4] no evidence suggests that Xavier’s they met Ignatius, Peter and Francis were already friends mother tongue was other than Basque, as stated by him- sharing lodgings. At 38, Ignatius was much older than 1 2 2 MISSIONARY WORK Peter and Francis, who were both 23 at the time. Peter was won over by Ignatius to become a priest and work for the salvation of souls but Francis proved more diffi- cult as he had aspirations of worldly advancement. Only after Peter left their lodgings to visit his family, when Ig- natius was alone with the proud Navarro, was he was able to slowly break down Xavier’s stubborn resistance.[6] Ig- natius is said to have posed the question: “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"[7] In 1530 Francis received the degree of Master of Arts, and afterwards taught Aristotelian philosophy at Beauvais Francisco Xavier asking John III of Portugal for an expedition. College. On 15 August 1534, in a small chapel in Montmartre, together with Loyola and five others,[8] he made private information about new places indicated to him that he vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Pope, and had to go to what he understood were centers of influ- also vowed going to the Holy Land to convert infidels.[9] ence for the whole region. China loomed large from his Francis began his study of theology in 1534 and was or- days in India. Japan was particularly attractive because dained on June 24, 1537. He celebrated his first Mass in of its culture. For him, these areas were interconnected; Vicenza after forty days in prayers. they could not be evangelized separately.[15] In 1539, after long discussions, Ignatius drew up a For- [6] mula for a new order. Ignatius’s plan of the order’s 2.1 Goa and India organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by the bull containing the "Formula of the Institute".[10] He left Lisbon on 7 April 1541, Xavier’s thirty-fifth It was in 1540 that the King of Portugal, John III, had, birthday, along with two other Jesuits and the new Pedro Mascarenhas, the Portuguese ambassador at the viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa, on board the San- Vatican, ask the Pope for Jesuit missionaries to spread tiago. As he departed, Francis was given a brief the faith in his new Indian possessions. Loyola promptly from the pope appointing him apostolic nuncio to the appointed Nicholas Bobadilla and Simão Rodrigues. At East.[13] From August until March 1542 he remained in the last moment, however, Bobadilla became seriously ill. Portuguese Mozambique, and arrived in Goa, then capi- With some hesitance and uneasiness, Ignatius asked Fran- tal of Portuguese India on 6 May 1542, thirteen months cis to go in Bobadilla’s place. Thus, Xavier accidentally after leaving Lisbon. began his life as an apostle to the East.[11] Following quickly on the great voyages of discovery, the Leaving Rome in 1540, Francis took with him a breviary, Portuguese had established themselves at Goa thirty years a catechism, and a Latin book (De Institutione bene vi- earlier. Francis’ primary mission, as ordered by King vendi) written by the Croatian humanist Marko Marulić John III, was to restore Christianity among the Portuguese that had become popular in the counter-reformation. Ac- settlers. The Christian population had churches, clergy, cording to a 1549 letters of F. Balthasar Gago in Goa, it and a bishop, but many of the Portuguese were ruled by was the only book that Francis read or studied.[12] ambition, avarice, revenge, and debauchery. There were a few preachers but no priests beyond the walls of Goa. To meet this challenging situation Xavier decided that he must begin by instructing the Portuguese themselves in 2 Missionary work the principles of faith, and gave much of his time to the teaching of children. His mornings were usually spent Francis Xavier was the first Jesuit missionary.[13] Francis in tending and comforting the distressed in hospital and devoted much of his life to missions in Asia, after be- prison; after that, he walked through the streets ringing a ing requested by King John III of Portugal to travel to bell to summon the children and servants to catechism.[16] Portuguese India, where the king believed that Christian He was invited to head Saint Paul’s College, a pioneer values were eroding among the Portuguese. After succes- seminary for the education of secular priests that became sive appeals to the Pope asking for missionaries for the the first Jesuit headquarters in Asia.[17] East Indies under the Padroado agreement, John III was Xavier soon learned that along the Pearl Fishery Coast, encouraged by Diogo de Gouveia, rector of the Collège which extends from Cape Comorin on the southern tip of Sainte-Barbe, to recruit the newly graduated youngsters [14] India to the island of Manaar, off Ceylon, there was a Jati that would establish the Society of Jesus. of people called Paravas, many of whom had been bap- Francis Xavier moved mainly in four centers: Malacca, tized ten years before, merely to please the Portuguese, Amboina and Ternate, Japan, and China. His growing who had helped them against the Moors, but remained 2.2 Indonesia 3 Voyages of St.

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