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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com University of Virginia Library in. 4700.F8B641841 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINA CHARLOTTESVILLE LIBRARIES ( /-.' " - 2-5 º º - f « , , , tº T ------- - -*--------- D1NG SLIP DR ETC. WHICH DO NOT G PATTERN FOR BOOKS, ETC. WHICH REQUIRE BINDERY, INC. ER, INDIANA 46962 SE ONLY w GUM FILL LAMINATE over 12- UNDER 12 SPECIAL FLAT SIDE SEW NATIONAL SADDLE ECON. B.K. HPB PAM THESIS MISC. JOB. No * SIZE PANEL - - LINES cover No - - - - - - - - - - ) - 275 º - º /~ A (2%. , , Cº-º" ºf a 6 ſ. , a.ſº | ..’ - - ---------- ------ ----- --- • • • • • • º - 2. * - º .” A: º r ar …ſ. º ! s - 4. * *** * * * * * *, *. -*tt 2 /*. /f ºf A TMHE LIFE ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, or T. h. Ł SOCIETY OF JESUS, 23 p q gºt I e o f | n \ i a . From THE FR EN, ch of * - FATHER Do M IN1c Bo U Ho URs, OF The SAME SOCIETY. BY A CATHOLIC CLERGYMAN. PHIL AD E L PHI A : PUBLISHED BY EUGENE CUMMISKEY, 130 South Sixth Street. - - - - - - e -- e. |BX ATOO F8B,424 \84) We approved the publication of iń. |. Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, translated from the French by a Catholic Clergyman of this diocess. Given under our hand this 9th day of February, 1841. # FRANCIS PATRICK KENRICK, Bp. Arath, and Coadjutor of the Bishop of Philadelphia. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by E U G E N E C U M M IS KEY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. w Philadelphia. PRINTED BY KING AND BAIRD, No. 9 George Street. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. AMoNG the many great Saints who have illustrated the Church in these latter ages, there is none whose virtues excite greater or more universal admiration than St. Francis Xavier. In his conversion, and subsequent holiness of life, the power of Divine grace is conspicuously displayed; and in his untiring zeal, and the extraor dinary success that crowned his missionary labours, we have, perhaps, the most striking iv. PREFACE. exemplification of the efficacy of the divine word that is to be found after the times of the apostles. Protestants no less than Catholics have borne testimony to this fact. In his lives of eminent Roman Catholic Missionaries, Carne says, that Xavier was “the greatest missionary of his age;” and the late Sir James Mack intosh, notwithstanding his strong anti catholic prejudices, pays a beautiful tribute to his heroic zeal. “Trancis Xavier,” says this distinguished writer, “was a very extraordinary man. Persuasion and commanding eloquence, an ascendancy over the minds of men, unconquerable patience in suffering, intrepid courage amid the most dreadful dangers, and a life devoted with inflexible constancy to a purely dis interested purpose, form a combination which varies its exterior and its direction, according to the opinions and manners of various ages and nations. In one age PREFACE. V it produces a Xavier; in another a How ard; he (Xavier) taught to slaves the moral dignity of their nature; he preach ed humility to tyrants and benevolence to savages. He must have told to the out cast Hindoo, that he was, in the grandest point of view, the equal of his Rajah, and the ferocious Malay, that his enemy was his brother. He therefore diffused the fruits of the best philosophy, and laboured to improve and ennoble nature.”* The Rev. Mr. Palmer, of Oxford College, in his compendium of Church history lately published, says that the “labours and suc cess of Xavier are, perhaps, unequalled since the days of the apostles.”t If Xavier was selected by God, as the event sufficiently shows, to be, like St. * Life of Sir James Mackintosh. t Palmer's History of the Christian Church, New York, 1841, pa. 205. vi PREFACE. Paul, a vessel of election to carry his name before kings and peoples, we cannot be sur prised at finding in him the same signs of an apostleship, as established the divine mission of the great apostle of the gentiles. Hence, far from being astonished at the supernatural events, which are occasionally narrated in the following pages, the judi cious reader will be convinced, that such miraculous powers as the apostles possessed, were no less necessary for the success of Xavier's preaching, than in the first pro pagation of the Christian religion. Had not Xavier to announce Christ crucified to an idolatrous, and, very frequently, a bar barous people 2 If miracles were required for the success of the gospel, in the first century, among the civilized nations of the Roman empire, surely they were no less necessary in the sixteenth century, when the same mysterious truths, the same severe morality, were to be announc PREFACE. vii ed to the people of the East-so blindly attached to the superstitions of their fathers, so prone to sensual indulgence, and so pre judiced against the Christians, on account of the irregularities, injustices, and cruel ties, of most of the Europeans, who had landed on their shores Besides, no mira cles have been better attested, or more scrupulously examined, than those of Xa vier; and the mass of evidence on which they rest, cannot be rejected without en dangering the foundations of our moral certitude. But as this is a subject which would lead him beyond the legitimate limits of a prefatory introduction, the translator contents himself with referring to the “End of Controversy,” and “Vin dication” of it, by the Right Rev. Dr. Milner, in which the certainty of these miraculous facts is solidly established. As many may not have the above named books, it has been thought advisable to give in an viii PREFACE. appendix, a sketch of the arguments ad vanced by those who have impugned, and defended, the reality of these supernatural events, that thus the reader may judge to which side the weight of evidence inclines. LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. CHAPTER I. Birth of Xavier—Natural dispositions—He is sent to the Univer sity of Paris—Is made Lecturer of Philosophy—Becomes acquainted with Ignatius of Loyola–Escapes the snares laid for his faith. I AM about to write the life of a saint, who, in the sixteenth century, renewed the wonders of the apostolic age, and exhibited in his own person, a living proof of christianity. A new world was con verted to the faith by the efficacy of his preaching, and the miracles whereby it was accompanied. Idolatrous kings and people bowed their heads to the sweet yoke of the gospel; faith was made to flourish in the very midst of barbarism; and the authority of the Roman Church was acknowledged by nations who had never heard of ancient Rome. This apos tolical man is Francis Xavier, of the Society of Jesus, and one of the first disciples of St. Ignatius of Loyola. He was of Navarre, and, according to the testimony of Cardinal Antonio Zapata, was descend ed from the royal family of that kingdom. His father, Don Juan de Jasso, was a distinguished noble 2 10 LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. man,and one of the privy councillors.of King John III. The name of his mother was Mary Azpilcueta Xavier. She was the heiress of two illustrious houses in that kingdom. Her father, Don Martin Azpilcueta, still more celebrated for his great virtues than his illus trious descent, married Juanna Xavier, the sole heiress of her family. Francis' mother, Mary, of whom we have spoken, was the only fruit of this union; she was regarded as one of the most accomplished and beautiful ladies of her time. She was married to Don Jasso, by whom she had many children, the youngest of whom was Francis, the subject of the present memoir. He was born on the 7th of April, 1506, in the cas tle of Xavier, at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains, about twenty four miles distant from Pampeluna. This castle was in possession of his mother's family for two hundred and fifty years; and was given by King Thibald I., to her ancestors, in recompense for the services which they had rendered to the crown. From this circumstance the family laid aside their former name of Asnarez, and took that of Xavier, which was given to Francis, and some others of his brothers, lest so celebrated a name should otherwise become extinct. - Providence, who had selected Francis to be his instrument in the conversion of many nations, gave him the natural qualities requisite for the functions of an apostle. He was of a strong habit of body, had a lively and vigorous turn of mind, a lofty and en terprising genius, and was of a fearless disposition. His manners were agreeable, and he himself natural ly of a gay and winning humour; he was, however, an avowed enemy of all immodesty, and had a great inclination for study. His parents, whose lives were most edifying, in spired him with the fear of God from his infancy, and took a particular care of his education. When he was of an age to choose his course, he preferred LIFE OF ST. FRANC is x Avie it. 11 the pursuit of learning to the profession of arms, which his brothers had embraced : and as he had a Quick conception, a happy memory, and a penetrat ing mind, he made great progress in a short time. When he had acquired a sufficient knowledge of the Latin language, his father sent him to the University of Paris, which was then the most celebrated in Europe, and was frequented by the most distinguish ed youths of Spain, Italy, and Germany.

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