Lives of the Saints
(Month of December)
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December 3: St. Francis Xavier, SJ
Today, we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Francis Xavier, Patron of the Missions, and Co-founder of the Society of Jesus.
Francis Xavier, born on April 7, 1506 in Javier, Spain was from a Basque noble family but he was famous for being one of the great missionaries of the 16th century and being the co-founder of the Society of Jesus.
In 1525, Francis left his home to study at the University of Paris. He enrolled at the College of St. Barbara and earned his degree in Philosophy. At St. Barbara, he became friends with St. Peter Faber and St. Ignatius of Loyola. When he met Ignatius, he was a proud, and ambitious man who wanted to accomplish many great things and though, he was encouraged by Ignatius to look at his life differently, he resisted Ignatius’ influence for three years. But Francis reached his decision and joined Peter Faber as the first of Ignatius’ companions. Together, they founded the Society of Jesus and became the first Jesuits. Francis Xavier was ordained in 1537.
After they established the Order, Ignatius plans to deploy Xavier as a scholar and teacher but Jesuits at that time became in demand of requests to be missionaries of the East. One of the requests was from King John III of Portugal. He asked for six men to be missionaries in the Portuguese territories in India and Ignatius could hardly meet his demands and said that he could only spare two: Simon Rodriguez and Nicholas Bobadilla, who were to sail to Goa in 1541. However, Bobadilla became ill. This made Ignatius give a reluctant decision to deploy Francis as a missionary in India.
For the next ten years, Fr. Francis traveled from Goa to Cape Comorin in south India. He also went to the East Indies, Malacca, and the Moluccas. Lastly, he went onward to Japan. He made friends with the seamen in every ship he would ride and he engaged them in apostolic conversations to let them know about Christ. Armed with only his breviary and a book of meditations, he went to villages to preach the Gospel. He barely spoke the languages used by the people he met but he taught them the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Our Father, and other common prayers. He also performed baptism and miraculous healing to anyone who needs it.
His greatest ambition in his missionary work was to bring the world to Jesus Christ. Apart from that, he wanted to get permission to enter China as a missionary. However, he became exhausted from his labors and fasts, and died on a small island off the coast of China with a single companion at his side in 1552.
Reflection:
St. Francis Xavier was a great missionary. Aside from his breviary and a book of meditations, he only had his passion and humble disregard for himself to continue and reach his ambition to bring the world to Jesus Christ through spreading the Gospel.
Along his journey, he always prayed at night after his missionary work and barely ate enough just to stay alive. His deeds are great examples of living according to God’s will. His life is an invitation and an opportunity to look at our lives differently and choose a life of prayer and penance.
St. Francis Xavier, pray for us!
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