St. Francis Xavier - Dec 3rd

Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Francis Xavier, patron of foreign missionaries. He was born in Spain in 1506. At the age of 18, he went to Paris to study philosophy. Four years later, St. Ignatius came to Paris to the same college, in which Francis was attending. At that time, he was full of the world and ambition, but the influence of St. Ignatius changed him. He became one of St. Ignatius’ first disciples and was ordained a priest. He was one of the first Jesuits to take his vows in the order of the Society of Jesus.

In 1541, he was sent to India as a missionary and landed in Goa. He founded 45 churches in various cities and was known as the “Great Father”. He destroyed temples and idols. He brought back to life two persons, who had died.

In 1549, he became the first missionary to arrive in Japan. Soon a flourishing Christian community arose there. He stayed there for two years and then returned to India in 1551. The following year, he was determined to set sail for China. However, he came down with a fever. The sailors left Francis lying on the sand, exposed to the piercing wind, until someone came to carry him to the shelter of a hut. For two weeks, he lay there, lonely and deserted, praying ceaselessly, between periods of delirium.

On Dec. 3rd, with his eyes fixed on his crucifix, he said, “In thee, O Lord, have I put my hope, let me never be confounded.”, he died at the age of 46 in 1552.

He wrote the following:

“A faithful Christian, when about to go to sleep, will keep all that has been said above by examining his conscience with respect to his sins he has committed during the day by resolving, with the grace of his Lord, to amend them, and by being determined to confess them when he can. And since sleep is the image of death, and many who have gone to sleep in good health are dead in the morning, I shall say the Confiteor with great repentance for my sins, and I shall commend myself to my guardian angel and pray as follows: I, a sinner who have wandered for astray, confess to the Lord God and to Saint Mary and to Saint Michael, the angel and to Saint John the Baptist...and to all the saints of the heavenly court...that I have sinned exceedingly through thought and through omission and through deed, and that I did not refrain from much evil from which I could have refrained, for all of which I am sorry...I pray and ask my Lady Saint Mary and all the saints that they may be willing to forgive me my present, past, confessed, and forgotten sins; and that from now on he may grant me his grace of keeping me from sinning and bringing me to the enjoyment of the glory of paradise… O blessed Cross that was sanctified by the body of my Lord Jesus Christ, through the efficacy of Your Passion and death, which you suffered on this most holy Cross, that you may deign to forgive me my sins as you forgave those of the thief when you, gracious Lord, hung crucified upon it, and that you may grant me victory over my adversaries and deign to bring my enemies to a knowledge of the truth so that they may repent.”