St Francis Xavier

“For what profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?”

St Francis Xavier (1506-1552), while studying his Masters at the University of Paris, met St Ignatius of Loyola, who inspired him to become a priest. Francis Xavier left for India in 1541, on his thirty-fifth birthday. As Francis reached his decision, the text of Genesis 12:1 crossed his mind: “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” That verse gave him a prophetic inkling of the unanticipated direction his life would take. As he departed he was informed that the pope appointed him to be the Papal Nuncio in the East. He arrived in Goa on 6th May, 1542. He travelled extensively for his mission work in India and Japan.

Xavier, while waiting on an island off Chinese coast in order to enter China, took ill and died on 3rd December, 1552. He was buried on the island until February 1553 when his body was removed and taken to Malacca where it was buried at a church for a month. Then one of Xavier's companions moved his body to his own residence for the rest of the year. In December, his body was moved to Goa. Xavier remains buried in a silver casket enclosed in a glass case. Several of his bones have been removed. His right arm, used to bless converts, is on display in Rome. Another arm bone is kept on Coloane island, in Macau, which today is part of China. Francis Xavier was beatified by Pope Paul V on 25th October, 1619, and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on 12th March, 1622 at the same ceremony as Ignatius of Loyola. Along with St Therese of the Child Jesus, he is the patron of Catholic missions, and also the patron of India.

Francis Xavier had planned to devote himself to the intellectual life, but at a strategic moment he surrendered to God. That surrender changed the course of his life—and the course of history as well. Even Ignatius of Loyola, the leader of the new Jesuit community, had planned to deploy Francis as a scholar. But India beckoned, and Ignatius reluctantly sent Francis to preach the gospel there. Thus, the man who had planned on a leisurely intellectual life became a missionary apostle, perhaps second only to St Paul.

Through his roommate, St Peter Faber, Francis became a friend of Ignatius of Loyola. This relationship gradually revolutionized his life. Ignatius had experienced a radical conversion to Christ and had devoted his life to helping others in their spiritual quests. He challenged his friends to yield their lives to Christ, abandon their own plans, and follow the Lord’s design for their lives. Although Francis felt drawn to Ignatius's ideals, he was reluctant to make them his own. He resisted Ignatius’s magnetic influence for six years because it threatened the comfortable life he wanted as a church-supported scholar. It is also said that Ignatius impressed upon Francis by using Jesus' words, “For what profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26 = Mark 8:36)