Who Was Saint Francis Xavier?
Saint Francis Xavier was a pioneering Roman Catholic Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order). The Roman Catholic Church considers him to have converted more people to Christianity than anyone else since St. Paul.
Xavier was born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilcueta in the Castle of Xavier (pronounced Javier in Spanish) near Sangüesa and Pamplona, in the Kingdom of Navarre. He was born to an aristocratic family of Navarre. He was the youngest son of Juan de Jasso, privy councillor to King John III of Navarre (Jean d'Albret), and his wife, Maria de Azpilcueta y Xavier, sole heiress
of two noble Navarrese families. He was born at his mother's castle of Xavier or Xavero, at the foot of the Pyrenees and close to the little town of Sanguesa, on 7 April 1506, according to a family register. Following the Spanish surname custom of the time, he was called after his mother; the best authorities write Francisco de Xavier (Latin Xaverius) rather than Francisco Xavier, as Xavier is originally a place name. In 1512, many fortresses were devastated, including the family castle, and land was confiscated. Francis' father died in 1515.
At the age of 19, Francis Xavier went to study at the University of Paris, where he received a licence ès arts in 1530. He furthered his studies there in theology, and became acquainted with Ignatius Loyola. Xavier, Ignatius, and five others founded the Society of Jesus on 15 August 1534, taking a vow of poverty and chastity at a site now in the Montmartre area of Paris.
Francis Xavier and his friends then went to Italy, gaining the approval of the Pope to found the Company of Jesus, or Jesuits as they were later called. Francis Xavier's work initiated permanent change in eastern Indonesia, where in 1546-1547 he worked in the Maluku region among the people of Ambon, Ternate and Morotai (or Moro), and laid the foundations for a permanent mission there. He continued his missionary work in Japan. After he left Maluku, others carried on his work and by the 1560s there were 10,000 Catholics in the area, mostly on Ambon, and by the 1590s there were 50,000 to 60,000.
On 21 November, on Shangchuan Island, he fainted after celebrating Mass. He died on 3 December 1552, at age 46, without having reached mainland China.
He was first buried on a beach of Shangchuan Island. His intact body was taken from the island in February 1553 and was temporarily buried in St. Paul's church in Malacca on 22 March, 1553. An open grave in the church now marks the place of Xavier's burial. Pereira came back from Goa, removed the corpse shortly after April 15, 1553, and moved it to his house.
On 11 December, 1553, Xavier's body was shipped to Goa. The body, having resisted extensive decay, is now in the in Goa,
where it was placed in a glass container encased in a silver casket on December 2, 1637. Today, the silver casket has been
removed, exposing the glass and leaving the body visible, though it is raised up on a high mausoleum. The glass container is lowered for public viewing only during the public exposition which occurs for a duration of 6 weeks every 10 years, most recently in 2004. There is a debate as to how the body could have remained incorrupt for so long.
The right forearm, which Xavier used to bless and baptize his converts, was detached by Superior General Claudio Acquaviva in 1614. It has been displayed since in a silver reliquary at the main Jesuit church in Rome, Il Gesù.
St. Francis Xavier is noteworthy for his missionary work, both as organizer and as pioneer. By his compromises in India with the Christians of St. Thomas, he developed the Jesuit missionary methods along lines that subsequently became a successful blueprint for his order to follow. His efforts left a significant impression upon the missionary history of India, and as one of the first Jesuit missionaries to the East Indies, his work is of fundamental significance to the propagation of Christianity in China and Japan.
Pope Benedict XVI said of both Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier: "not only their history which was interwoven for many years from Paris and Rome, but a unique desire —a unique passion, it could be said— moved and sustained them through different human events: the passion to give to God-Trinity a glory always greater and to work for the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ to the peoples who had been ignored."
Francis also proposed the creation of the infamous Goa Inquisition, which was installed six years after his death and resulted in the forced conversions, torture and murder of thousands of Hindus, Muslims, Indian Jews and non-Catholic Indian Christians. Francis himself was not involved in the acts.
Francis Xavier is a Catholic saint. He was beatified by Paul V on October 25, 1619, and was canonized by Gregory XV on March 
12, 1622, at the same time as Ignatius Loyola.
Feast December 3
Patronage: African missions; Agartala, India; Ahmedabad, India; Alexandria, Louisiana; Apostleship of Prayer; Australia; Bombay, India; Borneo; Cape Town, South Africa; China; Dinajpur, Bangladesh; East Indies; Fathers of the Precious Blood; foreign missions; Freising, Germany; Goa India; Green Bay, Wisconsin; India; Indianapolis, Indiana;Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan;Joiliet, Illinois; Kabankalan, Philippines; Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippines; diocese of Malindi, Kenya; missionaries; Missioners of the Precious Blood; Navarre, Spain; navigators; New Zealand; parish missions; plague epidemics; Propagation of the Faith
Representations in art: crucifix; preacher carrying a flaming heart; bell; globe; vessel; young bearded Jesuit in the company of Saint Ignatius Loyola; young bearded Jesuit with a torch, flame, cross and lily.