Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier, S.J. (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin Franciscus Xaverius; Basque: Frantzisko Xabierkoa; Spanish: Francisco Javier; Portuguese: Francisco Xavier; 7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552), was a Navarrese Catholic missionary who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus. Born in Javier (Xavier in Navarro-Aragonese or Xabier in Basque), Kingdom of Navarre (in present-day Spain), he was a companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris, in 1534.

In 1534, Ignatius and six other young men, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, gathered and professed vows of poverty, chastity, and later obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the Pope in matters of mission direction and assignment.

The Goa Inquisition was proposed by St. Francis Xavier.

The setting up of the Goa Inquisition was requested by Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier from his headquarters Malacca in a letter dated 16 May 1546 to King John III of Portugal.

He also was the first Christian missionary to venture into Japan, Borneo, the Maluku Islands, and other areas.

During the 16th century, Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries like the Spaniard Francis Xavier reached Japan for the first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West.

In 1512, Ferdinand, King of Aragon and regent of Castile, invaded Navarre, initiating a war that lasted over 18 years.

In 1507 the Parliament of Navarre appointed a diplomatic task force to France led by John of Jaso—president of the Royal Council of Navarre and father of Francis Xavier—and the bishop of Lescar.

They were Francis, Ignatius of Loyola, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Spain, Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal.

Here, through Diego Laynez, he met St. Ignatius of Loyola and with Laynez, St. Peter Faber and St. Francis Xavier, he enlisted as one of the first companions of Loyola in 1534.

Francis Xavier was born in the royal castle of Xavier, in the Kingdom of Navarre, on 7 April 1506 according to a family register.

Built in the 10th century, this castle was the birthplace and childhood home of Saint Francis Xavier, son of the Lords of Xavier, hence his surname.

He was through her related to the great theologian and philosopher Martín de Azpilcueta.

He was born in Barásoain, Navarre, and was a relative of Francis Xavier.

He was invited to head Saint Paul's College, a pioneer seminary for the education of secular priests, which became the first Jesuit headquarters in Asia.

St. Paul's College was a Jesuit school, and later college, founded circa 1542 by saint Francis Xavier, at Old Goa.

They were Francis, Ignatius of Loyola, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Spain, Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal. In 1529, Francis shared lodgings with his friend Pierre Favre.

He was admitted to the Collège Sainte-Barbe, the oldest school in the University of Paris, where he shared his lodgings with Francis Xavier.

He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time and was influential in evangelization work, most notably in India.

In 1542, Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrived in Goa at the service of King John III of Portugal, in charge of an Apostolic Nunciature.

After successive appeals to the Pope asking for missionaries for the East Indies under the Padroado agreement, John III was encouraged by Diogo de Gouveia, rector of the Collège Sainte-Barbe, to recruit the newly graduated students that would establish the Society of Jesus.

With an extensive academic curriculum as rector at the University of Paris, he served King Manuel I and king John III of Portugal, whom he advised on the creation of captaincies in Brazil and the coming of the first Jesuit missionaries and notably Francis Xavier.

In 1927, Pope Pius XI published the decree "Apostolicorum in Missionibus" naming Saint Francis Xavier, along with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, co-patron of all foreign missions.

In 1927, Pope Pius XI named Thérèse co-patron of the missions, with Saint Francis Xavier.

In 1522 one of Francis's brothers participated with 200 Navarrese nobles in dogged but failed resistance against the Castilian Count of Miranda in Amaiur, Baztan, the last Navarrese territorial position south of the Pyrenees.

Exhausted and starving, the remaining 200 Basque knights finally surrendered to forces who vastly outnumbered them (circa 6,000 infantry), led by the Count of Miranda and loyal to the new emperor Charles V. One of the knights resisting in Amaiur was a brother of Francis Xavier, patron saint of Navarre and of Baztan blood.

In Malacca in December 1547, Francis Xavier met a Japanese man named Anjirō.

After committing a murder in his home domain of Satsuma in southern Kyushu, he fled to Portuguese Malacca and he sought out Saint Francis Xavier (1506–1552) and returned to Japan with him as an interpreter.

From October to December 1550, he resided in Yamaguchi.

Yamaguchi has claim to two famous religious sites: the Buddhist temple, Rurikō-ji, with its five-story pagoda, and the Roman Catholic cathedral connected with Saint Francis Xavier whose work was responsible for the introduction of Christianity to Japan in 1550.

He built nearly 40 churches along the coast, including St. Stephen's Church, Kombuthurai, mentioned in his letters dated 1544.

The church was built by St. Francis Xavier in May 1544.

Born in Javier (Xavier in Navarro-Aragonese or Xabier in Basque), Kingdom of Navarre (in present-day Spain), he was a companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris, in 1534.

The Society's co-founder, Francis Xavier, was a missionary who reached India and later Japan.

From August until March 1542 he remained in Portuguese Mozambique, and arrived in Goa, then capital of Portuguese India, on 6 May 1542, thirteen months after leaving Lisbon.

The basilica holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier, regarded by many Catholics as the patron saint of Goa (the patron of the Archdiocese of Goa is actually Saint Joseph Vaz).

Francis Xavier, S.J. (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin Franciscus Xaverius; Basque: Frantzisko Xabierkoa; Spanish: Francisco Javier; Portuguese: Francisco Xavier; 7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552), was a Navarrese Catholic missionary who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus.

Elsewhere, Portuguese missionaries under the Spanish Jesuit Francis Xavier evangelised in India, China, and Japan.

Leaving Rome on 15 March 1540, in the Ambassador's train, Francis took with him a breviary, a catechism, and De Institutione bene vivendi by Croatian humanist Marko Marulić, a Latin book that had become popular in the Counter-Reformation.

He wrote De institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum, a moralist tractate of Biblical inspiration which he managed to publish in 1506 in Venice; this work influenced St Francis Xavier, and it was claimed by one of Francis' associates in 1549 to be the only book that he read during his missionary work.

In 1540 King John of Portugal had Pedro Mascarenhas, Portuguese ambassador to the Holy See, request Jesuit missionaries to spread the faith in his new possessions in India, where the king believed that Christian values were eroding among the Portuguese.

In 1540, after successive appeals to Pope Paul III asking for missionaries for the Portuguese East Indies under the "Padroado" agreement, John III appointed Francis Xavier to take charge as Apostolic Nuncio.

He was accompanied by Anjiro, two other Japanese men, Father Cosme de Torrès, and Brother João Fernandes.

From there, he went to Asia and met Francis Xavier in the Moluccas in 1546.

In 1540 King John of Portugal had Pedro Mascarenhas, Portuguese ambassador to the Holy See, request Jesuit missionaries to spread the faith in his new possessions in India, where the king believed that Christian values were eroding among the Portuguese.

His mission ended on March 15, 1540, when he travelled back to Portugal together with Francis Xavier.

Xavier was about to extend his missionary preaching to China when he died on Shangchuan Island.

It is known in history for having been the place of death of St. Francis Xavier.

The Novena of Grace is a popular devotion to Francis Xavier, typically prayed either on the nine days before 3 December, or on 4 March through 12 March (the anniversary of Pope Gregory XV's canonisation of Xavier in 1622).

The Novena of Grace is a Catholic devotion addressed to Saint Francis Xavier.