Missionary of the East

I find it interesting that today's saint would one day meet with his enemy and realize after great witness to true faith would reconcile and work together to form the Jesuit order.

St. Francis Xavier

Feast day: December 3

Birth: 1506

Death: 1552

Patron of foreign missions and of all missionary works 

Basque Spain

Francis was born into a family with great desires for fame and fortune.  He knew little of the faith other than the weekly trip to Mass with his family. He was a great scholar and would avoid war unlike his brothers, so he was sent off to college in France.  Upon his entrance to the university, he met Ignatius of Loyola.  Ignatius had been crippled in the very battle that Francis' brothers fought against him.  Such a true witness to forgiveness, as Ignatius did not seek revenge.  Instead, Ignatius remembered what he had discovered through revelations and showed kindness to Francis.

Francis on the other hand had no desire to be cordial to Ignatius.  Through persistent use of Biblical wisdom, Ignatius was able to win the heart of Francis for the love of Christ.  Ignatius and Francis, along with others, formed a missionary order that would become the Society of Jesus.  They made private vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Pope, and also vowed to go to the Holy Land to convert infidels. Francis began his study of theology in 1534 and was ordained in 1537.  The order would later be approved by Pope Paul III in 1540.  

Francis Xavier devoted much of his life to missions in Asia, mainly in four centers: Malacca, Amboina and Ternate, Japan, and China. His growing information about new places indicated to him that he had to go to what he understood were centers of influence for the whole region. He devoted almost three years to the work of preaching to the people of southern India and Ceylon, converting many. 

Arriving on the island of Sancian at the mouth of the Canton river, he became ill of a fever and would have died abandoned on the burning sands of the shore if a poor man named Alvarez had not taken him to his hut. Here he lingered for two weeks, praying between spells of delirium, and finally died, his eyes fixed with great tenderness on his crucifix. He was buried in a shallow grave and his body covered with quicklime, but when exhumed three months later it was found fresh and incorrupt. It was taken to Goa where it is still enshrined. 

He once wrote of his desire to continue missionary work, "I looked or desired for nothing here but to wear myself out with work and sacrifice my life itself in bringing about the salvation of souls."

We celebrated the feast day with a humble yet delicious French Onion Soup to remember his time at the university in Paris.  We consider this the conversion era of Francis when he came to understand the real meaning of the faith and embrace it for himself.