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ฟรังซิส เกิดในประเทศสเปน จากครอบครัวที่มั่งคั่ง ท่านได้รับการศึกษาที่วิทยาลัย "นักบุญลาร์บารา" ในกรุงปารีส แล้วเป็นอาจารย์ ฟรังซิสกับนักบุญอิกญาซีโอ แห่งโลโยลา และชายหนุ่มอีก 4 คน ร่วมกันปฏิญาณตนที่จะทำงานเพื่อความรอดของวิญญาณและตั้งคณะ "เยสุอิต"
ก่อนที่ฟรังซิสจะได้รับศีลบวชเป็นพระสงฆ์ที่เมืองเวนิส ท่านทำหน้าที่ดูแลคนไข้ในโรงพยาบาลแห่งหนึ่ง ขณะเดียวกัน กษัตริย์โปรตุเกสทรงมีพระประสงค์จะส่งพระสงฆ์ธรรมทูต จำนวน 6 คน ไปแพร่ธรรมยังประเทศอินเดีย หนึ่งในกลุ่มธรรมทูตนี้คือ คุณพ่อฟรังซิส เซเวียร์ ท่านเดินทางไปเมืองกัว เดินสั่นกระดิ่งไปตามถนน เรียกเด็กมาชุมนุมกันฟังคำสอนในวัด รักษาพยาบาลคนเจ็บไข้อนาถาทั่วไป คนทั้งเมืองทางภาคใต้ของอินเดียสมัครเป็นคาทอลิก เพราะท่านชักนำ ท่านรู้จักดัดแปลงพระวาจาของพระเป็นเจ้า ให้เข้ากับวัฒนธรรมประเพณีท้องถิ่น
ท่านเดินทางไปประกาศพระศาสนจักรที่ประเทศญี่ปุ่น ขณะเดินทางต่อไปประเทศจีน ท่านป่วยด้วยพิษไข้จนถึงแก่มรณภาพในห้องเก็บของใต้ท้องเรือสำเภา ท่านเป็นองค์อุปถัมภ์ของมิสซังสากล
FRANCIS XAVIER
Also known as
Apostle to the Far EastMemorial
3 DecemberProfile
Nobleman from the Basque reqion. Studied and taught philosophy at the University of Paris, and planned a career as a professor. Friend of Saint Ignatius of Loyola who convinced him to use his talents to spread the Gospel. One of the founding Jesuits, and the first Jesuit missionary. Priest.
In Goa, while waiting to take ship, India, he preached in the street, worked with the sick, and taught children their catechism. He would walk through the streets ringing a bell to call the children to their studies. Said to have converted the entire city.
He scolded his patron, King John of Portugal, over the slave trade: "You have no right to spread the Catholic faith while you take away all the country's riches. It upsets me to know that at the hour of your death you may be ordered out of paradise."
Tremendously successful missionary for ten years in India, the East Indies, and Japan, baptizing more than 40,000. His epic finds him dining with head hunters, washing sores of lepers in Venice, teaching catechism to Indian children, baptizing 10,000 in a single month. He tolerated the most appalling conditions on long sea voyages, enduring extremes of heat and cold. Wherever he went he would seek out and help the poor and forgotten. He traveled thousands of miles, most on his bare feet, and he saw the greater part of the Far East. Had the gift of tongues. Miracle worker. Raised people from the dead. Calmed storms. Prophet. Healer.
Born
1506 at Javier, Spanish NavarreDied
2 December 1552 at Sancian, China of a fever contracted on a mission journeyBeatified
25 October 1619 by Pope Paul VCanonized
12 March 1622 by Pope Gregory XVPatronage
African missions; diocese of Agartala, India; diocese of Ahmedabad, India; diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana; Apostleship of Prayer; Australia; black missions; archdiocese of Bombay, India; Borneo; archdiocese of Cape Town, South Africa; China; diocese of Dinajpur, Bangladesh; East Indies; Fathers of the Precious Blood; foreign missions; Freising, Germany; Goa India; diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin; India; archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana; Japan; diocese of Joiliet, Illinois; diocese of Kabankalan, Philippines; diocese of Malindi, Kenya; missionaries; Missioners of the Precious Blood; missions, black; missions, foreign; missions, parish; Navarre, Spain; navigators; New Zealand; parish missions; plague epidemics; Propagation of the Faith
Readings
It is not the actual physical exertion that counts towards a man's progress, nor the nature of the task, but by the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken.
Saint Francis Xavier
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We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. The country is so utterly barren and poor. The native Christians have no priests. They know only that they are Christians. There is nobody to say Mass for them; nobody to teach them the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Commandments of God's Law.I have not stopped since the day I arrived. I conscientiously made the rounds of the villages. I bathed in the sacred waters all the children who had not yet been baptized. This means that I have purified a very large number of children so young that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand: "The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
I could not refuse so devout a request without failing in devotion myself. I taught them, first the confession of faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; then the Apostles' Creed, the Our Father, and Hail Mary. I noticed among them persons of great intelligence. If only someone could educate them in the Christian way of life, I have no doubt that they would make excellent Christians.
Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians.
I wish they university students would work as hard at converting these people as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them.
This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God's will and his choice.
They would cry out with all their heart: "Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do?" Send me anywhere you like - even to India!
from letters to Saint Ignatius Loyola from Saint Francis Xavier
