Francis Xavier
1506–1552
Feast: December 3
Patron of: World missions
You don't wait until conditions are perfect: once your heart catches fire, you move. Francis Xavier is exactly that. A study companion of Ignatius of Loyola, he sets out for India, the far end of the known world, and does not stop there: the Moluccas, then Japan. One man, two continents, hundreds of thousands of baptisms, the greatest missionary since Paul. His fire is not his own; it comes from the Sacrifice of the Mass, which he offers daily. Tireless to the very last, he dies in 1552 at the gates of China, the next land already in sight. Seventy years later the Church declares him a saint; to this day he is the patron of world missions. And you, how far would you go if God called?
From his life
- study companion of Ignatius
- India, the Moluccas, Japan
- dies at the gates of China
- tireless to the very last
The bridge to tradition
Patron of world missions; his fire came from the Sacrifice of the Mass, which he offered daily.