December 3

Saint Francis Xavier, Priest

Memorial

St. Francis Xavier was a Jesuit priest in the 1500’s. The son of an aristocratic Spanish-Basque family, he received the best education; studying at the University of Paris. While there; he met St. Ignatius of Loyola and with several other men, took vows to follow Christ. In 1541, St. Francis, now an ordained priest, was appointed apostolic nuncio in the East. He traveled to Goa, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, China, and Japan establishing missionary outposts and converting hundreds of thousands. He was canonized in 1622. For his apostolic zeal, Pius X named him the patron of foreign missions.[1][2][3]

Written by Sarah Ciotti

Reviewed by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB, STD

[1] F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), 531-532.

[2] Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB, The Martyrology of the Monastery of the Ascension, 2008.

[3] Catholicpedia: The Original Catholic Encyclopedia (1917) for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. s.v. “St. Francis Xavier.”

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