XAVIER, Sr. FRANCIS, a celebrated missionary of the Roman Catholic church, was born of a noble family at Xavier, in Navarre, April 7, 1506. Having received his early education at home, he was sent, when in his 18th year, to the college of Sainte Barbe, at Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of Ignatius de Loyola (q.v.), with whom he ultimately became associated in the foundation of the Jesuit society. Lnder that head will be found detailed so much of his history as regards the first establishment of the order, and the early labors of its founders in Rome. It was while he was engaged in these early labors of the society in Rome, that Xavier attracted the notice of the representative of John III. of Portugal at Rome, Goren., who suggested to the king the idea of sending out members of the new ardor as missionaries to the Portuguese colonies in the east. Xavier was chosen for this purpose in the place of Bobadilla, who bad been originally appointed, but was prevented by sickness from going on the expedition. Having sailed from Lis bon, April 7, 1541, and wintered at Mozambique, he arrived at Goa, May 6, 1542, and presented to the bishop his letters of authorization from pope Paul III. Xavier's first proceeding, on finding the excessively depraved condition of the European Christians settled in India, was to endeavor, by stirring up among them a spirit of penance and religious fervor, to remove the great obstacle to the' efficacy of his preaching to the native population, which was presented by the evil example of the professing Christians of the colony. His efforts in this preliminary reformation were eminently successful, and he was equally blessed in his labors among the pearl-fishing population of the coast, from cape Comorin to the island of Manaar. After a stay of more than a year in this region he returned to Goa, and with a fresh staff of assistants visited the kingdom of Travancore, where, in the space of a single month, he baptized 10,000 natives. Passing thence to Malacca, where he was re-enforced by three other Jesuit missionaries, sent by Ignatius de Loyola in compliance with Xavier's earnest solicitations, and having achieved great success among the residents of the coast, he proceeded, in 1546, to the Banda islands, to Amboyna, and the Moluccas. In all these places his success was extraordinary. Having thus effected a first establishment of the Gospel in many places, he resolved to retrace his steps, and revisit the several scenes of his preaching. He arrived at Malacca in 1547, and thence by Manassar, near cape Comorin, where he stayed for some time, he passed to the island of Ceylon, where lie converted the king of Kandy, with many of his people. In Slay, 1548, he returned a second time to Goa. His great object now was to carry out a project for the con version of the Japanese empire, which had been suggested to him by a Japanese of high rank, whom he had attached to himself at Malacca, and who accompanied him to Goa. This Japanese, whom, with two of his domestics, he converted and baptized, became a most valuable auxiliary. Through his aid, Xavier was enabled during the
voyage to acquire so much of the Japanese language as enabled him to translate into Japanese and explain the Apostles' creed; and although his success in the first island which he visited was very insignificant, yet at Firando, and afterward at 3Iiako, his preaching was attended with extraordinary fruits. At the latter place he had failed signally upon his first visit, which was made in a very poor and humble guise; but having returned with a. more imposing train, and under circumstances of greater out ward distinction, he obtained a ready and favorable bearing, and made so lasting an impression that the mission he founded continued to flourish for above 100 years, until the final expulsion of Christianity from the Japanese empire. His mission to Japan occupied about two and a half years; and in Nov., 1551, he sailed from Amen guchi for the purpose of returning to Goa to organize a mission to China. Touching at 3Ialacca upon his voyage, lie endeavored to concert with the governor an embassy, in the name of the king of Portugal, to China, under cover of which he hoped to effect an entrance for his missionary enterprise, but on his return from Goa to 3lalacca, he found a new governor, who was opposed to any such attempt; and he was obliged to adopt the expedient of sailing in a merchant-ship to the island of Sancian, near Macao, which was at that time the trading depot of the Chinese with the merchants of Portugal. From Sancian, Xavier, having procured a Chinese interpreter, hoped to induce one of the native merchants to land him secretly on the coast; but in this hope also be was baffled by the fears of the Portuguese, who dreaded for themselves the vengeance of the Chinese authorities upon this infraction of the law. This disappointment, coupled with the privations and labors to which he had been exposed, brought on a violent fever, and under the combined weight of mental depression and physical sickness, this Christian hero sunk upon the very threshold of what he had looked to as the great enterprise of his life, in the island of Sancian, Dec. 22, 1552. his remains were conveyed to Malacca, and thence with great solemnity to Goa, Mar. 15, 1554. Many miracles, attested by numerous witnesses, were reported of Xavier in almost all the stages of his career. Among these there have been some who reckoned the miraculous gift of tongues. The evidence of these miracles was submitted to the usual process of inquiry at Rome; and many miracles having been established by the ordinary canonical process, Xavier was "beatified" by Paul V. in 1619, and "canonized" by Gregory XV. in 1622, his festival being fixed upon Dec. 3. His only literary remains are a collection of letters, in 5 books, 8vo (Paris, 1631), and a Catechism, with some short ascetic treatises. His Life, by Pere Bouhours, was translated into English by Dryden. There is also a Latin Life by Tursellino (Rome, 1594); in Italian by Bartoli and Maffei; in German by De Vos (1877); and in English by Venn (1862) and Coleridge (1873).