Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta, now known through the world as St Francis Xavier, answered in his daily life that burning question asked by Jesus: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?"
Born into a noble Portuguese family, Francisco met Ignatius of Loyola in 1529 as a college student in Paris. At first, the brash, athletic Francisco had no use for the fervent Ignazio. He dismissed the call to radical conversion, his sights set on secular acclaim and success. But Ignatius burned with something Francis couldn't quite shake. That question haunted him: What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?
The fire was catching. Just five years later, Francis joined Ignatius and five others in the cool shadows of St Pierre du Montmartre and made solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the pope. Their newly formed Society of Jesus, whose members would come to be called the Jesuits, adopted the particular charism of missionary evangelization to the far-flung corners of the world.
After a few years of preparation following his ordination in 1537, Francis was sent to mission fields across Southeast Asia, including India and the Maluku Islands. He became the first Christian missionary to Japan.
Francis had a special sensitivity to the diverse cultures he encountered, believing that the universal Faith could be integrated with every unique community. He ministered with creativity, composing catechetical songs that were easy to remember and fun to sing, and using great art to share the Good News. He ministered with intention, striving to learn local languages so he could evangelize with words and phrases and names familiar to the people. Once, although he usually wore rags in his vow of poverty, he realized a cultural gap, so he borrowed fine and fashionable clothes to show respect on a visit to the emperor. Most of all, he ministered with great and fiery love.
His last mission was to China, but complications of weather and politics prevented him from landing on the mainland. While he waited on an offshore island, he contracted a fever. Francis Xavier died in 1552, just beyond the shore of yet another land and culture he yearned to know and love. The Jesuits buried him in Goa, India, where he served extensive missions. You can visit his tomb there at the Basilica of Bom Jesus.
Together with St Thérèse of Lisieux, he is the patron of missions (you can see a map of all his mission routes here). Both of these saints remind us that sharing the love of God is not an exercise in victory, domination, or subjugation, but of humility and service. In one of his many letters, Francis wrote: "When trying to evangelise, no tool is more effective, than that of personal witness…People can argue with points of doctrine but no-one can argue with a personal testimony!”
His feast day is December 3.
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