Saint Francis Xavier, Priest

Francisco de Jassu y Javier was born in 1506 at the castle of Javier in Navarre. At the University of Paris he shared rooms with Peter Faber and Ignatius of Loyola, and in 1534 was one of the first seven companions who made vows together at Montmartre, the beginning of the Jesuits. In 1541 he sailed from Lisbon as papal envoy and reached Goa in 1542. He worked among the Parava pearl fishers of the southern coast, in Travancore, at Malacca and in the Moluccas, ringing a bell in the streets to gather children for catechism. In 1549 he reached Japan. Trying to enter China, he died on the island of Shangchuan on 3 December 1552. His body rests in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa. He was canonized in 1622.