Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier

(1506-1552)

The first and greatest Jesuit missionary. Worked in India, Indonesia and Japan. The greatest stories of Jesuit heroism come from Asia. There, the incredibly courageous Francis Xavier towered above all the rest as the "apostle to the Indies and to Japan". Xavier was born into the Spanish nobility and was one of the original members of the Society of Jesus. Loyola early recognized that this handsome, bright and cheerful young man would make a powerful servant of God. He became the most widely-acclaimed Jesuit missionary of all time. He was appointed the Pope’s ambassador and sent to evangelize the East Indies in 1542. He spent three years there, followed by preaching and baptizing in present-day Malaysia, Vietnam, and Japan. His most remarkable mission was in Japan where he established a Christian community which has survived to this day, despite numerous periods of severe persecution. Xavier died of a fever when he was only forty-six years old, while he was attempting to take the Christian message to China.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Francis-Xavier, history, Jesus[/tags]

 

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