Xaverian Missionaries

The St Francis Xavier Foreign Mission Society was officially launched on the 3rd December 1895, the feast of St. Francis Xavier. From the outset Guido Maria Conforti determined that his missionary family would be a religious order, with members professing the vows of Chastity, Poverty and Obedience. He also determined that the Order’s exclusive commitment to the universal Mission of the Church would be guaranteed with members taking a fourth vow of Mission.
Guido’s first band of Xaverian Missionaries was seventeen strong: the majority were young secondary school pupils, one a theology student and the other a newly ordained diocesan priest. They gathered together in the first house bought by the Founder on the Borgo del Leon d’Oro, near the Diocesan Seminary of Parma.

The first students asked the Founder to record a few notes about the beginnings of his missionary family. Monsignor Conforti penned the following:
“November 16, 1895: It was with great satisfaction that Canon Conforti moved into the new house along with the first students. On that evening he solemnly blessed the building and the area set apart as the temporary chapel, since the actual Chapel room was not yet finished. However, the solemn, official inauguration of the Institute took place on December 3rd, feast day of the great apostle of the Indies. On that memorable occasion Monsignor Magani, Bishop of Parma, formally erected the house by canonical decree and named Canon Conforti the superior. The Bishop was present for the patronal festivities even though he was not feeling well. The moving discourse he gave was long remembered by the students. The Bishop, on that day, gave the Institute an artistic reliquary containing a precious relic of St. Francis Xavier. Canon Conforti informed the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide about the inauguration and canonical erection of the Institute. He also sent a fine, artistically framed, water colour painting depicting the new foundation, to Cardinal Ledochowski as a sign of his happiness and respect.”

The first mission departure took place on March 13th 1899. Two years later Fr. Ciao Rastelli died in China of typhoid fever (Feb, 28, 1901), and the lone deacon Odoardo Manini, was recalled home. Twenty one more mission departures followed during the life-time of Mons. Conforti. The next batch of missionaries, Frs Calza, Sartori, Bonardi and Brambilla carried out their apostolate alongside the missionaries of the Pontifical Institute of Milan in the vicariate of southern Honan, until the time when the pastoral care of part of the vicariate was entrusted solely to the Xaverians. In January 1906 the Apostolic Prefecture of East Honan was established with its centre at Cheng-chow. Eight million people lived in the area; there were seven missionaries . Other Xaverians joined them later, and by 1929 the territory was again divided. The Apostolic Prefecture of Loyang was established.
The activity of the missionaries was impeded by a succession of local conflicts and wars: a civil war between rival factions (supporters of the republic empire (1911); attacks by bandits which followed the Sino-Japanese war (1937); and World War II. When Italy became an ally of Japan, Italians were declared to be “enemies” of the Chinese, Churches, residences, schools, etc. were destroyed and missionaries were placed in concentration camps. During the Japanese advance, Fr John Botton was killed trying to defend his Christian flock.

At the end of World War II the Vicariates of Cheng-chow and Loyang became dioceses. Xaverians began a new mission at Ichun in Kiang-si. A language centre was opened in Peking and a novitiate house as well. On March 13 1949 three young Chinese priests, Frs Wang, Yang and Liu entered the Xaverian Institute.

Following the “long march” led by Mao-Tse-Tung (1947), missionaries were subjected to arrest, trial, prison, torture and ultimately expulsion. The last Xaverian expelled from China was Bishop Bassi in 1954.

In the mysterious ways of Divine Providence, the Acts of the Apostles’ story was repeated. Persecution caused a scattering and dispersion that propelled Gospel proclamation to other peoples and other lands.

Foreseeing the Communist advance, a new mission had been started in Japan in 1949. This same period also saw Great Britain opening up as a launch pad for new missions in the British Colonies of Africa. The first Xaverians left from Glasgow for Sierra Leone in 1950. In the following year the missions of Indonesia and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) were begun. In 1953, answering the appeal of Pope Pius XII for help in evangelisation of Latin America, the Xaverians assigned some missionaries returning from China to dioceses in Brazil. At this time the Xaverians entered Mexico. And in 1975 our latest mission in Latin America was opened in Columbia.

With the upsurge in vocations and increase in the number of Xaverians in the early 1960’s, expansion in Africa followed. Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Burundi were opened in 1962 and 1965 respectively. Further openings in Africa followed with the missions of Cameroon and Chad in the 1980s and Mozambique in 1998.

China, the first love of the Xaverians, continues to engender hopes that a return in the not too distant future will be realised. To this end “The China Project” was launched in 1984 with a small band of personnel training and preparing on Taiwan for eventual openings on the mainland.

From sparse beginnings in Parma, Italy, just over a hundred years ago, the Xaverian Congregation has reaped a bountiful harvest. Today the Xaverians priests, brothers, sisters and lay people number in excess of 1000 members from diverse cultures, nations and churches. We are increasingly an international community with members from Italy, Spain, United States, China, Mexico, Brazil, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Britain. Who could have imagined such a harvest? And yet it retains its initial characteristic: “to remain an unpretentious family.”