Saint Francis Xavier was born in 1506 in Navarre, Spain. Francis was the youngest of six children, success and fame followed him wherever he went.  Whilst studying at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, Francis met Ignatius of Loyola.
Francis was proud and passionate, tall and athletic, handsome and ambitious, quite the opposite of his room-mate, Ignatius, who looked on Francis with scorn and derision.

Juan de Polanco later said of Francis' attitude: “He could scarcely set his eyes on him without making sport of his plans, a fellow Jesuit.”

One day, when Francis was telling him about his plans for a great career, Ignatius quoted to him a popular passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

“What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and loses his own soul?”

Mt.16:26

Francis could not ignore that question: What does it profit...? He pondered upon it, not fearing the radical changes the decision would make in his daily life, he answered it positively: The call of the world was rejected with disdain. The call of Christ was chosen with great joy.

On August 15th, 1534, the Feast of the Assumption, Ignatius, Francis and five other men, took vows in a little underground chapel in Paris. They had made a radical break from the world, and consecrated themselves, their lives, time, energy, and love to Christ and His Kingdom.

By papal decree Francis was named apostolic nuncio to Asia and embarked on a 15 month long journey. Goa India was to witness the beginning of one of the greatest of all missionary journeys, one from which he would never return. He wrote to Ignatius before leaving:

“...it will be by letter only that we shall be together.”

Francis left Lisbon, Portuga1, on April 7th, 1541 to spread the Gospel in Asia. He travelled for eight years and announced the Gospel in India, Ceylon, Moluccas and Nalacca.

Francis had begun to receive information of the highly advanced kingdom of Japan, as yet unknown to Westerners. On August 15th, 1549 Francis left Malacca for Japan.

In a letter to Ignatius he recognized the sophistication of Japanese culture:

“It seems to me that we shall never find... another race to equal the Japanese. They are a people of very good manners...They like to hear things propounded according to reasons...”

After about two years, Francis had established several small groups of converts in Kagoshima and Kyoto in Japan; He then set his eyes on yet another frontier: China.

At that time China remained closed to foreigners but Francis believed that his journey would be the greatest prize of all his missionary activity. In his endeavors, Francis was pushed by two ideas which are rooted in every missionary’s heart. The first was:

“Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel “

(1Cor. 9:16)

The second was his strong conviction that by evangelizing China, all the populations of Asia would soon convert to Christianity.

In 1552, en route to China, Francis became seriously ill. His condition deteriorated, and he was left on the unpopulated Island of Sancian. He was to die there at the age of 46 on December 3rd, 1552 and was buried on the Island.

A year later in 1553, his body was moved to the Church of Santa Naria in Malacca and then to Saint Paulo Church in Goa. His body was reburied on December 3^rd at the Bom Jesus church in Goa. Francis Xavier was canonized in 1622 and in 1927 he was named patron of foreign missions, along with St. Thérèse of Lisleux,
Francis Xavier occupies a very important place in the history of missions. Few missionaries, in our modern time, have attracted as much attention the like of which Francis created.

Biographers, painters, writers have all tried to capture his inner soul in order to describe his extraordinary personality and his untiring missionary zeal. The French philosopher, A. Compte, who had taken away all the Saints from the calendar, as useless people, decided to spare Francis Xavier because he considered him a benefactor of humanity.