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Francis Xavier — life of a saint

Francis Xavier has a very intense and hard life right from his childhood to his last days of missionary activities. He was born on 7 April 1506 in castle Xavier, in a noble Basque family in the kingdom of Navarre, the North of modern day Spain. When he was only 6 years old, the kingdom of Navarro was conquered by the Duke of Alba and after the attempts of reconquering the land, which were unsuccessful, the family was left almost with nothing. Xavier's father died when the boy was 9, and soon after he was sent to Venice, Italy to follow a religious scholarship path, where he received his priesthood in 1537. He was living and preaching in Rome for a short period of time, but the real turning point for him was his time at the University of Paris.

At the University of Paris, Xavier met Ignatius Loyola, who is considered the founder of the Society of Jesuits. Together with five other University students (Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla , Peter Faber, and Simão Rodrigues), who met in a crypt in Montmartre near Paris, France on 15 August 1534 they have put the foundation to what today is the most numerous Catholic religious order with missions in more than 110 countries all over the world. After that historic meeting, Xavier dedicated his life to spreading the word of God in distant lands and was soon sent to India, Goa, which was a Portuguese land at that time.

His missionary endeavors made him travel thousands of miles away from home, meeting new cultures and people who never heard of Christianity and God. He traveled extensively throughout the South-Eastern Asia and spent two years in Japan, teaching locals about Jesus through the means of paintings. Sometimes criticized by the followers for his ineffective ways of preaching in different cultures, there's no doubt that Xavier opened the door for future missionary activities and has permanently changed the history of Christianity with his activities.

Xavier died when he was only 46, on Shangchuan Island, near mainland China attempting to speak in favor of a Portuguese traveler who was held prisoner with the Chinese Emperor. The place of his death is marked with a chapel, which was restored in 2006 as a celebration of 500 years from his birth, regardless of the China Communist authority's unwillingness.