In 1506, a child was born into a noble family of Basque stock. His name was Francisco de Jasso y Xavier, and he was to grow up to become one of the greatest missionaries in history. We know him as Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the East Indies.
Hoping to become a renowned professor, he joined the University of Paris in 1525. It was there that he met St Ignatius of Loyola who had himself undergone a profound spiritual conversion, and they became room-mates. Ignatius confronted the young man with a question: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses himself?”
The question provoked deep soul-searching in Francis which turned his life around. Instead of seeking his own fame, Francis now turned to a greater generosity in the service of God and humankind. Along with ten others, Francis too joined with Ignatius in Rome in 1540 to found the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, with Ignatius as their leader.
Ignatius of Loyola sent Francis to India. He landed in Goa in 1542, after an arduous 13-month journey that took him round the extremely turbulent Cape of Good Hope. During the long journey, though himself ill, he cared for the sick and the dying.
He preached God’s love for us and of serving Him through service to humankind. After travelling across Western India till 1545, he crossed the islands of present-day Malaysia and Indonesia till 1548, finally moving to Japan in 1549. Aged only 46, he died of high fever and extreme exhaustion on Sancian Island on December 3, 1552. The date is celebrated now as his feast-day.
In his many travels into strange and unknown lands fraught with risk and danger, both natural and human, Francis was inspired and preserved by one thing alone — his great faith in God. In the years of his travels, he must have spent about two years on water, and covered thousands of miles on foot. That was how driven and inspired was this intrepid man of God. Always and everywhere, the one thought that drove him on was how to preach God’s love and look after the sick and the helpless, the cast-outs, the poor and the needy.
Before setting out on his far-eastern travels, Francis founded St Paul’s College in Goa around 1548 for the education of students. The remains of this college and the church next to it where he preached, can still be seen.
A man of exceptional personal sacrifice, his pillow was a piece of stone, his possessions a crucifix and a prayer book. He spent hours at prayer with no rest. Doing much penance he prayed, “Do not my God take away these sufferings unless you send me greater.”
Even before his death, Francis was considered a saint. After his death, his holy body was found incorrupt and many miracles took place. His body was brought to Goa and is preserved in the Basilica of Bom Jesus. St Francis Xavier continues to inspire us today.He is the patron of Jesuit education,the patron of St Xavier’s College and of numerous other institutions in India and around the world. He continues to live in us, and we carry on his legacy by faithfully following his ideals and values of forming youth as men and women for others.
Highly educated at the University of Paris, Francis Xavier might well have become a famous professor. Yet he sacrificed everything to preach God’s love and to serve the poor, the suffering, the jailed and the underprivileged. Students need to imbibe his spirit of being committed to learning, education, wisdom and most of all, serving the poor and helpless. To become men and women for others can be no greater confirmation of St Francis’s inspiration.
Like him, students, while aiming high in studies and in life, must remember the question Ignatius asked Francis. Each student may ask himself or herself: what is my aim in life? what is my idea of success and happiness? what dream do I have in my heart? While you dream big yet remember to be grounded in reality like Francis, to make a difference in the lives of others.
Francis Xavier can serve as a mentor of character and ideal. Students can learn from his humility and self-sacrifice and generosity. Like him they can learn to spread the message of peace, harmony, goodwill and love.
And then they must try to answer in all honesty the other 3 questions that Ignatius put to Francis when he was a student: What have I done for God and His people,What am I doing for God and His people, What should I do for God and His people?
Our institutions help our students to answer these questions in the truth and reality of their lives by providing them with the opportunities to grow in the spirit of St Francis and to imbibe his values so that they can grow to become best citizens of tomorrow.
In these times of fear, suffering, death, St Francis’s message is that sufferings are not caused by loving God but by us, because of what we do and how we live. He tells us that we have to face all situations courageously and find answers and solutions. He wants us to trust in God’s love for us. The gifts and talents God has given to us are to be used to solve our difficulties and the challenges we encounter. Truly, one and a half years into the pandemic, things seem to be improving because of our efforts, and with God’s blessing we have vaccines and remedies for this virus. God is guiding us further in our efforts to combat and overcome this deadly virus.
We pray to St Francis Xavier to intercede for us with God, and that like him we respond to God’s call of love to love him in our brothers and sisters especially in those who are poor, helpless, and suffering. We pray for all our students to imbibe his spirit and values to become ideal students and men and women for and with others. May God bless us all, our students and our institutions bearing the name of St Francis Xavier, making us worthy of him.
- Fr Dominic Savio SJ is the principal of St Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Calcutta