Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier, S.J. (7 April 1506; 3 December 1552), was a Navarrese Basque Roman Catholic missionary, born in Javier (Xavier in Navarro-Aragonese or Xabier in Basque), Kingdom of Navarre (present day Spain), and a co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris, in 1534. He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time and was influential in evangelization work, most notably in India. The Goa Inquisition was proposed by St. Francis Xavier. He also was the first Christian missionary to venture into Japan, Borneo, the Maluku Islands, and other areas. In those areas, struggling to learn the local languages and in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. Xavier was about to extend his missionary preaching to China when he died on Shangchuan Island.

Francisco Xavier asking John III of Portugal for an expedition

Quotes

• To a considerable extent the shape of Xavier's missionary work was determined by this threefold authority. Personally the most modest of men, his imagination was fired by the progress of Portuguese discovery and by the thought of lands and empires to be brought within the kingdom of Christ. He had not gone out to be the supervisor of a little handful of Jesuits in a small corner of India. His own temperament may have been restless; but there is a certain magnificence in a restlessness which led him to contain within a single glance India and the Moluccas, Japan, and, even beyond Japan, China.
  • Neill, S. (2004). A history of Christianity in India: The beginning to AD 1707. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Almost from the time of Xavier's actual presence on the Coast, the work of legend-building began, and it came to be firmly believed that he possessed miraculous powers, which extended even to the raising of the dead. Xavier never made such extravagant claims for himself.
  • Neill, S. (2004). A history of Christianity in India: The beginning to AD 1707. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Everyone who came in contact with Xavier seems to have agreed that he was a saint. Men might disagree with him; but in all the extensive records there is not a single word that runs contrary to the general verdict as to his saintliness. There are many references to the long hours that he spent in prayer and in rapt contemplation of his Lord. He disclaimed anything in the way of miraculous powers; in his devotions there was nothing that could be called mystical in any strict sense of that term. He seems to have followed the broad lines of medieval devotional practice, profoundly influenced by the Spiritual Exercises of his master Ignatius. Xavier, like Ignatius, was in all things a medieval man, untouched by any of the new currents of thought in theology or in the daily affairs of life. It is probable that, in the ten years of his sojourn in the East, he never possessed a Bible or even a New Testament. Apart from his breviary and his missal, his sole companion seems to have been the work of Marcus Marulus, Opus de religiose vivendi institutione, a thick book of 680 pages, published at Cologne in 1531. He seems rarely to have based his discourses directly on the Bible...
  • Neill, S. (2004). A history of Christianity in India: The beginning to AD 1707. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Following the baptisms, the new Christians return to their homes and come back with their wives and families to be in their turn prepared for baptism. After all had been baptised, I order that the temples of the false Gods be pulled down and idols broken. I know not how to describe in words the joy I feel before the spectacle of pulling down and destroying the idols by the very people who formerly worshipped them.
  • Letter dated February 8, 1545, to the Society of Jesus. Quoted from Goel, S. R. (1985). St. Francis Xavier: The man and his mission.

• According to my experience, the only effective way to spread religion in India is for the King to proclaim by means of an edict to all his officials in India that he shall put trust only in those who will exert themselves to extend the reign of religion by every means in their power. The King must definitely order them to exert themselves with zeal to multiply the number of Christians in Cape Comorin [Kanyakumari] in order to attract to the faith of Jesus Christ the island of Ceylon, and to muster all the pious people, be they members of our Society [the Jesuits] or other that may seem fit for propagating religion.... If the King publishes such an edict and treats severely those who disobey it, a great number of natives will embrace the faith of Jesus Christ; otherwise no success can be expected.
  • Letter dated 20th January 1548, to Fr. Simao Rodrigues. quoted from Goel, S. R. (1985). St. Francis Xavier: The man and his mission.

• The second necessity for the Christians is that your Majesty establish the Holy Inquisition, because there are many who live according to the Jewish law, and according to the Mahomedan sect, without any fear of God or shame of the world. And since there are many spread all over the fortresses, there is the need of the Holy Inquisition and of many preachers. Your Majesty should provide such necessary things for your loyal and faithful subjects in India.
  • Letter addressed to the King of Portugal on May 16, 1545. Joseph Wicki, Documenta Indica, Vol. IV, Rome, 1956. quoted from Goel, S. R. (1985). St. Francis Xavier: The man and his mission.

• St Xavier had come to the East representing both the Pope ‑ as a Legate ‑ and the King as an inspector of missions. As missionary work was a State enterprise charged to the Crown's revenues in Portugal, this identification of national, interests with religious activity should not be a matter of surprise.
  • K. M. Panikkar. Asia and Western Dominance: a survey of the Vasco Da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498–1945.

• Xavier lived up to this tradition of the Church on the Coromandel Coast. He discovered that, though baptised in 1534, the Parava fisherman could hardly be called Christians in practice. Some of them still made their living by making images of Hindu deities. All of them were worshipping these “evil spirits”. According to the History of Christianity in India published by the United Theological Seminary, Bangalore, in 1982: “When the boys informed him that someone had made an idol, he went with them and had it broken into a thousand pieces. In spite of all his advice someone persisted in making idols, he would have them punished by the patangatis (heads of Parava villages) or banished to another village. One day when he heard that idols had been worshipped in the house of a Christian, he ordered the hut to be burned down as a warning to others (ref. Volume 1).
  • History of Christianity in India published by the United Theological Seminary, 1982. quoted in Goel, S. R. (1985). St. Francis Xavier: The man and his mission.

• Later on, he mounted the same iconoclastic campaign on the Malabar Coast. According to the same History, “When the whole village was baptised, Xavier would get them to pull down their village temple and break into small pieces the idols it contained.” He did this at a time the Tiruvadi Raja of Quilon had given him 2000 fanams to build churches. The poor fishermen were in no position to resist him because the Portuguese pirates were always at hand to assist the missionary. Xavier took great delight in what he had done in Malabar. On February 8, 1545, he wrote to the Society of Jesus: “Following the baptisms, the new Christians return to their homes and come back with their wives and families to be in their turn prepared for baptism. After all had been baptised, I order that the temples of the false Gods be pulled down and idols broken. I know not how to describe in words the joy I feel before the spectacle of pulling down and destroying the idols by the very people who formerly worshipped them.”
  • History of Christianity in India, Quoted from Goel, S. R. (1985). St. Francis Xavier: The man and his mission.

• One of Xavier's colleagues in this mission of christianising the Hindus was Miguel Vaz, the Vicar General of India appointed by Rome. In consultation with Xavier he wrote a long letter to the King of Portugal in November 1545. The letter outlined a forty­one point plan for spreading the “light of Christianity.” Point No. 3 reads as follows: “Since idolatry is so great an offence against God, as is manifest to all, it is just that your Majesty should not permit it within your territories and an order should be promulgated in Goa to the effect that in the whole island there should not be any temple public or secret; contravention thereof should entail grave penalties; that no official should make idols in any form, neither of stone, nor of wood, nor of copper, nor of any other metal; ... and that persons who are in charge of St. Paul's should have the power to search the houses of the Brahmins and other Hindus, in case there exists a presumption or suspicion of the existence of idols there.” On March 8, 1547 the King ordered his Viceroy at Goa that all Hindu temples should be destroyed forthwith.
  • Letter dated November 1545. (Joseph Wicki, Documenta Indica, Vol. 1). Quoted in Goel, S. R. (1985). St. Francis Xavier: The man and his mission.

• The impatient Xavier, still dissatisfied with the result of his labour wrote to the King of Portugal that the only hope of increasing the number of Christians was by the use of the secular power of the State. As a result of this note, the King issued orders that in Goa and other Portuguese settlements, “all idols shall be sought out and destroyed, and severe penalties shall be laid upon all such as shall dare to make an idol or shall shelter or hide a Brahmin”.
  • Page 54 History of Missions Richter quoted from Madhya Pradesh (India), Goel, S. R., Niyogi, M. B. (1998). Vindicated by time: The Niyogi Committee report on Christian missionary activities

• He, however, soon realized that without State aid it was not possible to spread Christian religion in India. Writing to Father Rodrigues he said: “According to my experience the only effective way to spread religion India is for the King to proclaim by means of an edict to all his officials in India that he shall put trust only in those who will exert themselves to extend the reign of religion by every means in their power.” To King Joao III he wrote as follows: “To your servants you must declare as plainly as possible…… that the only way of escaping your wrath and of obtaining your favour Is to make as many Christians as Possible in the countries over which they rule.” (P. 382, Asia and Western Dominance)
  • Quoted in Madhya Pradesh (India), Goel, S. R., Niyogi, M. B. (1998). Vindicated by time: The Niyogi Committee report on Christian missionary activities. ISBN 9789385485121 (citing Religious Liberty, pp. 267-268: Bates.) PART III CHAPTER I. – RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN OTHER COUNTRIES (citing Panikkar, Asia and Western dominance)

• But it was St. Xavier who made anti-Brahminism the central theme of his missionary thrust. “These are,” he wrote, “the most perverse people in the world...they never tell the truth, but think of nothing but how to tell subtle lies and to deceive the simple and ignorant people...the poor simple people do exactly what the Brahmins tell them...If there were no Brahmins in the area, all Hindus would accept conversion to our faith.”
  • Quoted by Stephen Neill, in his History of Christianity in India, p. 146). Quoted from Goel, S. R. (1986). Papacy: Its doctrine and history. (64)

• All the heathen are filled with admiration at the holiness of the law of God, and express the greatest shame at having lived so long in ignorance of the true God. They willingly hear about the mysteries and rules of the Christian religion, and treat me, poor sinner as I am, with the greatest respect. Many, however, put away from them with hardness of heart the truth which they well know. When I have done my instruction, I ask one by one all those who desire baptism if they believe without hesitation in each of the articles of the faith. All immediately, holding their arms in the form of the cross, declare with one voice that they believe all entirely. Then at last I baptize them in due form, and I give to each his name written on a ticket. After their baptism the new Christians go back to their houses and bring me their wives and families for baptism. When all are baptized I order the temples of their false gods to be destroyed and all the idols to be broken in pieces. I can give you an idea of the joy I feel in seeing this done, witnessing the destruction of the idols by the very people who but lately adored them. In all the towns and villages I leave the Christian doctrine in writing in the language of the country. I prescribe at the same time the manner in which it is to taught in the morning and evening schools.
  • Francis Xavier, of the Society of Jesus, on his experiences in Travancore in a letter of January 1545, written from Cochin. Kuriakose, M.K., History of Christianity In India, Source Materials, Published for The Senate of Serampore College, The Christian Literature Society, 1982.33 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 14. also in : Kuriakose, 1999: 33, Kuriakose, M.K. 1999. History of Christianity in India: Source Materials, pp. 122–25. New Delhi: ISPCK. quoted in Pradip N. Thomas - Strong Religion, Zealous Media_ Christian Fundamentalism and Communication in India-Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd (2008) 51, also in Encountering the History of Missions (Encountering Mission): From the Early Church to Today, By John Mark Terry, Robert L. Gallagher

• By the aid of the vice-regal troops he pulled down the heathen temples in the neighbourhood of Goa, and appropriated their very considerable property for the use and benefit of the new College." (Page 89)
  • Theodor Griesinger-"The Jesuits; a complete history." translated from German into English by A. J. Smith. M. D. and was published in 1892 by W. H. Allen and Co. publishers to the India office London. quoted from Shraddananda, Hindu Sangathan, Saviour of the Dying Race (Delhi 1926)

• He took along with him a bell, armed with which he ran about the streets ringing it in broad middday, until he succeeded in drawing after him a troop of boys and others, attracted by curiosity, who greeted him with j ears and laughter. When he had thus got together a considerable auditory, placing himself on some large stone, he forth with began his sermon, which was delivered in the language of the country interladed with fragments of Latin, Spanish, Italian and French, to which , he added much gesticulation with both hands and feet. He then finally produced a large cross, which he piously kissed, and required , the crowd to do likewise, presenting each one who complied with a beautiful rosary, thousands of which he had brought from Portugal. This, however, was only the first part of his method. The second was much more effectual and consisted in pulling down, with the assistance of the Portuguese troops, which he called into requisition, the native temples, and breaking in pieces the idols found therein, not, however, without replacing them by Christian chapels with the image of the crucified Jesus, and erecting in the neighbourhood a handsome building constructed of bamboo canes, for the instruction of the young..... far from making them acquainted with the principles of Christianity, he merely contented himself in teaching them to say the Lord’s prayer, along with the creed, and causing them to understand the same, as also to cross the arms with humility." (Pages 89 & 90).
  • Theodor Griesinger-"The Jesuits; a complete history." translated from German into English by A. J. Smith. M. D. and was published in 1892 by W. H. Allen and Co. publishers to the India office London. quoted from Shraddananda, Hindu Sangathan, Saviour of the Dying Race (Delhi 1926)

• "Some time now elapsed before any other missionary attempted to show himself. The Brahmins, however, did not by airy means improve their position by their strenuous resistance, but, on the contrary, made it worse, for Francis Xavior took occassion on this account to institute in Goa a religious tribunal, after the pattern of the Spanish Inquisition, over which he ruled without opposition, and being aided by the Portuguese arms, he proceeded, with the most frightful saverity, against all those who offered any hinderance to the spread of Christianity, or who also dared to take, the baptised natives back again to their old idol-worship. In this way, then, innumerable Brahmins, and more particularly "the richest among them lost their lives by the executioner’s hands, or, at least, were expelled from their country in order that their property might be seized for the benefit of the society As a matter of course, the effeminate Hindus now pressed forword to have themselves baptised, ‘rather than make acquaintance with the prisons of the Inquisition, or run the risk of being roasted alive over a slow fire !. . . ."the consequence was that Jesuit colleges sprang up in all suitable places, being enriched by the property of the slaughtered and banished heretics. And still more numerous were the churches which were erected, as they no longer hesitated to destroy, with fire and sword, all the heathen temples which they were able to get at, and, indeed, it almost seemed as if the Jesuits had taken for their example the cruel conduct of Charles the great against the Saxons.*" (page 92)
  • Theodor Griesinger-"The Jesuits; a complete history." translated from German into English by A. J. Smith. M. D. and was published in 1892 by W. H. Allen and Co. publishers to the India office London. quoted from Shraddananda, Hindu Sangathan, Saviour of the Dying Race (Delhi 1926)

• We have is in these parts a class of men among the pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of the holy David, “From an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O Lord.” They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their whole study is how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity and ignorance of the people…All the time I have been here in this country I have only converted one Brahmin…
  • Brahmins difficult to convert, Francis Xavier in a letter to The Society of Jesus dated 31 December 1543 M.K. Kuriakose, History of Christianity In India, Source Materials, Published for The Senate of Serampore College, The Christian Literature Society, 1982, p., 30 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 10

• If it were not for the Brahmins, we should have all the heathens embracing our faith.
  • 8. Brahmins cause of non-conversion, Francis Xavier 17. R.P. Rao, Portuguese Rule In Goa, Asia Publishing House, 1963, p., 44 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 10