St. Francis Xavier
St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Catholic missionary and one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, first spread the Catholic faith to Malacca and Japan in Asia. The Catholic Church calls it "the greatest missionary in history" and is the "patron saint of the missionary".
Francis Xavier was born in 1506 and was born in the northern Spanish province of Nobi. At the age of eighteen, he went to Paris to study and entered the Barbara Academy. 1528 was admitted to the master's degree. It was here that I met Saint-Ignatius.
In 1534, the first seven Jesuits, led by Lord Ina, gathered in Montmartre to make a wish to serve the Lord. Of these seven, St. Francis was also among them. Three years later, Francis received his ordination in Venice.
In 1540, St. Ignatius sent Francis with Father Lordley to the East Indies as a missionary. Francis was ordered to Lisbon to meet Lordley. Lordley was staying in a hospital at the time, explaining the key points to patients. Francis went to Lisbon and stayed at the hospital. The two often went to the districts of the city to preach. King Joseph III admired the holiness of the two missionaries and summoned them to the palace every Sunday to hear their confessions. As a result, Lordley was left by the king and unable to set off.
On April 7, 1541 (Francis' birthday), Francis set sail as a special envoy of the Pope to the East Indies. The monarch did not hesitate to bid farewell and gave him many gifts. Francis returned the original and received only a few books. He was advised to take a servant with him, and the road was more convenient. Francis refused, saying, "A man must wash his own clothes and cook rice and cook vegetables in order to be respected by the people." ”
There were two priests who accompanied Francis on mission to the East Indies: Father Paul, an Italian, and Father Mahira, a Portuguese citizen. The ship that Francis took was the ship of Susha, the governor of the East Indies. Susha took over in the East Indies, and there were many crew members, passengers, and soldiers on board. Not missing the opportunity to preach, Francis explained the main principles to the crowd, preached on the deck every Sunday, waited for the sick, and converted his bedroom into a consultation room. At that time, the sea was very windy and waves, and Francis often suffered from seasickness, so his work was doubly difficult. There were many people on board, and every day when quarrels broke out, Francis gave them a solution and persuaded them to quit the bad habit of making false vows and gambling.
During the long voyage, almost all passengers suffered from scurvy. The Jesuit was busy waiting for the sick all day long. After five months of life at sea, the ship bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, spent the winter in Mozambique, then circled the East African coast, passed through the Marin fields and sands, and arrived in Goa on May 6, 1542. In total, the sea voyage lasted thirteen months.
Goa has been administered by the Portuguese since 1510, and the local religious affairs are very developed, with churches and monasteries. However, many people do not have a deep understanding of religion, and they are not enthusiastic about receiving the sacraments. When Francis arrived in Goa, his first job was to instill religious knowledge and inspire believers to be zealous and live a standard catholic life. He visited patients and prisoners in hospitals and prisons every morning, and gathered children and slaves in the streets in the afternoon to explain the main points to them. He had a bell in his hand, and as soon as everyone heard it, they came out and surrounded him. Francis explained the doctrine of faith to them and taught them to recite scriptures. He gathered lepers every Sunday for a mass. He also preached the gospel to Indians. In addition to public preaching, they often make individual visits to their homes.
In order to make it easy for illiterate illiterates to memorize the basic teachings of the Holy Religion, he compiled the essential principles into poems in popular words and taught them to sing. This new method of teaching has been very successful. In the streets, in the home, in the fields, in the factories, everywhere you can hear the "key songs" sung by Francis.
After five months in Goa, Francis changed his goals and began preaching to the Barawas. Most of the Balawa people on the Baoyu coast near Ceylon have been baptized, but they know nothing about the teachings and still maintain the old superstitious habits. Francis began to learn the Barava dialect, set off by boat, and went to the shores of Baoyu, preaching to the baptized natives and persuading the pagans to convert. The pagans listened to his sermons and were baptized in large numbers. Every time Francis finished washing, his arm was so sore that he couldn't lift it. Francis performed many miracles there.
Every time Francis went to a place, he lived the same life as the local people. He ate exactly the same food as the poor, clean water and coarse rice, and slept on the ground at night. God blessed him with abundant consolation and reward for his hard work. He said, "I often hear the man who works in this vineyard say, 'O Lord! Please don't reward me with so much happiness in this world! ”
Francis' missionary work to the Barawas was rich and beyond the general ideals. Soon, he felt understaffed and had to add staff. He went to Goa and invited two Indian priests, an auxiliary friar, and Father Mahira, who had arrived with him.
Francis successfully carried out his missionary work to the Barawa people, and wherever he went, people listened to his preaching in droves and were baptized. Francis often used baptized children as his assistants, and these children often relayed the essentials of their learning to others, so that they could be told to each other, and the content of the teachings was generally recognized.
Francis's greatest sorrow was that in Gaomulin and Dutian, the Bala Chinese who received the true light of the gospel were attacked by their neighbors, and in addition to their property looted, some of them were also taken into slavery. On one occasion, Francis held a bitter image and drank alone to retire from the mob. The seeds of faith were deeply planted in the hearts of the Bala Chinese, and no atrocities, no blow, could shake their faith.
Francis exhorted the pagans to accept the true light of faith, while exhorting the indifferent parishioners to repent and repent. His attitude was gentle and sincere, and he easily moved sinners. Francis wrote to the King of Portugal: "I am ready to die in India, and I will not meet Your Majesty in this world." Ask God for me to reward us for meeting in heaven in the future. ”
In the spring of 1545, Francis set out for Malacca in the Strait of Malaya, where he lived for four months to preach the Gospel. He also went to Ampono, Denuodi, Qi Liulu and other places to carry out missionaries, and encountered many difficulties along the way. But Francis had courage and the heat of salvation, and he went forward without fear of anything. He wrote to Saint Ignatius: "Over the past few months, the dangers I have encountered and the work I have performed have given me great consolation and divine happiness. When I arrived on these islands, I couldn't help but weep with ecstasy, and the more tired my body became, the happier I felt. ”
Eighteen months later, When Francis returned to Malacca, he heard the Japanese name for the first time. There were a few Portuguese merchants who had been to Japan, and they spoke of a country at the other end of the ocean where the true light of the Gospel had not yet arrived. Immediately in Francis' mind was a plan to travel far and wide and sow the seeds of the gospel on this fertile soil.
In January 1548, Francis returned to India. For the next fifteen months, he traveled back and forth between Goa, Ceylon, and The Bay of Takagi, consolidating his missionary career and preparing for his mission to Japan (until then, not a single European missionary had ever been to Japan).
In April 1549, Francis set out for Japan with him a Jesuit priest (Father Dole), an auxiliary friar (Friar Fonanda), and three Japanese believers (one of whom was named Paul). At the time of the Ascension of our Lady of The Blessed Virgin mary this year, Francis landed in Jiuzhou, Japan.
Francis learned Japanese and wrote a japanese book of principles. Within twelve months, more than a hundred Japanese were persuaded in Japan. The authorities began to pay attention to the missionaries, forbidding their activities, and Francis entrusted the new believers to the care of paul, a Japanese, and brought other missionary staff to the Nagasaki area to preach the gospel. When Francis was about to leave, he went to the House of Ishi castle and persuaded the baroness, the governor of the baron's house and some of the local residents. Twelve years later, the Jesuit auxiliary priests visited the lonely parishis, who, though living in lay circles day and night, were zealous in keeping their faith unchanged from twelve years earlier.
Francis was welcomed by the prefect in Xirado and the missionary work proceeded smoothly. The harvest in one week is greater than the harvest in a year. Francis entrusted the affairs of the district to Father Doree, and he himself brought the monk Fo Nantian and a Japanese man to Simu in Hongzhou. The locals were very cold to the sermons of Fangji, and he decided to march to Kyoto.
Francis set off in December, windswept and muddy roads, and it took a two-month journey to reach Kyoto. However, the people of Kyoto did not give a warm welcome to the gospel, and Francis changed his plans and returned to Nogi to consult with the prefect. The prefect granted him missionary work in the city and allocated a temple to him as a dormitory. Francis persuaded many people in Nogi to be baptized.
At that time, there was a Portuguese merchant ship to Jiuzhou, Japan, and Francis decided to take this ship back to India to inspect the religious affairs and prepare to come to China for missionary work. He entrusted the administration of the Japanese clergy to Father Dori and the Friar Fonanda (at that time, the total number of Japanese believers reached 2,000, and later the martyrs of the Great Japanese Cult were their descendants), and returned to India himself.
Francis lived in India for four months, drawing up plans and straightening out the church. On April 25, 1552, he embarked on another journey and led a Jesuit priest, a monk, and a Chinese interpreter to Malacca. The Governor appointed Biletto as his envoy to China, and Francis accompanied him to China. This facilitates entry. Unexpectedly, the port commander of Malacca and Biletto had a feud and did not take a boat to Biletto. Francis repeatedly explained that the naval commander insisted firmly on his decision, and finally Pelleto decided to abandon his plan to China and lend his ship to Francis. But since Biletto did not go, Francis could only come to China as an ordinary foreigner. According to the law at that time, the Chinese authorities strictly prohibited the entry of ordinary foreigners. Francis decided to land on an island near China in search of opportunities to smuggle in. In order to reduce the difficulty of entry, Francis sent the Jesuit priest to Japan and took his own Chinese translator to Kamikawa Island (Kamikawa Island is only six miles off the coast of Chinese mainland and about a hundred miles from Hong Kong), in August 1552.
On this desolate island of Kamikawa, Francis wrote to Pelleto, saying, "I was able to get here this time, entirely with your help. God must reward you heavily. He negotiated with a Chinese merchant ship and took him in the dark of night. Francis vowed to keep his name secret and never to reveal his name to anyone. On November 21, Francis suddenly became cold and hot, and there was another ship on the island that belonged to the commander of the malacca harbor, and the feelings of the commander and Francis were not very integrated, and the crew did not dare to get too close to Francis, so as not to displeasure the commander, so they secretly drove away, leaving Francis alone on the beach. It was winter, the wind was raging, and the hot Francis was lying on the beach shivering. Later, a Portuguese merchant took the saint to his hut. Francis's illness became worse and worse every day, and several times he put in the blood, but to no avail, sometimes his body temperature was too high and he lost consciousness. But as soon as he woke up, he chanted and prayed. This lasted until December 3rd. It was a Saturday, and Andoni, The Chinese translator for Francis, feared that he was going to die, lit a candle and placed it in his hand. Francis, who recited the holy name of Jesus and died at the age of forty-six, was a missionary missionary in the Far East for eleven years and buried his body on Sunday afternoon.
Ten weeks later, Francis' coffin was dug out of the soil. When they were buried elsewhere, the coffin was opened and inspected, and the body was intact and intact. The body of Francis was welcomed to Malacca and, a few days later, to the Church of Jesus goa. After hundreds of years of inspection, Francis' body has never decayed.
In 1622 Francis Xavier was listed as a saint along with St. Ignatius, Saint teresa, St. Philippe Nellie, and St. Isidore