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 On August 15, 1549, Francis Xavier and his band of Spanish Jesuits landed in Japan, the first known missionaries to visit that nation.
Francis Xavier was born in 1506 to a noble family in the Spanish kingdom of Navarre. While studying at the University of Paris, Xavier met Ignatius of Loyola and became his disciple and the premier Jesuit missionary.
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Xavier family castle in Navarre
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Xavier was among the band of seven who, in a chapel on Montmartre in Paris, on August 15, 1534, vowed lives of poverty and celibacy inimitation of Christ and solemnly promised to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to devote themselves to the salvation of believers and unbelievers alike. This was the birth of the Jesuit order.
The Jesuit’s devotion to the papacy called forth opposition from nationalistic rulers and leaders, and their zeal for ecclesiastical reform antagonized the clergy. At one time or another, the order has been expelled from every country in Europe. They were even suppressed by the papacy from 1773 to 1814.
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| Jakob Potma’s 1694 mural, Mindelheim, Germany |
But Xavier was their shining light, and according to Roman Catholic sources, the most effective Roman Catholic missionary in history. (Catholic Encyclopedia, Xavier, St. Francis)
Xavier had over 700,000 converts during his ten years of missionary work. He established churches in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and even Japan, finally dying while attempting to plant a church in China.
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