† Saint of the Day †
(December 3)
✠ St. Francis Xavier ✠
Apostle to the Far East:
Born: April 7, 1506
Javier, Kingdom of Navarre
Died: December 3, 1552 (Aged 46)
Portuguese Base at São João Island
Venerated in:
Catholic Church
Lutheran Church
Anglican Communion
Beatified: October 25, 1619
Pope Paul V
Canonized: March 12, 1622
Pope Gregory XV
Feast: December 3
Patronage:
African missions; Agartala, Bombay, Goa, India; Ahmedabad, India; Alexandria, Louisiana; Apostleship of Prayer; Australia; Borneo; Cape Town, South Africa; China; Dinajpur, Bangladesh; East Indies; Fathers of the Precious Blood; Foreign missions; Freising, Germany; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Indianapolis, Indiana; Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan; University of Saint Francis Xavier; Sucre, Bolivia; Joliet, Illinois; Kabankalan, Philippines; Nasugbu, Batangas, Alegria, Cebu, Diocese of Malindi, Kenya; Missionaries; Missioners of the Precious Blood; Navarre, Spain; Navigators; New Zealand; Parish Missions; Plague Epidemics; Propagation of the Faith; Zagreb, Croatia; Indonesia; Malacca; Malaysia; Mongolia; Sri Lanka
St. Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta, was a Navarrese Basque Roman Catholic missionary, who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus.
Born in Javier (Xavier in Navarro-Aragonese or Xabier in Basque), Kingdom of Navarre (in present-day Spain), 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.
St. Francis Xavier, born of a noble Spanish family, Jesuit missionary and confessor, Apostle to the Far East and special patron saint of the Missions.
The biography of St. Francis Xavier by Daurignac reprints a section of a letter he wrote to Dom John III, King of Portugal:
“My Lord, Your Highness should fear the moment when God will call you to stand before Him, which will happen without fail and perhaps when you least expect it. You should fear, great Prince, that an irate Judge will address you with these terrible words of accusation:
‘Why have you not proceeded with rigor against your ministers and subordinates who plotted against Me in India and did not fear to declare themselves in rebellion against Me? Why was your severity lax except when they failed to pay their taxes or were negligent in the administration of your finances?’
“My Lord, then you will answer God with the following excuse of little value:
‘For Thy glory, I wrote to those countries every year recommending the greatest zeal in working for Thee and obeying Thy precepts.’
“Then the Lord will say to you:
‘Yes, you did so, but you did not punish all those who were indifferent to those orders.’”
Comments:
It is a very beautiful text. You should consider that at that time the King of Portugal had important lands in India. In an annual letter to his subordinates, he recommended that they do everything possible to promote the Catholic Faith.
However, St. Francis Xavier, who was there making his apostolate, witnessed that those orders were not followed and that those officials even plotted to prevent the Catholic Faith from expanding. They were decadent men, probably linked to some sort of Masonry that was already secretly acting against the designs of the King of Portugal to sabotage the spread of the Catholic Faith.
St. Francis Xavier wrote to the King, giving him this warning: It is not enough to send orders; it is necessary to punish those who disobey you because a command unaccompanied by the punishment of those who flout it is a futile thing without value. It will not stand before God as the accomplishment of your duty.
He told him: You, the King, have the obligation to punish those who violate your orders to uphold and spread the Faith as strongly as you punished those who did not pay their taxes to the Crown. If you punished them for the taxes and not for religion, it means that you consider taxes more valuable than the Catholic Faith.
Then, the Saint warned the King: You should be aware that God may call you at any moment and then you will not be able to escape His judgment.
Indeed, at any moment he could have an accident, an attempt against his life could be made, he could become gravely ill, or some other such thing could bring him before the tribunal of God. Then, how would the King respond to God regarding the use of his power?
St. Francis Xavier reminded him of two principles: first, the temporal power’s principal concern should be to expand the Catholic Faith rather than increase the royal fortune; second, the exercise of his power should be accompanied by the threat of punishment for those who disobey his orders. The King will have to answer to God for that.
It is admirable to see the liberty with which St. Francis Xavier addressed one of the powerful men of the time. In times past, when someone used this kind of frankness, it was termed in ecclesiastical language “apostolic frankness.” It is a beautiful expression that reveals the courage and apostle must-have. He is a representative of God and must use the language of God. Therefore he has the right to say the most unpleasant things to the most powerful men, and he has the right to be heard.
St. Francis Xavier spoke to the King, realizing the serious possibility that his words might change the King’s way of acting. In any circumstance, he fulfilled his duty and the warning was given. From that moment on, the King had to answer for his actions in that matter before God.
You see how this behavior is logical, noble, and beautiful. But you also see that today it seems outdated. Not because such behavior became obsolete in itself, but rather because men became so decadent and lax that they no longer want to hear such words. For this reason, today’s progressivist Catholics would accuse St. Francis Xavier of lacking charity for speaking in this way. They would say that this kind of admonition showed that he was lacking in the Catholic spirit.
People who say this are wrong because here we have the words of one of the greatest saints of the Catholic Church, St. Francis Xavier, who spoke this way. The saints did not use the honeyed language of this false ecumenism that is everywhere in today’s Church.
This text of St. Francis Xavier is a confirmation that our anti-progressivist position is correct. The words of the true Catholic apostle should be like his. We should pray to him and to Our Lady that, until we die, we always have the courage to use this language.
~ Late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
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