17th-century Japanese portrait of St. Francis Xavier (Kobe City Museum) – St. Francis Xavier – feast day, patronage and prayers

St. Francis Xavier: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers

Dec 3, 2022

1 min read

Updated: Oct 3

Feast day: December 3 (Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, Priest)

Patron of: Missions and missionaries (with St. Thérèse of Lisieux).

About St. Francis Xavier

St. Francis Xavier was born in 1506 in the castle of Xavier in Navarre, Spain. While studying at the University of Paris, he shared a room with a fellow Basque, Ignatius of Loyola, who kept asking him the question of Jesus: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" Francis was won over and became one of the first companions who founded the Society of Jesus in 1534.

In 1541, at the request of the king of Portugal, Ignatius sent him to the East Indies. For eleven years Francis traveled tirelessly through India, Sri Lanka, the Malay Peninsula, the Moluccas, and Japan, preaching, teaching children the catechism, caring for the sick, and baptizing many thousands. He learned local prayers by heart, rang a little bell to gather children, and wrote letters that stirred all of Europe. He longed to enter China, but he fell ill and died on the island of Shangchuan, within sight of the mainland, in 1552. He was canonized in 1622 with Ignatius, and in 1927 he was named patron of the missions.