It was not until the 1790s that William Carey became the “father of modern missions”. This makes the achievements of Francisco de Xavier (better known as Francis Xavier), who was born on this day 502 years ago, all the more remarkable. In 1534, Francis, together with Ignatius of Loyola and five other university students, formed the Company of Jesus, with the aims of doing hospital and missionary work. This became the Society of Jesus in 1540, and its members were known as Jesuits.
Francis left Europe in 1541, spent a year in Mozambique in Africa, then arrived in India in 1542. In 1543 he conducted missionary activity amongst the Paravas, a Tamil people in southern India, and visited Sri Lanka. In 1545 he travelled to Malacca in Malaysia, and in 1546 and 1547 worked in the Maluku islands of Indonesia. By the 1590s there were 50,000 Catholics in Maluku. In 1548 Francis returned to India, then in 1549 he went to Japan where he stayed for more than two years and established a Jesuit mission before returning to India. In 1552 he set out for China, but died before reaching the mainland, at the age of 46.
The extent of Francis’s travels and missionary efforts are remarkable in view of the transport limits of the time, the lack of geographical and cultural knowledge (Japan had only just been “discovered” when he went there), and the language barriers. His story is a great example of how a small group of university students who fully commit their lives to God can have a significant impact on the world.