Saint Francis Xavier, S.J., born
Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (7 April 15063 December 1552), was a
Navarrese Basque Roman Catholic missionary, born in
Xavier, Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain), and a co-founder of the
Society of Jesus. He was a companion of
St. 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. He also ventured into Japan,
Borneo, the
Maluku Islands, and other areas which had, until then, not been visited by
Christian missionaries. In these areas, struggling to learn the local languages and in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. It was a goal of Xavier to extend his missionary preaching to China but he died in
Shangchuan Island shortly before doing so.