A SEMINAR PAPER ON MISSION AND IMPACT OF ST FRANCIS

Submitted to: - Rev Dr Rajeevan M Thomas

Submitted by: - Prince Thomas, M.Th-1, F.T.S

1.1 Introduction

St. Francis Xavier, bears a prominent and an unforgettable name in the history of Christianity in Asia, and
he is regarded as an “Apostle to India.” He was perceived as the first person to introduce modern education
to the Indians, particularly to the Christians and thereby brought a revolutionary change in the arena of
teaching and particularly in the writing of the Christian doctrines in the language of the people.1 St. Francis
Xavier, is most honored by the Catholic Church, other Christian churches, and the Jesuit order for his
missionary accomplishments particularly in India, Southeast Asia and Japan. However, the present writer
even though appreciates the commendable job undertaken by Francis Xavier, also looks at the adverse
repercussions of some of the methods employed by him. In this paper, the present writer as an objective
student of history attempts in evaluating the mission and impact of St Francis from a neutral perspective
assessing the positive and negative sides of the mission and impact of St Francis.

1.1.1 The existing background prior to the arrival of Portuguese

India already had years old religious practices for many years before the arrival of Portuguese and Francis
Xavier. Since time immemorial Hinduism was a tolerant religion. It is believed that the early Vijayanagara
kings did not use force or mortal combat to insure the survival of Hinduism in Southern India. It was
precisely during this time of the Vijayanagara rein that there were visible signs of Islamicate beginning to
engage with the Hindu religion. The Indian people had the liberty to pick and choose parts of Islam that they
related to or enjoy practicing although they did not necessarily practice that religion. They often borrowed
from one another, beliefs and practices that they found most appealing, many of these religions in India also
had many similarities. The similarities between Muslims and Hindus were the sensory experiences they both
involved, the smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound of their beloved gods and saints. In addition, the Sufis and
the Sants shared the similar belief that they worshiped a god without a form or attributes, it was neither
seeable nor knowable. This fusion of different religions and cultures began to take a stronger hold over
Southern India as people increasingly move from one place to another picking up different practices and
beliefs on their way.2

1.1.2 The approach of the Portuguese

The Portuguese merchants began to create and establish settlements in Southern India as early as the
fourteenth century under the Vijayanagara Sultanate. The integration of the Portuguese made the cities in
Southern Indian ports grow in vast numbers and supported the diversity of cultures and communities. The
Portuguese in their integration into India also tried converting the Indian natives into their religion.
However, unlike Xavier’s genuine motives the Portuguese did not make it their primary goal to convert
these savages; they were there strictly to prosper from the trading in India and its ports. Portuguese hostility
toward the Muslim ships and traders who frequented the Malabar coast soon led to open conflict and
introduced a new phenomenon to the Indian Ocean which is the use of violence as a means of furthering
commercial objectives”3 This impacted the effectiveness of Xavier’s mission because he had no support, he
held no power over what the Portuguese were doing in India. He not only was limited in his power but also
his mentality surrounding India which was that of a person who did not understand the society he was
immersing himself in.

1
James Brodrick, Saint Francis Xavier, 1506-1552 ( New York: Wicklow Press,1952),6
2
D de Mendonça, Conversions and Citizenry: Goa Under Portugal, 1510-1610 (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company,
2002),15.
3
D de Mendonça, Conversions and Citizenry: Goa Under Portugal…,19-21.
1
 1.2 Francis Xavier

Francis was born in Navarre, Spain at the family castle of Xavier, where Basque was the native
language. He was the third son of the president of the council of the king of Navarre. He grew up at Xavier
and received his early education there. In 1525, he journeyed to the University of Paris, the theological
center of Europe, to begin his studies. By thirty years of age, he had earned a Master of Arts degree
in philosophy, taught the subject for four years and then studied theology for two years. He along with St.
Ignatius Loyola's became one of the founding companions of the Society of Jesus and he is most
honored by the Catholic Church, other Christian churches, and the Jesuit order for his missionary
accomplishments particularly in India, Southeast Asia and Japan. Francis was among the band of seven
who, in a chapel on Montmartre in Paris, on Aug. 15, 1534, who vowed lives of poverty and celibacy in
imitation of Christ and solemnly promised to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and subsequently to
devote themselves to the salvation of believers and unbelievers alike. His missionary travels took him to
many places around the world.4

1.2.1 Francis Xavier’s Mission in India:

Francis Xavier left Lisbon on 7 April 1541 along with two other Jesuits and the new viceroy Martin
Afonso de Sousa, on board the Santiago. He reached India on 6 May 1542, thirteen months after leaving
Lisbon. Following quickly on the great voyages of discovery, the Portuguese had established themselves at
Goa thirty years earlier. Francis' primary mission, as ordered by King John III, was to restore
Christianity among the Portuguese settlers. Many of the arrivals formed links with local women and
adopted Indian culture. Missionaries often wrote against the "scandalous and undisciplined"
behavior of their fellow Christians.5The Christian population had churches, clergy, and a bishop, but
there were few preachers and no priests beyond the walls of Goa. Xavier decided that he must begin
by instructing the Portuguese themselves, and gave much of his time to the teaching oand preaching.
The first five months was spent in preaching and ministering to the sick in the hospitals. He was
invited to head Saint Paul's College, a pioneer seminary for the education of secular priests, which became
the first Jesuit headquarters in Asia. Accompanied by several native clerics from the seminary at Goa, he
set sail for Cape Comorin in October 1542. First, he set himself to learn the language of the Paravas; he
taught those who had already been baptized, and preached to those who weren't. He devoted almost
three years to the work of preaching to the people of southern India and Ceylon, converting many.
Many were the difficulties and hardships which Xavier had to encounter at this time, sometimes
because of the Portuguese soldiers, far from seconding his work, hampered it by their bad example
and vicious habits. Yet because of his zeal he kept on his mission and eventually built nearly 40
churches along the coast.6

1.2.2 The unique mindset of Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier was a missionary par excellence because of his approach in somehow making the gospel
message heard and lead people towards conversion. His primary focus was to make the Indian people
recognize that there was only one creator of heaven and earth and to spread and upkeep Christianity in India
in hopes of replacing all other religions and the Brahmins. Once encountering India, Xavier as a foreigner to
an unknown land was optimistic of the effectiveness of his religious mission. But like other missionaries that
were going to come after him, his optimism in changing the religious practices of India was challenged by
the highly complex social, economic and religious traditions already ingrained in the Indian society.

4
James Brodrick, Saint Francis Xavier, 1506-1552…,28-31.
5
W. L. A, Don Peter, Francis Xavier, Teacher of nations: The educational aspects of the missionary career of St. Francis Xavier.
(Colombo: Don Publications,1987),34-36.
6
W. L. A., Don Peter, Francis Xavier, Teacher of nations…,43
2
1.2.3 The approach towards people at the periphery

Xavier unlike other missionaries did not solely focus his teachings of the religious Christian doctrine
on the high caste Brahmins, sultans or kings; instead, he prioritized reaching the lower castes of India.
For in Xavier’s eyes, they were the masses that needed to be saved from eternal damnation and from the
savagery in which they were living. While trying to educate the lower caste in the religious doctrine,
there were noticeably higher numbers of village children devoted to his teachings than adults in the
village. He believed that their participation in wanting to learn the Divine Law and his holy religion meant
he was establishing in each and every one of them a dedication to God. They were becoming his little
missionaries, spreading the divine word of God by visiting the ill, reciting the creed, and teaching
rudiments of the Christian doctrine.7 He thus highly incorporated people who were marginalized in the
society and targeted them.

1.2.4 The Philanthropic activities undertaken

Francis Xavier visited the hospitals, prisoners and gathered children for basic Christian teaching. In,
Tuticorin he also began to teach them twice a day the prayers, the creeds and the commandments.
Xavier also baptized the fishery coast people of Travancore coast called Mukkuvas and it is said that
within a nine months’ time, he baptized more than 10,000 souls; and this is why Christians of fishery
coast remained as Christians to this day. Francis mission was also not just bonded inside the church but he
was also a compassionate shepherd who helped the Christians who suffered and ill-treated under Portuguese
and raided by the neighboring rajahs and troops8

He organized relief expeditions to take food materials by boat to Christians who had fled for their
lives and taken, need and to rescue, and to become shield of protection to all those who were persecuted
and ill-treated by their officials or subordinates. To provide basic Christian faith and its teaching, Xavier
also started few schools to give education for the converts and their children. Portuguese opened the
St.Paul’s college in Goa which was for the training of Indians, assumed to be opened to provide lesser
jobs in the government. During Francis Xavier’s time it came under the management of the Society of
Church also were trained. His enormous contributions are spread throughout the vast areas by strengthening
existing churches, founding new ones, converting multitudes and impressing on the stamp of his manifest
sanctity. During the time, factors which helped for the spread of Christianity was the zeal, passion, sincerity,
selflessness and a transparent sincerity of St. Xavier Francis and John De Britto.9

1.2.5 Pioneer of ministry among children’s

Xavier after spending five months preaching and ministering to the hospitalized. He began walking
the streets ringing a bell, inviting children to church. Once he had enough Portuguese children, he
taught them the catechism and gave them instructions to share what they learned with their parents.
One of his famous maxim was “Give me the children until they are 7 and anyone may have them
afterwards,". Eventually the adults themselves, originally unreceptive to the missionary, were flocking to
hear him preach.10 Thus he became one of the pioneering stalwarts of children’s ministry in India

1.2.6 Stalwart of education and learning

Jesuit involvement in education in India has a precious history and heritage. It is part of the larger global
educational network. The Jesuits have been pioneers and vanguards in providing education to the rural poor,
Dalits and tribals. By opening the doors of their institutions to all, irrespective of caste, creed, language and
7
C, Maratukalam, Jesuits and Education in India in Catholic and Indian Education (Trichinopoly: St. Joseph’s Industrial Press,
1956), 158-160.
8
I, Lawrence. Francis Xavier (Bangalore, Claretian Publications, 1999),53-57.
9
C, Maratukalam, Jesuits and Education in India in Catholic and Indian Education…,165
10
A, Jou,The Saint on a Mission: The Life of St. Francis Xavier (Gujarat : Sahitya Prakash, 1984),45.
3
sex, the Jesuits have exerted a healthy and harmonious influence on the educational system of India, and the
mood resonates beyond its boundaries.11 This owes credit to the works of Francis Xavier and his strenuous
efforts in that direction. It was Francis Xavier who opened the first Jesuit College in Goa in 1543. It was
named St Paul’s College. Nothing exists of this institution today except its memory, but it was the
predecessor of hundreds of other schools, colleges and universities bearing the name of Xavier’s in
India.12Francis Xavier saw in the school an opportunity to do good by initiating the young into secular and
human knowledge and simultaneously into spiritual and moral values the love of God and human person,
thus he reinforced education, learning and academic scholarship.

1.2.7 The Society of Jesus

As one of the first companions and a fellow student of Ignatius of Loyola in Paris, Saint Francis Xavier is a
major figure in the history of the Society of Jesus. Soon after the founding of the Society, he was sent to the
Far East where his untiring missionary zeal spread to many countries. Landing in India in 1542, Xavier
established his first ministry in Goa, then a Portuguese trading post. In doing so, Xavier became the proto-
Jesuit-missionary, defining a process that used Jesuit discernment and missionary practices that would
influence Jesuit works forever. So influential was his work that following his death his body was repatriated
from the Chinese island of Sangchuang to where his ministry in Asia had started, Goa.13 Since the
beginnings of the Society of Jesus, the aspect of education, ministry, outreach to the marginalized had been
at the core of the Jesuit mission and they created a long-lasting impact by sending missionaries to different
places across the globe.

1.3 The Negative Impact of Francis Xavier

1.3.1 Attitude of superiority

In his first letter from India, he seems to be expecting grand outcomes, he believes that because many village
people were converting and trying to learn the word of God that he was indeed fulfilling his missionary
duty. Xavier seemed to only be thinking short term as to what was happening then and there with his
missionary duty to save these savages; he was not prepared to do the many more endless and tiring tasks to
make sure that his religion stayed in place within this growing Indian society. To ensure the future of his
teachings and his religion Xavier was going to have to achieve an almost impossible task, to make the Indian
people realize that his religion was the correct one. This attitude of superiority of his own religion and
despising other religions did not go well with him in the long run on the Indian soil.

1.3.2 Aversion towards brahmins

His dislike towards the Brahmins in these Indian villages, he visited and resided in was clearly
evident in his letters. He believed that the Brahmins were cheaters and liars and they were taking
advantage of the poor Indian people. He did not like how the Brahmins would make themselves, be
idolized as if they were gods, for he knew very well they were far from divinity. He very much saw the
Brahmins as obstacle he needed to overpower; he believed that the Brahmins had enslaved the natives
into thinking that they were so powerful. He thought the Brahmins were standing in the way of
allowing all the natives to embrace the religion of Jesus Christ.
One can see what was St. Francis Xavier’s first priority in India through his own words ‘I want to
free the poor Hindus from the stranglehold of the Brahmins and destroy the places where evil spirits
are worshipped. The Brahmins are the most perverse people in the world. They never tell the truth, but
think of nothing but how to tell subtle lies and to receive the simple and ignorant people. They are as
perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and to whom applies the Psalm, which says: ‘From an

11
R· K, Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education (London, Macmillan & Co., 1947),23-24.
12
J Velinar, St. Paul’s College: The First Jesuit College in the East (Gujarat: Sahitya Prakash,1987), 45.
13
W. L. A, Don Peter, Xavier as Educator (Delhi, Jesuit Educational Association of India, 1974),32.
4
unholy race, and wicked and crafty men, deliver me, Lord’. The poor people do exactly what the Brahmins
tell them. If there were no Brahmins in the area, all Hindus would accept conversion to our faith’.14

1.3.3 Aversion towards Indian and its culture.

It is evident in the beginning of his second letter that his attitude towards India had drastically
changed. He began to speak more freely of his impressions about India, where he makes it clear that in his
previous letters he had only focused on the prosperity of his mission and not his impression of India and its
people. He unconsciously takes back what was said in the 1543 letter, by saying that in as far as he has
seen the Indian race was “barbarous” and they would not listen to anything that goes against their
manners and customs. He is finally accepting that as a foreigner in India he does not have the power
to change everything so that it pleases him; the idea is too immense and cannot be done by a single
man. He realizes that it is much different to introduce a religion than to try and maintain one. He
vents his frustrations throughout the whole letter, calling the Indians vicious, inconsistent, sinners,
cheaters and heathens15 He explicitly projected his aversion towards India and its culture and
traditions making derogatory comments about the same.

1.3.4 The element of foreignness

Xavier inserted himself into a community that already has its own religion, customs and norms and his
complete disregard for them only added to his inability to implement religious change. He believed that his
mission was more glorious than anything the Indian people could possibly have; he truly believed that the
only salvation from damnation was accepting Jesus Christ as their God and savior. He tried to dethrone and
remove from this high pedestal the Brahmins in India because they were clearly a threat to him and his
mission. He learned after many tiring years that what he was trying to accomplish was just not possible, to
the Indian people conversion was like death to them. In the beginning he was blinded by ambition and was
unable to see that the Indian people already had their own form of salvation, it was through their religions
and their culture in which the Indian people believed they would be saved. Some practiced Bhakti, the
intense personal devotion to a deity, which they believed would bring them religious liberation. While others
in different branches of Hinduism believed that only when their souls recognized that everything around
them is an illusion will they have the ability to recognize Brahman and atman and escape samsara,
reincarnation. Xavier’s religion and form of salvation was just too foreign to them; it never would have had
the capability to encompass or accept all of their beliefs.16.His lack of voluntary participation in assimilating
and understanding the culture that what was already set in place caused his slow but definite failure.

1.3.5 Exploitation of Hindus

Open practice of Hinduism was made punishable by death, even mere suspicion of such was the cause for
torture and enslavement. Tens of thousands of Hindus were murdered or worked to death in mines, ships,
and factories- often starved or beaten to death by Christian supervisors. Cultural genocide was also a prime
mode the Inquisition utilized. Across the Konkan coast, any book written in any Indian languages-
especially Sanskrit and Marathi- was rooted out and destroyed, irrespective of subject matter. By 1548, a
letter by Joao de Albuquerque proudly declares the task to be almost complete. In 1557, it was declared that
any Christian convert would automatically be guaranteed one-third of their Hindu family’s property- and
also, ‘further portions thereof on the father’s death’. In 1559, even the marginal attempt at justice was done
away with and only Christians could inherit property. Ultimately in 1684, the Konkani language itself was
banned. The rights of Hindus to practice their customs, keep fasts, worship their gods, and even be brunt
after death were declared illegal. By 1567, over 300 Hindu temples over the Konkan Coast had been reduced
to dust. Thousands of years of Art, Sculpture, and Tradition were wiped out. An Orwellian state where
Hindus were encouraged to first convert and then betray their families to the merciless inquisitors sprang up.

14
C. C, Martindale, Francis Xavier( London: Catholic Truth Society,2006),28.
15
R. N, Sakshena,Goa, Into the Mainstream (Delhi :Abhinav Publications,2003),18
16
R. N, Sakshena, Goa, Into the Mainstream …,22.
5
In multiple regions along the western coast of India, Hindus were even denied the right to keep Hindu names
the effect of which can still be seen in the pidgin Western names, proudly flaunted about by ignorant
Liberals to this day.17 Francis Xavier is responsible for triggering this aversion towards Hinduism and he
openly justified it as necessary.

1.3.6 The Role played in Holy Inquisition

St. Francis Xavier landed in Goa on 6 May 1542, with a resolve of ‘uprooting paganism’ from the soil of
India and planting Christianity in its place. And so, all plans of persecution and oppression of the Hindus
came along with him. All religious policies and procedures of forcible and fraudulent conversions and
demolitions of the Hindu Temples and idols were undertaken under his guidance and missionary zeal. In
such a regard the role played by Francis Xavier in the Goa Inquisition is significant. He had written to King
Joao III of Portugal in 1546, encouraging him to dispatch the Inquisition to Goa. This the king did, after
seeing mass immigration of Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. The Inquisition
had jurisdiction only over Christians and would help veer them back to the Faith. Thus, it was St. Francis
Xavier who laid the foundation for an organised system of Holy Inquisition against the Hindus in Goa.
Xavier was aware of the brutal punishment that could be meted out by the Inquisition against relapsed
heretics.

Horrific tortures were devised daily so that the Inquisitors could carry out their duties diligently and easily.
The ingenuity of these inquisitors can easily be seen in the tortures devised by them. One of their creations
was the so-called ‘Rack’- a system of Pulleys designed to tear the limbs of Hindus apart, described in
contemporary accounts. The ‘Strappado’ was yet another device used to break legs and knees. Nor were
Hindu women ignored. In a clear example of exploitation, Hindu women were treated to the joys of the
‘Breast-Ripper’, an iron vice which was heated red-hot and used to tear out breasts.18

1.3.7 Brutal bloodshed and violence

The bloodshed and violence unleashed by the inquisition act of which Francis Xavier was responsible has
had very few equals in history and yet this he is honored each day by millions of Christians, even in India.
The rise of Christianity in India in the 16th Century had long been marked by brutality and violence of the
worst order with European priests and their pet armies regularly attacking and massacring Hindu
communities but the prevailing horror was first standardized by the great Christian Saint Francis Xavier
when in 1545, he suggested the creation of an Inquisition in Goa to King John III of Portugal. In 1560, the
Goa Inquisition was set up in a massive palace, originally occupied by Goa’s Sultan and then the reign of
terror began.19

1.3.8 Destruction of the temples

St. Francis Xavier wrote a letter to the Society of Jesus in which he said, ‘Following the Baptisms, the new
Christians return to their homes and come back with their wives and families to be in their turn also prepared
for Baptism. After all, having been baptized, he ordered that everywhere the temples of the false Gods be
pulled down and idols broken. He stated that it was difficult for him to describe in words the joy he felt
before the spectacle of pulling down and destroying the idols by the very people who formerly worshipped
them. He did this in Quilon after the Hindu Raja of Quilon had given him a munificently large grant of land
and other resources to build Churches in his territory. After taking this grant, St. Xavier converted Hindus
into Christianity. After doing that he said that he was in a state of ecstatic joy. Thus, it was after the arrival
of St. Francis Xavier in 1542, the movement for temple demolition in Goa was further accelerated, as he was
an instigator and a role model for the demolition of the Hindu temples. From then on, the Jesuits did their
17
Kapil Routray, “Unveiling the Unsaintly side of Saint Francis Xavier,” in TFIPOST, accessed on 14/1/2022,
https://tfipost.com/2017/04/terror-saint-francis-xavier-inquisition/.
18
A. K, Priolkar, The Goa Inquisition: The Terrible Tribunal for the East (Bombay: Rajhauns Vitaran,1961),42.
19
“Francis Xavier: A Saint or Ruthless Father of Bloodiest Inquisition in Goa,” in Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, accessed on
15/1/2022, https://www.hindujagruti.org/hindu-issues/hatkatro-khaamb/francis-xavier.
6
worst under his cruel leadership, using every form of bribery, threat and torture against the Hindus to bring
in a conversion.20

1.4 Mission to Japan

In 1549, Xavier began the first Christian mission in Japan where he served in the country for over two years.
In 1552, he set sail to begin the first Christian mission in China. When he arrived, however, he was not
allowed to disembark on the mainland. For three months, he waited on an island off of Canton while trying
to gain entry into the country.

Francis’s eyes, however, were now fixed on a land reached only five years before by
Europeans: Japan. His conversations in Malacca with Anjiro, a Japanese man deeply interested
in Christianity, had shown that this people was cultured and sophisticated. On August 15, 1549, a
Portuguese ship bearing Francis, the newly baptized Anjiro, and several companions entered the Japanese
port of Kagoshima. His first letter from Japan, which was to be printed more than 30 times before the end of
the century, revealed his enthusiasm for the Japanese as, “the best people yet discovered.” He grew
conscious of the need to adapt his methods. His poverty that had so won the Paravas and Malays often
repelled the Japanese, so he abandoned it. In late 1551, having received no mail since his arrival in Japan,
Francis decided to return temporarily to India, leaving to the care of his companions about 2,000 Christians
in five communities. Back in India, administrative affairs awaited him as the superior of the newly erected
Jesuit Province of the Indies. Meanwhile, he had come to realize that the way to the conversion of Japan lay
through China; it was to the Chinese that the Japanese looked for wisdom.21

1.5 The exaggerated statistics of the converts and their conversion.

There has been lot of deliberations about the number of converts Xavier made which is left to the educated
guesswork of history. The numbers go as high as 1 million, but modern scholars claim the number around
30,000, while the Jesuits claim 700,000. And the veracity of the conversion is also questionable because of
the methods he employed such as forcing converts to take Portuguese names and dress in Western clothes,
approving the process of persecution and using Goa government as a missionary tool.22 Regardless of this
fact St. Xavier, ranks among the greatest missionaries in Christian history. Historians place the number of
baptisms at roughly 30,000 people, some traditions cite numbers even up to 100,000.

1.6 His Death

Even though he attempted to make inroads into mainland China, he was not successful in that attempt. On
November 21, on Shangchuan Island, after having celebrated a mass, he fainted. Subsequently he died of a
fever on December 3, 1552, at the age of 46. He was first buried on a beach of Shangchuan Island. In
February 1553, his intact body was taken from the island and was temporarily buried in St. Paul's Church
in Malacca on March 22, 1553. An open grave in the church now marks the place of Xavier's burial.
Pereira came back from Goa, removed the corpse shortly after April 15, 1553, and moved it to his house.
On December 11, 1553, Xavier's body was shipped to Goa. The body is now in the in the Basilica of Bom
Jesus in Goa, where it was placed in a glass container encased in a silver casket on December 2, 1637.23
Since that day to the present day, this place has become of the leading pilgrimage center in India where
thousands of devotes from all over the country and the globe come to visit over, pray and offer homage to
the venerated saints

20
Lauren, Benton, Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002),18.
21
G, Schurhammer, St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of India and Japan (London: B Herder Book Co, 1928),42-44
22
D'Costa Anthony, S.J, The Christianisation of the Goa Islands, 1510-1567 (Bombay: SKM Books, 1965),56.
23
J, Brodrick, Saint Francis Xavier 1506-1552 (London: Burns Oates, 1952),33.
7
1.7 Beatification

Francis was beatified by Paul V on October 25, 1619, and was canonized by Gregory XV on March 12,
1622, at the same time as Ignatius Loyola. He is the patron saint of Navarre,
Spain, Philippines; Australia; Borneo; China; the East Indies; Goa, India; Japan; New Zealand, and of
missionaries. His feast day is celebrated on December 3. It was in the year1927 that he was named as the
patron of all missions.24 This popular Feast of St. Francis Xavier is observed as an important holiday, by
devout Christians all over the world. In India, it is a regional public holiday in the state of Goa.

1.8 Evaluation

Twentieth century scholarship has dispelled many of the legends and the criticisms connected with Xavier.
A modern estimate puts the figure of those baptized by him at about thirty thousand, as opposed to the one
million asserted by Baroque legend. Francis did not possess the gift of tongues attributed to him, and had to
struggle with language wherever he worked. He is justly credited for his concept that a missionary must
adapt to the customs and language of the people he evangelizes, and for advocating the education of a native
clergy, initiatives not always followed by his successors. Some Research has shown that he did provide for
the continuing pastoral care of the communities he founded and did not abandon them after baptism, as some
critics maintained. One supporting factor in that regard is the fact that the areas he evangelized in India have
remained Catholic to the present day. However, the present writer raises serious qualms regarding the
intrinsic worth of the converts and the ulterior driving force behind these mass conversions which took place
under the efforts of Francis Xavier. The veracity of conversions is the bone of contention for the historians
today regarding this issue.
1.9 Conclusion:

In the light of this paper, one could see the life, mission and contribution of St. Francis Xavier in the growth
of Christianity in India. He possessed a charismatic persona and skills which helped him widen the horizons
of his mission. His zeal and vigour in doing missions is an impeccable paradigm to emulate which lays
foundation to missionaries even today to look up particularly his dedication and determination in doing
God’s work. In the present Indian context, one could not however necessarily employ the methods he used
to share the gospel. In such a regard his missionary accomplishments may not be appreciated in light of
present-day plurality, cultural relativism, and global engagement, yet a great deal can be learned from
Xavier in the way he conducted his ministry but the present writer also contemplates on avoiding the vices
he did in order to refrain from the negative impact of the repercussions his mission resulted in. The stain
marked on Christianity in India because of some of the actions of Francis Xavier still continues to haunt the
Christians consciousness. As historians acquainting from the hard learned lessons becomes the need of the
hour in order to do effective and fruitful mission taking into consideration the positives to emulate and the
negatives to relinquish.

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24
C. C, Martindale, Francis Xavier…,62.
8
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