St. Francis Xavier

Patron Saint of Foreign Missions

Francis Xavier was born in the Castle of Xavier, in Navarre, Spain.

The youngest of a large noble family linked to Spanish royalty, he had ambitious dreams, and at eighteen set out to study law at the University of Paris. Good-looking, intelligent, charming and high born, young Xavier had the world at his feet.

Having earned his licentiate, he one day met a man, conspicuous for his age among such a young class; a man who had the look of a soldier, yet the air of a hermit. Like himself, he was a nobleman from Northern Spain. His name, Ignatius of Loyola.

Ignatius had recently made a profound conversion, had spent a long time in solitude and was now studying Latin in preparation for the priesthood. He was also feeling the call to found a new company of men, soldiers willing to fight for the kingdom of Christ on earth.

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