XAVIER, SAINT FRANCIS

born April 7, 1506, Xavier Castle, near Sangesa, Navarre died Dec. 3, 1552, Sancian Island, China; canonized March 12, 1622; feast day December 3 Spanish San Francisco Javier, or Xavier the greatest Roman Catholic missionary of modern times, who was instrumental in the establishment of Christianity in India, the Malay Archipelago, and Japan. In Paris in 1534 he pronounced vows as one of the first seven members of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, under the leadership of Ignatius of Loyola. Additional reading James Brodrick, Saint Francis Xavier, 15061552 (1952), a standard biography in English; Georg Schurhammer, Franz Xaver: Sein Leben und seine Zeit (195571; Francis Xavier: His Life and Times, 1973), the definitive biography.