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1506 - Fifth Centenary of the birth of St. Francis Xavier - 2006 St. Francis Xavier is known as the patron saint of foreign missions, the Apostle of the Indies, and one of the first members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. He was born at the castle of Xavier in Navarre, Spain, in the year 1506. He was ordained a priest in 1537. In 1541 he set sail for India and arrived at Goa the following year. In 1548 he became the first missionary to Japan where he established a Christian community. He died in 1552. Frances Xavier Warde and six other Sisters of Mercy sailed from Ireland to America in 1843. In 1846, at the request of Bishop William Quarter, Warde and five Sisters of Mercy arrived in Chicago to establish a school for Catholic girls and women. Three weeks after arriving in Chicago, they opened the Saint Francis Xavier Academy, today's Saint Xavier University. |
