Loving God, who didst call Francis Xavier to lead many in India and Japan to know Jesus Christ as their Redeemer: Bring us to the new life of glory promised to all who follow in the Way; through the same Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Although I have lots of criticisms of TEC’s new calendar of proposed “saints,” I’m very happy to see the great Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier getting overdue recognition. Certainly one of the greatest missionaries of all time, he personally baptized hundreds of thousands of people during his long and dramatic ministry in Asia.
Moreover, he inspired many other young men to devote themselves to missionary service as Jesuits. I love how he went to the great French universities and challenged the best and brightest young Catholic men to “[b]Give up your small ambitions![/b]” and urged them to dedicate themselves to something of eternal value, bringing the gospel to unreached peoples around the world. At a time when there were virtually no Protestant missionaries yet, the Jesuits produced a remarkable number of outstanding missionaries who helped reap large harvests around the globe. But none of them were greater or more fruitful than Francis Xavier. Anglicanism has never produced his equal.
David Handy+