*St Francis Xavier - Daring, Cheerful, courageous missionary* http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9641&boxid=54257343&uid=&dat=12%2f3%2f2014 <http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9641&boxid=54257343&uid=&dat=12/3/2014>
=========== http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9641&boxid=54257343&uid=&dat=12%2f3%2f2014 ------------------------------ http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9642&boxid=54730718&uid=&dat=12%2f3%2f2014 *Continued from page 1* the missions, the Seminary had grown with European, mestizzos and indigenous candidates. Xavier’s successor, Micer Paulo, was succeeded in the Rectorship by Antonio Gomes. Gomes had different ideas and that the priesthood was meant only for the white skin and persecuted indigenous candidates so much that, by 1550, 200 of them had run jumping over the walls. On hearing this, burning with anger, Xavier hastened to Goa. On reaching Cochin, he got a letter, sent two years earlier, from Ignatius appointing him the first Provincial of the Jesuits in India. In this capacity, he mercilessly dismissed Antonio Gomes and some others from the Jesuit order on his arrival in Goa in February 1552. He ordered the re- admission of native candidates to the Seminary and then left for his that in and succeeded and felt persecuted the away On capacity, his from Carambolim, who was one of those dismissed by Antonio Gomes, and subsequently re- admitted at Xavier’s orders, was ordained in 1558. Care of the sick, hospital and prison ministry, pioneering education, identification with the poor and downtrodden, concern for indigenous clergy, commitment and passion for souls were the seminal influences the presence of Xavier in Goa. Other lights in Xavier’s Life Simplicity and Austerity: Frugality and poverty were values Xavier cherished and lived by. After his retreat and commitment to God’s ways marked by Ignatius, Xavier was a man of simplicity and led an austere life, having the basic necessities and adjusting himself to the local Vaz Gomes, 1558. education, indigenous influences of ways connected to his office, even when they were offered to him on his arrival in Goa, but went to stay in a poor cottage next to the main building of the city hospital. His priestly cassock was tattered and patched up in many places. But he was not blindly attached to these things. When the success of a particular mission demanded a change of dress and a show of respectability to the Japanese standards, he could readily adopt himself to that, and so in Miyako, Japan, with the use of his powers, he gained acceptance of the Japanese Daimyo ( feudal lord) and was eventually allowed to preach Christianity in that land. Out of deference to the Buddhists, Francis would not eat fish in Japan. A Daring Person of Deep prayer life: Xavier worked strenuously and prayed intensely. Apostolic work and prayer formed an unbreakable unit in him. When he was in Tamil Nadu, Xavier spent hours in prayer in a solitary grotto hewn from a rock near the seashore, in Manapad. One of the eyewitnesses in Xavier’s canonization process, Thomas Fernandes, from Manapad, testified that Xavier spent a great part of the night and of the day in prayer; and that he had frequently seen him raised a little above the floor, his face and eyes glowing with light, especially during the celebration of Mass. Xavier was also blessed with tears of consolation and ecstasy. Because of his trust in God, his prayer and fasting, he was so daring in life to undertake such dangerous voyages through seas and oceans infested by pirates, when facilities for navigation were so poor. Horrifying tales, so common at that time, of people in distant lands being cannibals, headhunters and full of treachery did not deter him from going there. A good swimmer, he saved himself from death at the Moro Islands, when huge boulders were thrown at him, as he swam across the sea to escape to other islands. A Cheerful Loving Personality: Despite difficulties, Xavier remained always a cheerful person. His heart was filled with a profound joy, and his face radiated joy and love. During his travel from Lisbon to Goa, all the passengers suffered from sea- sickness and the ship Santiago transporting them became almost a floating hospital, with people groaning in agonies and unable to take care of their basic needs. Despite his own sea- sickness, Xavier ministered to them with affection. for the sick; from what he got he prepared the food for the sick in the overcrowded kitchen and he went about doing all this with a cheerful countenance. Conclusion Ten years of apostolate and yet so inexhaustible: many things more can be said, of Xavier, as a person and as a missionary. One factor that remained constant with him was his unassailable trust in God. He was carried in a Portuguese ship to go to China and abandoned on the neighboring island. He died, at the age of only 46, of pleurisy or some unidentified fever on 2- 3 December 1552. His last words were those from the psalm 31, 2 in Latin: “ In you, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be confounded”. He has left a legacy behind, by overspending himself in the service of souls. He was a daring, cheerful and courageous person. For this he is fondly remembered even today, five centuries after his birth. On March 15, 1540, Francis had stepped out from Rome to Lisbon en route to India, on a day’s notice. On March 15, 1554, he returned to Goa, the place he had first stepped on in India, to be recognized as a Saint. He was beatified in 1619 and canonized on March 22, 1622. The faith he planted in Asia, lives on, and whatever else we may say, his life still continues to exert its seminal influence on the Church in Goa, India and the Far East. For this essay and more comprehensive content on everything related to St Francis Xavier, pick up your copy of ‘ St Francis Xavier - His Vision, Mission, Veneration’ , a XVII Exposition Commemorative Issue by the Herald Group ========= http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9643&boxid=54756609&uid=&dat=12%2f3%2f2014 <http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9643&boxid=54756609&uid=&dat=12/3/2014> ========== A philatelic tribute to St Francis Xavier http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9634&boxid=6246609&uid=&dat=12%2f3%2f2014 <http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9634&boxid=6246609&uid=&dat=12/3/2014> =========== No of devotees to swell on feast day http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9621&boxid=53248640&uid=&dat=12/3/2014 ========== 1200 pilgrims reach Old Goa on foot http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=9638&boxid=53722937&uid=&dat=12/3/2014