St. Francis Xavier was born in Navarre around the year 1506. This youngest son of Catholic parents was studious as a youngster and entered the College of St. Barbara at the age of 18 to study philosophy. In 1528, St. Francis Xavier met St. Ignatius of Loyola and helped him in the founding and organization of the Jesuits, and in 1537 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1540, Francis was one of a group of Jesuits who were sent to serve in Portugal. While working in Portugal, he was given leave to sail to the East Asia and spread the word of God.
While sailing to East Asia, Francis continued the work he began with Ignatius. Among the five ships making the voyage, Francis cared for the sick, settled disturbances, taught and preached regularly. When the voyage ended, Francis began teaching, preaching and caring for the sick as soon as he could. He started out by serving the European colonists but soon set out to preach the word of God to those who had never heard it before. In teaching the people, he often used popular tunes with revised lyrics to teach the catechism. While working among the people, he accomplished many miracles through the power of God and converted many to Christianity. While working in the East Indies, Francis met a man from Japan and was successful in converting him to Christianity. After talking with the man, Francis decided to make Japan his next place of labor.
Around the year 1550, Francis arrived in Japan and began evangelizing. He met much success and many trials working in Japan. Much of Francis' success came out of his preaching, first of all, through his own example and then next with words. After spending several years preaching throughout Japan, Francis traveled to China to preach there.
At the time of Francis' preaching, China had very exclusive borders and foreigners found it difficult to travel in or even enter the country. Francis made provisions to secretly enter the country, but while he was carrying out his plan he fell deathly ill. After several weeks of suffering, Francis died. His body was found to be incorruptible and many miracles were wrought by God near it. Francis was beatified two years after his death in 1554 and canonized in the year 1662. He is the patron of foreign missions.