St. Francis Xavier Parish will celebrate the feast day of its patron saint on Thursday, Dec. 3, with prayers and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament throughout the day.

Our celebration of our patron saint begins with morning Mass at 7:30 a.m., and continues with the 9:15 a.m. all-school Mass. Following Mass, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed and students will come as a class throughout the day to pray until 2:15 p.m. benediction. The 7 p.m. Mass that evening presents a final opportunity to pray as a parish for our patron’s intercession on his feast day.

St. Francis Xavier is known as the Apostle to the East and is said to have converted more people to the faith since the Apostle Paul. Born April 7, 1506, in the family castle in Spain, he was sent to the University of Paris, where he met Ignatius Loyola and became one of the seven who, in 1534, founded the Society of Jesus. In 1536 he left Paris to join Ignatius in Venice, was ordained there in 1537, went to Rome in 1538, and, in 1540, when the pope formally recognized the Society, was sent to the Far East as the one of the first two Jesuit missionaries.

After a year’s voyage, six months of which were spent at Mozambique where he preached and gave aid to the sick, Francis eventually arrived in Goa, India, in 1542. There he began preaching to the natives and attempted to reform his fellow Europeans, living among the natives and adopting their customs on his travels. During the next decade he converted tens of thousands to Christianity. He visited the Paravas at the tip of India. near Cape Comorin, Tuticorin (1542), Malacca (1545), the Moluccas near New Guinea and Morotai near the Philippines (1546-47), and Japan (1549- 51).

In 1551, India and the East were set up as a separate province and Ignatius made Francis its first provincial. In 1552 he set out for China, landed on the island of Sancian within sight of his goal, but died before he reached the mainland.

Working against great difficulties, language problems (contrary to legend, he had no proficiency in foreign tongues), inadequate funds and lack of cooperation, often actual resistance, from European officials, he left the mark of his missionary zeal and energy on areas which clung to Christianity for centuries.

He was canonized in 1622 and proclaimed patron of all foreign missions by Pope Pius X. His feast day is Dec. 3. (Source: Catholic Online)