The Life of St. Francis Xavier

The Meeting with Ignatius of Loyola

The Wounded Soldier

 

Although Francis separated himself from bad companions, he continued to make ambitious plans for his future. While Francis pursued studies in theology, revolutionary ideas and theories began to circulate among the students.  Aristotle’s philosophy was questioned. Calvin’s ideas and Martin Luther’s thesis of “Church Reformation” circulated and discussed.  Early one October morning in 1534, satirical pages poking fun at the pope and at the Church were posted on the walls of public meeting places.

 

Copernicus’ teachings, upsetting advocates of literal interpretations of the Bible, arrived proclaiming that the earth was not the center of God’s creation.

 

Francis, in constant torment, suffered greatly as he tried to make sense of all this doctrinal confusion. He was unaware of God following him closely in all his trials.

 

Further, loneliness set in Francis’ heart. His mother and his sister Magdalena died about at the same time. His sister Anna and his brothers married.  At this time when he felt as alone as an orphan, he was obliged to earn his living working as a teacher of philosophy.

 

Finally, Francis was ready for complete conversion. The number of his close friends was seven. One was a former soldier wounded at Pamplona, who was now at the university to study Latin, Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius became the leader of the group. He found the key that released all the generosity and love trapped in Francis’ heart.  Continually he posed to Francis a question the Bible asks everyone: “What good is it if people possess the whole world, but lose their very selves in the process?”

 

So it happened that while Paris was awakening to the heat of the morning sun on August 15, 1534, these seven companions dressed as students of the Sorbonne silently climbed Montmartre. There, in the Chapel of Martyrs, at a Mass celebrated by the now ordained Fr. Peter Faber, these seven pronounced the three vows of religious profession – poverty, chastity and obedience.

 

The sun had already set when the seven companions returned to the city. This day marks the beginning of the religious society now commonly called the “Company of Jesus”, the Jesuits. Shortly, Ignatius departed for Rome to seek the Pope’s approval of the newly born Jesuit Society. He intended to present himself and his companions as men ready to work in the foreign missions among non-Christians, if the Pope wished it.

 

 

Francis' Ordination

 

In November 1536, Francis and his friends said good-bye to the Sorbonne and Paris. Now nine in number, they headed for Italy. In their leather bags they carried a Bible, a breviary and a small missal which Peter Faber used when celebrating Mass. They spent Christmas in the home district of Fr. Kino, a missionary known throughout Europe for his work in Baja, California.

 

Then they proceeded to Venice. In Venice, they organized their expedition to the Holy Land. While waiting for an opportunity to board a ship, the nine lodged with Ignatius at a hospital for the incurably ill. But no one was able to cross the Mediterranean Sea because it had become a battleground, with the Turks gaining control of the Adriatic Sea. Ignatius and his companions had to change their plans. So they began to work among the poor and the sick in every quarter of the city.

 

They finally set out for Rome. On the way they passed through several university cities, Padua, Bologna, Siena, and Florence. They reminded the university students that life is an offering, a thing to give away, not only something which they should try to fill with joy, but also something they should treasure as very valuable.

 

It was October when they arrived in Rome and were received by Pope Paul III. He accepted Ignatius and his companions and approved in writing their religious congregation. That Christmas, Ignatius celebrated his First Mass before the nativity scene in St. Mary Major Church.

 

It was at this same time that the King of Portugal petitioned the Pope to send missionaries to Portuguese colonies in the Far East. After giving permission to Ignatius’ companions to be ordained priests, the Pope asked them to be prepared to go to these foreign missions. Ignatius asked Fr. Bobadilla to remain with him in Rome, while the others separated into groups of two or three. As a result, Francis celebrated his first Mass in a lodging house of Vicenza, which, centuries later, would become a minor seminary for the Xaverian Missionaries.

 

 

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