St. Francis Xavier, Jesuit Missionary to Asia

Are you interested in Early Modern Japan, the history of the Jesuits, or 17th and 18th century books? Our spring quarter exhibit has it all!

Map of Japan in Italian with monsters and ships in the waters, and a protractor over the distance key. — Map of Japan from Bernardino Ginnaro’s Saverio Orientale, ò vero, Istorie de’ Cristiani illustri dell’Oriente (1641), a three volume set dedicated to the life and works of St. Francis Xavier. The cover image is the frontispiece from this same title.

This exhibit shares A&SC rare book collections related to St. Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Jesuits and first missionaries to Asia. It includes works on his life and ministry, but also the places he traveled, especially Japan in the early modern period. Although St. Francis Xavier’s mission was most successful in India, many of the books on display reflect his and later Jesuits enthusiasm about the possibilities of continued Christian expansion into Japan. The main part of the exhibit features 17th and 18th century books from our collections, many of which are from the California Province Archives Collection that was donated by the Jesuits to Santa Clara University in 2019.

It was curated in support of the SCU Premodern Studies Program, an interdisciplinary program for global study of the period from late antiquity to about 1800. It will be on display in the 3rd Floor Gallery cases next to the archives throughout Spring Quarter 2025 until June 8th.

Life and Canonization of St. Francis Xavier

Engraving of St. Francis Xavier with beam of light. Above him reads "Sat est Domine sat est" — *Frontispiece with St. Francis Xavier from Orazio Torsellini’s De vita S. Francisci Xaverii (1746).*

St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) was among the six Jesuits to take vows along with Ignatius of Loyola when he founded the order in Paris in 1540. Known as the Apostle of the Indies, he was the first Jesuit missionary to go to India and Japan. He had considerable success in Goa, India, where there was already an established community of Christians and established the Jesuit Province of the Indies there. Although Xavier exerted a great deal of influence in India, his mission to Japan is what is featured in many of the books about his life and ministry, perhaps since it was an entirely new endeavor. Francis Xavier influenced other Jesuits to travel on missions to Japan, and there were also Japanese converts who became Jesuits themselves. Many of them faced prosecution and even death. However, St. Francis Xavier himself was not martyred; he died of illness trying to gain entry to China in 1552. His remains were returned to Goa, India, and are enshrined in the Basilica of Bom Jesus.

Jesuitica about St. Francis Xavier & Japan

Several of the books on display feature the stories of the deaths of Christian missionaries in Japan and connect them to Francis Xavier. For example, in the biography of Italian Jesuit Marcello Francesco Mastrilli (1603-1637), the Italian Jesuit has visions of Francis Xavier that led him to travel to Japan. By that time, Christianity had been banned in Japan, and was killed quite quickly after his arrival. Other books, like the one with the image below, are more concerned with documenting Japanese people and customs.

Engraving of three Japanese women in fine dress, including one accompanied by a male servant holding a parasol over her head — *Japanese women, each identified as a “dame de qualité,” one accompanied by a boy holding a parasol. From Jean Crasset’s Histoire de l’église du Japon (1715), a two volume set.*

The earliest items on display coincide with Francis Xavier’s canonization as a saint in 1622 by Gregory XV, the first Jesuit-educated pope. He was canonized on the same day as Jesuit founder St. Ignatius Loyola, along with three others: St. Philip Neri, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Isidore of Madrid. This day of celebration was more than a ceremony–there were processions, fireworks, and theatrical productions dedicated to the new saints throughout Rome and beyond. In the display, there is a medallion from 1622 that was as a souvenir for the canonization with images of the five saints and their names. The medallion is on loan for the display from Br. Dan Peterson, Jesuits West archivist.¹ There are also several other antiquarian books from the early to mid 17th century about St. Francis Xavier, converts to Catholicism and the development of the Church in Japan. Interestingly, the newest item on display, The Apotheosis or Consecration of Saints Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, published and performed at Boston College in 1991, is an English translation of an operetta originally written for the canonization celebrations in 1622!

Historical Fiction about the Jesuit Mission in Japan

A Carrack Sailed Away book cover — *Covers from Catholic novels set in early modern Japan*

Set All Afire book cover — *Covers from Catholic novels set in early modern Japan*

There are several more contemporary literary works featuring St. Francis Xavier and other Jesuits in Japan during the early modern period. Shōgun is the most famous example and has recently been made into a television series, spurring interest in the early modern encounter between Japan and Portuguese merchants. However, there is also Japanese Catholic writer Shūsaku Endō, who wrote historical fiction with Jesuit characters, and there were novelizations of St. Francis Xavier’s life in the early 20th century. These novels are part of the Jesuits in Fiction Collection begun by Gerald McKevitt, S.J., who donated its core volumes to the library in 2006.

We hope you enjoy the exhibit! If you would like to view any of the materials in a research visit or get a list of the books on display, please email us at SpecialCollections@scu.edu

Read more about Br. Dan Peterson’s discovery and see close-up photographs of the medallion on page 32 of the Spring 2022 issue of Jesuits West) ↩︎