By Festo Mkenda, SJ | Academic
Director of the Archivum Romanum
Societatis Iesu (ARSI)
Four hundred and eighty-four years ago, the Apostle of Asia stepped
ashore in Portuguese India – marking both the end of a long formation and the
beginning of a ministry that would span a continent.
The arrival of St Francis Xavier (1506–1552) in Goa, India, on 6 May
1542 was at once a culmination and a beginning. In reaching Goa, Xavier brought
to a close the first chapter of a spiritual journey that had started with his
fateful encounter with St Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) at the University of
Paris. That encounter had drawn him into the spiritual vision of Ignatius, and
together with a small band of companions the two founded the Society of Jesus,
embarking on Christian missions that aimed to reach the furthest ends of the
world – “even to the Indies”, as they then expressed it. Xavier’s sea voyage
from Lisbon, threading round the continent of Africa before arriving in Goa,
was itself part of his initial formation. Lasting over a year, the journey
compelled him to detach completely from his familiar world and prepare to
embrace one that was different in almost every way.
