Francis Xavier
Also called: Francisco de Xavier, Saint Francis Xavier
Navarrese Catholic missionary and co-founder of the Jesuits who, after missions in India and Southeast Asia for the Portuguese crown, landed at Kagoshima in 1549 and first brought Christianity to Japan
Born to a noble family at Xavier Castle in the Kingdom of Navarre, he studied at the University of Paris, where he met Ignatius of Loyola and in 1534 took the vows at Montmartre that founded the Jesuits. At the request of John III of Portugal he went to Goa in 1542 and preached in southern India, Malacca and the Moluccas. After a little over two years in Japan from 1549, he died of illness on Shangchuan Island in 1552 while trying to enter Ming China. He was canonised in 1622; his right arm is kept in the Gesù in Rome.