SAINT FRANCISCO JAVIER, PATRON SAINT OF NAVARRA

Born Francisco Javier de Jaso and Azpilicueta, to a rich and noble family in the Javier Castel on the 7^th of April 1506. At the age of 19 he went to study at the University of Paris where he shone in his studies.

In 1528 Paris Ignatius de Loloya arrived at the same Santa Barbara College. It was he who gave a definite change the life of Francis. Six years later on August 15, 1534, Assumption day, Francisco Ignacio de Loyola and five other students went to the chapel of Montmartre to take the triple vows of poverty, chastity and pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

After completing his studies, the group of students gathered in Venice, where Francisco was ordained priest on 24 June 1537. However he still had difficulties in his attempts to reach the Holy Land. Because of this they were put at the disposal of the Pope. They became famous through  preaching and helping the sick and needy, and King John II of Portugal chose the members of Francisco’s group to go to their new territories in India. In the May 6, 1542 he landed in Goa.

He spent three years with fishermen in southeastern India, and then went to the southwest coast where he baptized more than 10,000 people.

In 1545 he traveled to the Malayan archipelago, and from there to other islands to found more missions.

Francisco wanted to go to Japan, a land visited by Europeans five years earlier. In Malcasa held talks with Yagiro, a Japanese with a strong interest in Christianity, and together they entered the Japanese port of Kagoshima on August 15, 1549. Francisco worked with great enthusiasm, but after receiving no mail during two years, returned to India, leaving about 2,000 Christians in five communities.

On his last trip he intended to go to China, but died of a fever on the island of Sanchon on the 3^rd of December 1552.

Francisco Javier was appointed patron saint of the Kingdom of Navarre in 1621. Pope Pius XII named him the patron saint of tourism on 14^th of June 1952.