…judges Francis’ idea on reforming the Church
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Nothing impeded his limitless zeal for the glory of God
Javier […] set forth for the most remote and dangerous missions; his zeal for the glory of God saw nothing but this, had no other aim. […] He returns to his preaching, to his classes, to his habitual sojourns from one populace to another, detained neither by rain, the heat nor any other obstacle. His zeal knew no limits. (J.M.S. Daurignac, J. M. S. Daurignac. Vie de Saint François Xavier. Paris, 1858, pg. 70)
With his zeal and preaching, the Cross triumphed over the empire of Satan: forty-five Churches were established and ten thousand pagans were baptized in one month. Hearing him the pagans would run to their temples and destroy them completely
When Francis Xavier, accompanied only by Vaz Fernandes, entered into the lands of the kingdom of Travancor, the population ran to surround him…not to massacre him, as the Christians feared, but rather see him and listen to him… […] The entire coast of Travancor submitted itself to the obedience of the Gospel as Xavier went along, and when the king, at his request, authorized his vassals to openly profess Christianity, immediately forty-five Churches were established for the piety of the neophytes; in just one month, ten thousand pagans were baptized! In each of the villages he visited, all of the inhabitants united together, men, woman and children; he brought them to a field and there put the men on one side, the woman on the other, and to be heard by all, he climbed a tree to announce them the Christian truths. Such was the enthusiasm of the pagans when they heard him, that immediately after the instruction they would run to their temples and destroy them completely. “I cannot describe the happiness that I feel”, our saint wrote, “seeing those temples and idols, that had been just a little while before the object of their worship, fall under the axe of my new Christians…Such are, then, the conquests of the Cross over the empire of Satan…Once more, my happiness and my joy surpass all possible expression: tongue and pen cannot describe my admiration!” (J.M.S. Daurignac, J. M. S. Daurignac. Vie de Saint François Xavier. Paris, 1858, pg. 70)
