Editing Francis Xavier (section)

===Goa and India===
[[File:São Francisco Xavier pregando em Goa (1610) - André Reinoso (Museu de São Roque).png|thumb|''Saint Francis Xavier preaching in Goa'' (1610), by André Reinoso]]
Francis Xavier left [[Lisbon]] on 7 April 1541, his thirty-fifth birthday, along with two other Jesuits and the new [[viceroy]] [[Martim Afonso de Sousa]], on board the ''Santiago''.{{sfn |Brodrick|1952|p=100}} As he departed, Francis was given a brief from the pope appointing him [[apostolic nuncio]] to the East.{{sfn|Wintz|2006a}} From August until March 1542 he remained in [[Portuguese Mozambique]], and arrived in [[Goa]], then the capital of [[Portuguese India]], on 6 May 1542, thirteen months after leaving Lisbon.

The Portuguese, following quickly on [[Age of Discovery|the great voyages of discovery]], had established themselves at Goa thirty years earlier. Francis's primary mission, as ordered by King John III, was to restore Christianity among the Portuguese settlers. According to Teotonio R. DeSouza, recent critical accounts indicate that apart from the posted civil servants, "the great majority of those who were dispatched as 'discoverers' were the riff-raff of Portuguese society, picked up from Portuguese jails."{{sfn|DeSouza}} Nor did the soldiers, sailors, or merchants come to do missionary work, and Imperial policy permitted the outflow of disaffected nobility. Many of the arrivals formed liaisons with local women and adopted Indian culture. Missionaries often wrote against the "scandalous and undisciplined" behaviour of their fellow Christians.{{sfn|de Mendonça|2002|p=}}{{pageneeded|date=March 2025}}

The Christian population had churches, clergy, and a bishop, but there were few preachers and no priests beyond the walls of Goa. Xavier decided that he must begin by instructing the Portuguese themselves, and gave much of his time to the teaching of children. The first five months he spent in preaching and ministering to the sick in the hospitals.{{sfn|Astrain|1909}} After that, he walked through the streets ringing a bell to summon the children and servants to catechism.<ref name=crawley/> He was invited to head [[Saint Paul's College, Goa|Saint Paul's College]], a pioneer [[seminary]] for the education of secular priests, which became the first Jesuit headquarters in Asia.<ref>{{cite web | year = 2011| url = http://www.archgoadaman.org/content/st-pauls-college-rachol-seminary| title = St. Pauls college, Rachol Seminary| publisher = Archdiocese of Goa and Daman| access-date = 3 May 2011| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130915032209/http://www.archgoadaman.org/content/st-pauls-college-rachol-seminary| archive-date = 15 September 2013| df = mdy-all}}</ref>

'''Conversion efforts'''
[[File:Conversion of Paravas by Francis Xavier in 1542.jpg|thumb|left|Conversion of the [[Paravar]]s by Francis Xavier in [[South India]], in a 19th-century coloured lithograph]]
Xavier soon learned that along the Pearl Fishery Coast, which extends from [[Cape Comorin]] on the southern tip of India to the island of [[Mannar, Sri Lanka|Mannar]], off Ceylon ([[Sri Lanka]]), there was a [[Jāti]] of people called [[Paravar|Paravas]]. Many of them had been baptised ten years before, merely to please the Portuguese who had helped them against the Moors, but remained uninstructed in the faith. Accompanied by several native clerics from the seminary at Goa, he set sail for Cape Comorin in October 1542.<ref name=crawley/>

He taught those who had already been baptised and preached to those who weren't. His efforts with the high-caste Brahmins remained unavailing. The Brahmin and Muslim authorities in Travancore opposed Xavier with violence; time and again his hut was burned down over his head, and once he saved his life only by hiding among the branches of a large tree.<ref name=crawley>{{cite web |url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/XAVIER2.htm |title='Saint Francis Xavier Apostle of the Indies And Japan', ''Lives of Saints'', John J. Crawley & Co., Inc. |publisher=ewtn.com |access-date=6 April 2015 |archive-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907230956/http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/XAVIER2.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He devoted almost three years to the work of preaching to the people of southern India and Ceylon, converting many. He built nearly 40 churches along the coast, including [[St. Stephen's Church, Kombuthurai]], mentioned in his letters dated 1544.

During this time, he visited the tomb of [[Thomas the Apostle]] in [[São Tomé de Meliapore|Mylapore]], now part of Madras/[[Chennai]] then in Portuguese India.{{sfn|Wintz|2006a}} He set his sights eastward in 1545 and planned a missionary journey to [[Makassar]] on the island of [[Sulawesi|Celebes]], today's [[Indonesia]].

As the first Jesuit in India, Francis had difficulty achieving much success in his missionary trips. His successors, such as [[Roberto de Nobili]], [[Matteo Ricci]], and [[Constanzo Beschi]], attempted to convert the noblemen first as a means to influence more people, while Francis had initially interacted most with the lower classes. Later in Japan, Francis changed tack by paying tribute to the Emperor and seeking an audience with him.{{sfn|Duignan|1958|pp= 725–732}}
[[File:St. Francis Xavier - Asia Voyages.svg|thumb|300px|The voyages of Saint Francis Xavier]]