Editing Francis Xavier (section)

==Burials and relics==
[[File:Casket of Saint Francis Xavier.jpg|thumb|upright|The casket of Saint Francis Xavier in the [[Basilica of Bom Jesus]] in Goa]]
[[File:Reliquary of St. Francis Xavier's humerus.jpg|thumb|Saint Francis Xavier's upper arm bone at [[St. Joseph's Seminary and Church|St. Joseph's Church]], [[Macao]]]]
Xavier was first buried on a beach at Shangchuan Island. António got a shroud from some Portuguese merchants, and with another servant put his body in a wooden coffin. They added lime so that his bones could be taken back to India if requested. His body was buried until February 1553, when the Portuguese merchants dug it up. They noted that there was no smell at all, and that [[Incorruptibility|his body was whole]]. A slice was cut from the thigh for the captain, who smelled it and agreed to transport the body.<ref name=brockey/> 

His body was taken to [[St. Paul's Church, Melaka|Our Lady of the Hill]], a Jesuit church, in [[Portuguese Malacca]] on 22 March 1553. It was removed from the coffin and put in a shroud. The pit was small and workers tamped down the dirt on top of his body, causing lesions and breaking bones, and flattening the nose. There were no Jesuits present at the church during this process.<ref name=brockey/> An open grave in the church now marks the place of Xavier's burial.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

The first time his body was inspected by non-laymen or servants was around 15 August 1553, when a group of Jesuits exhumed his body and found it incorrupt, emanating [[Odour of sanctity|a sweet smell]], "more like the garden of the bridegroom when the south wind blows than that of human flesh". The shroud was stained with blood, which was still wet. His body was then moved 4,000km to Goa, where it arrived on March the 16th, 1554.<ref name=brockey/>{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=219}}

It was greeted by a crowd of some 6,000 people, including the Viceroy and other key colonial figures, and carried in procession to the Jesuit College of St Paul.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=219}}
For the following four days, people went to St Paul's in crowds to venerate it.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}
Contemporary observers recorded "a great deal of shouting and disorder" and people shoving violently to have rosaries and other articles touch his body.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}
Father Melchior Nunes Barreto opined in a letter to Igiatius Loyola the following May his belief that, if the priests had not been present, people would have even tried to obtain pieces of his body.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}

In 1559, his body was moved from St Paul's church, which was to be demolished, moved to the rector's room for a time and then to several other locations.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}

The right forearm, which Xavier used to bless and baptise his converts, was detached by request of [[Superior General of the Society of Jesus|Superior General]] [[Claudio Acquaviva]] in 1614.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}
This was done in secret, his body being exhumed again for the lower portion of the arm to be surgically detached.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}
It was sent to and  has been displayed since in a silver reliquary at the main Jesuit church in Rome, [[Il Gesù]].{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/saint-s-right-forearm-will-arrive-in-quebec-this-week-as-part-of-canadian-tour-1.3741465|title=Saint's right forearm will arrive in Quebec this week as part of Canadian tour|date=1 January 2018|work=[[CTV Montreal]]|access-date=2 January 2018|language=en-CA|archive-date=21 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240821065748/https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/saint-s-right-arm-comes-to-montreal-as-part-of-cross-country-tour-1.3741465|url-status=live}}</ref>

The rest of the right arm was removed in 1619, the year that Francis was beatified, to be distributed to other Jesuit colleges in Cochi, Macau, and Malacca.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}
Intestines and internal organs were removed in 1620 and distributed as relics more widely around the world.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}

The main body was enshrined in a silver reliquary in the [[Basilica of Bom Jesus]] in Goa in 1659.{{sfn|Wojciehowski|2011|p=220}}
It had been placed there on 2 December 1637, and remains there now, in a glass container encased in a silver casket.<ref>{{cite web| title=Body of St. Francis Xavier| url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/body-st-francis-xavier| work=Atlas Obscura| access-date=21 September 2009| archive-date=27 September 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090927033640/https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/body-st-francis-xavier| url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gesù">{{cite web|url=http://www.chiesadelgesu.org/html/d_cappella_san_francesco_saverio_it.html|title=Cappella di san Francesco Saverio|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617051526/http://www.chiesadelgesu.org/html/d_cappella_san_francesco_saverio_it.html|archive-date=17 June 2011|language=it|website=official website of [[Il Gesù]]}}</ref> {{cn-span|This casket, constructed by Goan silversmiths between 1636 and 1637, was an exemplary blend of Italian and Indian aesthetic sensibilities.|date=March 2025}}

{{cn-span|There are 32 silver plates on all four sides of the casket, depicting different episodes from the life of Xavier.|date=March 2025}}
Several of them depict Xavier's mission as having been planned by God, such as the one that depicts a recurrent dream that Xavier had of carrying a man on his shoulders.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=727}}
Another depicts the story of the healing of Antonio Rodrigues, a blind man who according to the story regained his sight when he placed the dead hand of Xavier's body over his eyes when it was lying at St Paul's.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=729}}

A relic from the right hand of St Francis Xavier is on display at [[St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney]].{<ref>
https://www.facebook.com/stmaryscathedralsydney/posts/we-are-truly-blessed-to-have-a-first-class-relic-of-st-francis-xavier-on-display/3104301949857354/</ref>}

When the Jesuit provincial in Goa examined his body in 1686, he found that the face was deformed, the skin ravaged by moths, and the limbs shrunken.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=720}}
Jesuit concern at this prompted locks to be affixed to the removable silver panels on the reliquary. At one point the rector of the Basilica wrote to Rome, pleading that he be permitted to lose the keys by throwing them into the sea.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=720}}

In the 1690s, [[Cosimo III de' Medici]] commissioned a marble pedestal for the reliquary to sit upon.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=722}}
It was carved in Florence by [[Giovanni Battista Foggini]] and shipped to India via Italy to be installed in 1698.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=722}}
The marble is polychromatic and the pedestal has four large bronze relief scultpures that depict episodes from Xavier's life: preaching in the Indies, baptizing people, being persecuted by non-Christians, and dying on Shangchuan.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=731&ndash;734}}

The bronze panels are on the second register of the pedestal, flanked by liles and semi-precious stones.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=731}} The third register, above it, is a balustrade made of pink marble, with two [[putti]] at each end, holding bronze banners above cartouche made of alabaster and bronze.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=731}} The register below is made of pink and yellow marble and decorated with items made of white marble, including cherub heads, garlands, shields, and scroll volutes.{{sfn|Miller|2024|p=731}}