The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

At sea, the ship tackling served him for a bed; on land, a mat, or the earth itself. He eat so little, that one of his companions assures us, that, without a miracle, he could not have lived. Another tells us, that he seldom or never drank wine, unless at the tables of the Portuguese; for there he avoided singularity, and took what was given him. But, afterwards, he revenged himself on one of those repasts, by an abstinence of many days.

When he was at Cape Comorine, the viceroy; Don Alphonso de Sosa, sent him two barrels of excellent wine. He did not once taste of it, though he was then brought very low, through the labours of his ministry, but distributed the whole amongst the poor.

His ordinary nourishment, in the Indies, was rice boiled in water, or some little piece of salt fish; but during the two years and a half of his residence in Japan, he totally abstained from fish, for the better edification of that people; and wrote to the Fathers at Rome, "that he would rather choose to die of hunger, than to give any man the least occasion of scandal." He also says, "I count it for a signal favour, that God has brought me into a country destitute of all the comforts of life, and where, if I were so ill disposed, it would be impossible for me to pamper up my body with delicious fare." He perpetually travelled, by land, on foot, even in Japan, where the ways are asperous, and almost impassible; and often walked, with naked feet, in the greatest severity of winter.

"The hardships of so long a navigation," says he, "so long a sojourning amongst the Gentiles, in a country parched up with excessive heats, all these incommodities being suffered, as they ought to be, for the sake of Christ, are truly an abundant source of consolations: for myself, I am verily persuaded, that they, who love the cross of Jesus Christ, live happy in the midst of sufferings; and that it is a death, when they have no opportunities to suffer. For, can there be a more cruel death, than to live without Jesus Christ, after once we have tasted of him? Is any thing more hard, than to abandon him, that we may satisfy our own inclinations? Believe me, there is no other cross which is to be compared to that. How happy is it, on the other side, to live, in dying daily, and in conquering our passions, to search after, not our proper interests, but the interests of Jesus Christ?"

His interior mortification was the principle of these thoughts, in this holy man; from the first years of his conversion, his study was to gain an absolute conquest on himself; and he continued always to exhort others not to suffer themselves to be hurried away by the fury of their natural desires. He writes thus to the fathers and brethren of Coimbra, from Malacca: – "I have always present, in my thoughts, what I have heard from our holy Father Ignatius, that the true children of the Society of Jesus ought to labour exceedingly in overcoming of themselves.

"If you search our Lord in the spirit of truth," says he to the Jesuits of Goa, "and generously walk in those ways, which conduct you to him, the spiritual delights, which you taste in his service, will sweeten all those bitter agonies, which the conquest of yourselves will cost you. O my God, how grossly stupid is mankind not to comprehend, that, by a faint and cowardly resistance of the assaults of the devil, they deprive themselves of the most pure and sincere delights which life can give them."

By the daily practice of these maxims, Xavier came to be so absolute a master of his passions, that he knew not what it was to have the least motion of choler and impatience; and from thence proceeded partly, that tranquillity of soul, that equality of countenance, that perpetual cheerfulness, which rendered him so easy and so acceptable in all companies.

It is natural for a man, who is extremely mortified, to be chaste; and so was Xavier, to such a degree of perfection, that we have it certified from his ghostly fathers, and, amongst others, from the vicar of Meliapore, that he lived and died a virgin. From his youth upward he had an extreme horror for impurity; notwithstanding, that he was of a sanguine complexion, and naturally loved pleasure. While he was a student at Paris, and dwelt in the college of Sainte Barbe, his tutor in philosophy, who was a man lost in debauches, and who died of a dishonest disease, carried his scholars by night to brothel-houses. The abominable man did all he could towards the debauching of Francis Xavier, who was handsome, and well shaped, but he could never accomplish his wicked purpose; so much was the youth estranged from the uncleanness of all fleshly pleasures.

For what remains, nothing can more clearly make out his love to purity, than what happened to him once at Rome. Simon Rodriguez being fallen sick, Father Ignatius commanded Xavier to take care of him during his distemper. One night, the sick man awaking, saw Xavier, who was asleep at his bed's feet, thrusting out his arms in a dream, with the action of one who violently repels an enemy; he observed him even casting out blood in great abundance, through his nostrils, and at his mouth. Xavier himself awaking, with the labour of that struggling, Rodriguez enquired of him the cause of that extreme agitation, and the gushing of his blood. Xavier would not satisfy him at that time, and gave him no account of it, till he was just upon his departure to the Indies; for then being urged anew by Rodriguez, after he had obliged him to secrecy, "Know," said he, "my brother, master Simon, that God, out of his wonderful mercy, has done me the favour, to preserve me, even till this hour, in entire purity; and that very night I dreamed, that, lodging at an inn, an impudent woman would needs approach me: The motion of my arms was to thrust her from me, and to get rid of her; and the blood, which I threw out, proceeded from my agony."

But whatsoever detestation Xavier had, even for the shadow of a sin, he was always diffident of himself; and withdrew from all conversation of women, if charity obliged him not to take care of their conversion; and even on such occasions, he kept all imaginable measures, never entertaining them with discourse, unless in public places, and in sight of all the world; nor speaking with them of ought, but what was necessary, and then also sparing of his words, and with a grave, modest, and serious countenance. He would say, "That, in general conversation, we could not be too circumspect in our behaviour towards them; and that, however pious the intentions of their confessors were, there still remained more cause of fear to the directors in those entertainments, than of hope, that any good should result from them to the women-penitents."

Besides all this, he kept his senses curbed and recollected, examined his conscience often every day, and daily confessed himself when he had the convenience of a priest. By these means, he acquired such a purity of soul and body, that they who were of his intimate acquaintance, have declared, that they could never observe in him ought that was not within the rules of the exactest decency.

In like manner, he never forgave himself the least miscarriage; and it is incredible how far the tenderness of his conscience went on all occasions. In that vessel which carried him from Lisbon to the Indies, a child, who was of years which are capable of instruction, one day happened to die suddenly: Xavier immediately inquired if the child had been usually present at catechism, together with the ship's company? It was answered in the negative; and at the same moment the man of God, whose countenance commonly was cheerful, appeared extremely sad. The viceroy, Alphonso de Sosa, soon observed it; and knowing the cause of his affliction, asked the Father if he had any former knowledge that the child came not to catechism? "If I had known it," replied Xavier, "I had not failed to have brought him thither: " "But, why then," said the viceroy, "are you thus disquieted for a thing you know not, and of which you are no ways guilty?" "It is," replied the saint, "because I ought to upbraid myself with it as a fault, that I was ignorant that any person, who was embarked with me, wanted to be taught the Christian faith."

A body so chaste, and a mind so pure, could not have been but of one who was faithfully devoted to the Holy Virgin. The saint honoured and loved her all his life, with thoughts full of respect and tenderness. It was in the church of Mont Martre, dedicated to the mother of God, and on the day of her assumption, that he made his first vows. It was in that of Loretto that he had his first inspiration, and conceived his first desires of going to the Indies. He petitioned for nothing of our Lord, but by the intercession of his mother; and in the exposition which he made of the Christian doctrine, after addressing himself to Jesus to obtain the grace of a lively and constant faith, he failed not of addressing himself to Mary. He concluded all his instructions with the Salve Regina; he never undertook any thing but under her protection; and in all dangers, he had always recourse to the blessed Virgin as his patroness. For the rest, to shew that he depended on her, and made his glory of that dependence, he commonly wore a chaplet about his neck, to the end that Christians might take delight in seeing the chaplet; and made frequent use of it in the operation of his miracles.

When he passed whole nights at his devotions in churches, it was almost always before the image of the Virgin, and especially he offered his vows to her for the conversion of notorious sinners, and also for the remission of his own offences; as himself testifies in a letter of his, which shews not less his humility than his confidence in the intercession of the blessed Virgin: "I have taken the Queen of Heaven for my patroness, that, by her prayers I may obtain the pardon of my innumerable sins." He was particularly devoted to her immaculate conception, and made a vow to defend it to the utmost of his power.

In conversation he frequently spoke of the greatness of the blessed Mary, and attracted all men to her service. In fine, being just upon the point of drawing his last breath, he invoked her name with tender words, and besought her to shew herself his mother.

These are the principal virtues which were collected, to be presented to the Holy See. The archbishop of Goa, and all the bishops of India, seconded the designs of the king of Portugal, by acting on their side with the Pope, for the canonization of Xavier; but no one, in process of time, solicited with more splendour than the king of Bungo.

This prince, who was upon the point of being converted when Xavier left Japan, had no sooner lost the holy man, but he was regained by the Bonzas, and fell into all the disorders of which a Pagan can be capable. He confessed the Christian law to be the better; but said it was too rigorous, and that a young prince, as he was, born in the midst of pleasures, could not brook it. His luxury hindered him not from the love of arms, nor from being very brave; and he was so fortunate in war, that he reduced four or five kingdoms under his obedience. In the course of all his victories, the last words which Father Francis had said to him, concerning the vanity of the world, and the necessity of baptism, came into his remembrance: he made serious reflections on them, and was so deeply moved by them, that one day he appeared in public, with a chaplet about his neck, as it were to make an open profession of Christianity.

The effects were correspondent to the appearances: he had two idols in his palace of great value, which he worshipped every day, prostrating himself before them with his forehead touching the ground; these images he commanded to be thrown into the sea. After this, applying himself to the exercises of piety and penitence, he totally renounced his sensual pleasures, and was finally baptized by Father Cabira, of the Society of Jesus. At his baptism he took the name of Francis, in memory of the holy apostle Francis Xavier, whom he acknowledged for the Father of his soul, and whom he called by that title during the remainder of his life.

The king of Bungo had hitherto been so fortunate, that his prosperity passed into a proverb; but God was pleased to try him. Two months after his baptism, the most considerable of his subjects entering into a solemn league and covenant against him out of hatred to Christianity, and joining with his neighbouring princes, defeated him in a pitched battle, and despoiled him of all his estates. He endured his ill fortune with great constancy; and when he was upbraided by the Gentiles, that the change of his religion had been the cause of his ruin, he made a vow at the foot of the altar to live and die a Christian; adding, by a holy transport of zeal, that if all Japan, and all Europe, if the Father's of the Society, and the Pope himself, should renounce our Saviour Jesus Christ; yet, for his own particular, he would confess him to the last gasp; and be always ready, with God's assistance, to shed his blood, in testimony of his faith.

As the piety of this prince diminished nothing of his valour nor of his conduct, having gathered up the remainder of his troops, he restored himself by degrees, partly by force of arms, and partly by amicable ways of treaty. His principal care, after his re-establishment, was to banish idolatry out of his estates, and to restore the Catholic religion. His devotion led him to send a solemn embassy to Pope Gregory XIII. who at that time governed the church. Don Mancio, his ambassador, being arrived at Rome, with those of the king of Arima, and the prince of Omura, was not satisfied with bringing the obedience of the king, his master, to the vicar of Jesus Christ, by presenting him the letters of Don Francis, full of submission and respect to the Holy See; but he also petitioned him, in the name of his sovereign, to place the apostle of Japan amongst those saints whom the faithful honour; and declared to his Holiness, "That he could not do a greater favour to the king of Bungo."

In the mean time, the memory of Xavier was venerated more than ever through all Asia. An ambassador from the great Mogul being come to Goa, to desire some Fathers of the Society might be sent to explain the mysteries of Christianity to that emperor, asked permission to see the body of Father Francis; but he durst not approach it till first himself and all his train had taken off their shoes; after which ceremony, all of them having many times bowed themselves to the very ground, paid their respects to the saint with as much devotion as if they had not been Mahometans. The ships which passed in sight of Sancian saluted the place of his death with all their cannon: sometimes they landed on the island, only to view the spot of earth where he had been buried for two months and a half, and to bear away a turf of that holy ground; insomuch, that the Chinese entering into a belief, that there was some hidden treasure in the place, set guards of soldiers round about it to hinder it from being taken thence. One of the new Indian converts, and of the most devoted to the man of God, not content with seeing the place of his death, had also the curiosity to view that of his nativity; insomuch, that travelling through a vast extent of land, and passing through immense oceans, he arrived at the castle of Xavier: entering into the chamber where the saint was born, he fell upon his knees, and with great devotion kissed the floor, which he watered also with his tears. After this, without farther thought, or desire of seeing any thing besides in Europe, he took his way backwards to the Indies; and counted for a mighty treasure a little piece of stone, which he had loosened from the walls of the chamber, and carried away with him in the nature of a relick.

For what remains, a series of miracles was blazed abroad in all places. Five or six passengers, who had set sail from Malacca towards China, in the ship of Benedict Coeglio, fell sick, even to the point of death. So soon as they were set on shore at Sancian, they caused themselves to be carried to the meadow, where Xavier had been first interred; and there having covered their heads with that earth which once had touched his holy body, they were perfectly cured upon the spot.

Xavier appeared to divers people on the coast of Travancore, and that of Fishery; sometimes to heal them, or to comfort them in the agonies of death; at other times to deliver the prisoners, and to reduce sinners into the ways of heaven.

His name was propitious on the seas, in the most evident dangers. The ship of Emanuel de Sylva, going from Cochin, and having taken the way of Bengal, in the midst of the gulph there arose so furious a tempest, that they were constrained to cut the mast, and throw all the merchandizes overboard; when nothing less than shipwreck was expected, they all implored the aid of the apostle of the Indies, Francis Xavier. At the same instant, a wave, which was rolling on, and ready to break over the ship, like some vast mountain, went backward on the sudden, and dissipated into foam. The seamen and passengers, at the sight of so manifest a miracle, invoked the saint with loud voices, still as the tempest grew upon them; and the billows failed not of retiring always at the name of Xavier; but whenever they ceased from calling on him, the waves outrageously swelled, and beat the ship on every side.

It may almost be said, that the saint in person wrought these miracles; but it is inconceivable, how many were performed by the subscriptions of his letters, by the beads of his chaplet, by the pieces of his garments, and, finally, by every thing which had once been any way appertaining to him.

The crosses which he had erected with his own hand on sundry coasts, to be seen from far by mariners and travellers, were loaded with the vows and gifts, which Christians, Saracens, and Idolaters, had fastened to them daily, in acknowledgment of favours which they had received, through the intercession of the holy man. But the most celebrated of those crosses, was that at Cotata, whereon an image of Xavier was placed. A blind man received sight, by embracing of that cross; two sick men were cured on the instant, one of which, who was aged, had a settled palsy, and the other was dying of a bloody flux. Copies were made of that miraculous image at Cotata; and Gasper Gonçalez brought one of them to Cochin. It was eleven of the clock at night when he entered into the port: an hour afterwards, the house of Christopher Miranda, adjoining to that of Gonçalez, happened to be on fire. The north-wind then blowing, and the building being almost all of wood, the burning began with mighty rage, and immediately a maid belonging to the house was burned. The neighbours, awakened with the cries of fire, cast their goods out at the windows in confusion; there being no probability of preserving the houses, because that of Miranda was the highest, and the burning coals which flew out on every side, together with the flames, which were driven by the wind, fell on the tops of the houses, that were only covered with bows of palm-trees, dry, and easy to take fire. In this extremity of danger, Gonçalez bethought himself of the holy image which he had brought; falling on his knees, accompanied by all his domestic servants, he held it upwards to the flames, and invoked Father Francis to his assistance. At the same instant the fire was extinguished of itself; and the town in this manner preserved from desolation, when it was ready to be burned to ashes.

A medal, which had on one side the image of the saint, and on the other that of the Holy Virgin holding the little Jesus, wrought yet more admirable effects. It was in the possession of a virtuous widow of Cochin, born at Tamuzay in China, and named Lucy de Vellanzan, who had formerly been instructed at Malacca in the mysteries of faith by Xavier himself; and who was aged an hundred and twenty years, when she was juridically interrogated, concerning the miracles which had been wrought by her medal. All infirm persons, who came to Lucy, received their cure so soon as she had made the sign of the cross with her medal over them; or when she had sprinkled them with water, wherein the medal had been dipt; in saying only these words, "In the name of Jesus, and of Father Francis, be your health restored."

"I have seen many," says an eye-witness, "who have been cured on the instant, by being only touched with that medal: Some, who being only putrified, ejected through the nose corrupted flesh, and matter of a most offensive scent; others, who were reduced to the meagerness of skeletons, by consumptions of many years; but the most celebrated cures, were those of Gonsalvo Rodriguez, Mary Dias, and Emanuel Fernandez Figheredo."

Rodriguez had a great imposthume on the left side, very near the heart, which had been breeding many months. The chirurgeons, for fear of exasperating the malady, by making an incision in so dangerous a part, endeavoured to dry up the humour, by applying other remedies; but the imposthume degenerated into a cancer, which gave the patient intolerable pains, and made him heart and stomach sick. Rodriguez having notice given him, what wonders were wrought by the Chinese Christian, by means of the medal of Father Xavier, went immediately to her, and kneeled before her. The Chinese only touched him thrice, and made the sign of the cross over him, according to her custom, and at the same moment the cancer vanished; the flesh returned to its natural colour, on the part where the ulcer had been formerly, and Rodriguez found himself as well as if nothing had ever ailed him.

Mary Dias was not only blind, but taken with the palsy over half her body, on the right side of it; so that her arm hung dead from her shoulder, and she had only the use of one leg: despairing of all natural remedies, she caused herself to be conveyed to Lucy's lodgings. The hospitable widow kept her in her house for the space of seven days; and washed her every of those days with the water wherein the medal had been dipt. On the seventh day, she made the sign of the cross over the eyes of the patient with the medal itself, and then Dias recovered her sight; her palsy, in like manner, left her, so that she was able to walk alone to the church of the Society, where she left her crutches.

As for Emanuel Gonçalez Figheredo, both his legs, for a long time, had been covered with ulcers, and were become so rotten, that worms were continually crawling out of them. The physicians, to divert the humours, put in practice all the secrets of their art, but without effect; on the contrary, the sinews were so shrunk up on one side, that one leg was shorter than the other. And for the last addition of misfortunes, Figheredo was seized with so terrible a lask, that, in a man of threescore years old, as he was, it was judged mortal. In effect, it had been so, but that he had immediate recourse to the medal of Xavier; he drank of the water wherein it had been dipped, after which he was entirely cured both of his ulcers and his disentery.

But that which was daily seen at Goa, blotted out the memory of the greatest prodigies which were done elsewhere. The body of the saint perpetually entire, the flesh tender, and of a lively colour, was a continued miracle. They who beheld the sacred corpse, could scarcely believe that the soul was separated from it; and Dias Carvaglio, who had known Xavier particularly in his life, seeing his body many years after he had been dead, found the features of his face so lively, and every part of him so fresh, that he could not forbear to cry out, and repeat it often, "Ah, he is alive!"

The vicar-general of Goa, Ambrosia Ribera, would himself examine, if the inwards were corresponding to the outward appearances. Having thrust his finger into the hurt which they gave the saint, when they interred him at Malacca, he saw blood and water issue out of it. The same experiment happened at another time to a brother of the Society.

The saint was one day publicly exposed, with his feet bare, at the importunity of the people, who through devotion petitioned to kiss them. A woman, who passionately desired to have a relick of Xavier, drawing near, as if it were to have kissed his foot, fastened her teeth in it, and bit off a little piece of flesh. The blood immediately ran in great abundance out of it; and of so pure a crimson, that the most healthful bodies could not send out a more living colour. The physicians, who visited the corpse from time to time, and who always deposed, that there could be nothing of natural in what they saw, judged, that the blood which came from a body deprived of heat, and issued from a part so distant from the heart as is the foot, could be no other than the effect of a celestial virtue; which not only preserved all parts of it from putrefaction, but also caused the humours to flow, and maintained them in the motion which only life infuses in them.

So many wonders, which spread through all the East, and were transmitted into every part of Europe, so moved the heart of Paul V. that he finally performed what his predecessor had designed. After a juridical examen of the virtues and miracles above-mentioned, he declared beatified Francis Xavier, priest of the Society of Jesus, by an express bull, dated the 25th of October, in the year 1619.

Gregory XV., who immediately succeeded Pope Paul V., canonized him afterwards in all the forms, and with all the procedures, which the church observes on the like occasions. The ceremony was performed at Rome on the 12th of March, in the year 1622. But as death prevented him from making the bull of the canonization, it was his successor Urban VIII. who finally accomplished it.

This bull bearing date the 6th of August, in the year 1623, is an epitome and panegyric of the miraculous life of the saint. It is there said, "That the new apostle of the Indies has spiritually received the blessing which God vouchsafed to the patriarch Abraham, that he was the father of many nations; and that he saw his children in Jesus Christ multiplied beyond the stars of heaven, and the sands of the sea: That, for the rest, his apostleship has had the signs of a divine vocation, such as are the gift of tongues, the gift of prophecy, the gift of miracles, with the evangelical virtues in all perfection."

The bull reports almost all the miracles which we have seen in his life, particularly the resurrections of the dead; and, amongst other miraculous cures, which were wrought after his decease, it observes those of Gonsalvo Fernandez, Mary Bias, and Emanuel Rodriguez Figheredo. It also mentions two famous cures, of which we have said nothing. One is of a blind man, who having prayed to God nine days successively, by the order of Xavier, who appeared to him, instantly recovered his sight. The other was of a leper, who being anointed, and rubbed over, with the oil of a lamp, which burned before the image of Xavier, was entirely cured. The Pope has added in his bull, "That the lamps which hung before the image, which was venerated at Cotata, often burned with holy-water, as if they had been full of oil, to the great astonishment of the heathens." The other miracles which we have related, and which are omitted in the bull, are contained in the acts of the process of the canonization.

Since the time that the Holy See has placed the apostle of the Indies in the number of the saints, it is incredible how much the public devotion has every where been augmented towards him. Cities have taken him for their patron and protector; altars have been erected, and incessant vows have been made to him; men have visited his tomb with more devotion than ever; and the chamber wherein he was born, has been converted into a chapel, to which pilgrims have resorted in great crowds, from all the quarters of the world.

For the rest, it was not in vain that they invoked him; and if I should take upon me to relate the miracles which have been lately done through his intercession, they would take up another volume as large as this. Neither shall I go about to make a recital of what things were wrought in succeeding years at Potamo, and Naples; but shall content myself to say, that in those places God was pleased to honour his servant by the performance of such wonders as might seem incredible, if those which preceded had not accustomed us to believe all things of St Xavier.

I shall even forbear to speak of the famous Father Mastrilli, who, being in the agony of death, was cured on the instant by the saint; and who, going to Japan by the order of the saint himself, to be there martyred, built him a magnificent sepulchre at Goa. It is enough for us to know, that never saint has been, perhaps, more honoured, nor more loved, in the church, than St Francis Xavier; and that even the enemies of the Society of Jesus have had a veneration and tenderness for him.

But these opinions are not confined to Catholics alone; the very heretics revere Xavier, and Baldeus speaks of him in these terms, in his History of the Indies: "If the religion of Xavier agreed with ours, we ought to esteem and reverence him as another St Paul; yet, notwithstanding the difference of religion, his zeal, his vigilance, and the sanctity of his manners, ought to stir up all good men, not to do the work of God negligently; for the gifts which Xavier had received, to execute the office of a minister and ambassador of Jesus Christ, were so eminent, that my soul is not able to express them. If I consider the patience and sweetness wherewith he presented, both to great and small, the holy and living waters of the gospel; if I regard the courage wherewith he suffered injuries and affronts; I am forced to cry out, with the apostle, Who is capable, like him, of these wonderful things!" Baldeus concludes the panegyric of the saint, with an apostrophe to the saint himself: "Might it please Almighty God," says he, "that being what you have been, you had been, or would have been, one of ours."