The Amazing Travels of Xavier

Week 14 - April 1-7

In the resurgence of contemplative spirituality currently making its way through North American Christianity, the name of Ignatius of Loyola is a common one. Other than his ‘Spiritual Exercises' he is best known for founding the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the Jesuits.

But Ignatius did not found the Society on his own, he was one of a group of monks. I'd like to tell you about another of the co-founders of the Jesuits.

Born in the Castle of Xavier near Sanguesa, Francis Xavier proved to be a man of great promise. He went to Paris, where he entered the collège de Sainte-Barbe. Here he met Savoyard, Pierre Favre, Ignatius Loyola, and four others, Lainez, Salmerón, Rodríguez, and Bobadilla; together the seven made the famous vow of Montmartre, Aug. 15, 1534 which led to the founding of the Jesuits.

The original intention of the seven was to carry the gospel to Islam. It didn't happen. However, the Pope did employ the Jesuits throughout Europe in a variety of positions. Whatever their mission, they labored in prisons, among the needy, and with the sick.

It was at this time that King John III of Portugal asked the Pope for missionaries to evangelize his Far Eastern possessions. Xavier was chosen. Immediately he departed for Portugal. There he met the king, who begged Francis to visit all his territories, report on the state of Christianity in them, and to do all he could to bring Christianity to the lost.

For three weeks, opposing winds kept Xavier from sailing. When the wind finally turned, the monks set up a pulpit and Francis preached to the people gathered at the docks to say farewell to loved ones. As he finished his sermon, he was told about a young man who had been mortally wounded in a duel. Francis went immediately to the young man's side and pleaded with him to forgive the man who had wounded him, but to no avail - he refused. "Would you pardon him if God granted you life?" Francis is reported to have asked him. "Yes," was the reply. "Then you will recover," said Xavier. The young man did, and Xavier sailed for India.

He landed at Goa, May 6, 1542 and spent five months preaching and ministering to the sick in the hospitals. About October, 1542, he started for the pearl fisheries of the extreme southern coast of the peninsula, where he hoped to restore Christianity which, although introduced years before, had almost disappeared on account of the lack of priests. He devoted almost three years to the work of preaching to the people of Western India, converting many, and reaching in his journeys even the Island of Ceylon.

In the spring of 1545 Xavier started for Malacca. He laboured there for the last months of that year reaping a great spiritual harvest. About January, 1546, Xavier left Malacca and went to Molucca Islands, where the Portuguese had some settlements, and for a year and a half he preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of Amboyna, Ternate, Baranura, and other lesser islands which it has been difficult to identify. It is claimed by some that during this expedition he landed on the island of Mindanao, and for this reason Francis Xavier has been called the first Apostle of the Philippines. But so far it has not been proven absolutely that Xavier ever landed in the Philippines.

By July, 1547, he was again in Malacca. Here he met a Japanese called Anger (Han-Sir), from whom he obtained much information about Japan. His zeal was at once aroused by the idea of introducing Christianity into Japan, but for the time being the affairs of the Society demanded his presence at Goa. He finally left for Japan towards the end of June, 1549. Anger, who had been baptized at Goa and given the name of Pablo de Santa Fe, accompanied Him.

They landed at the city of Kagoshima in Japan, Aug. 15, 1549. The entire first year was devoted to learning the Japanese language and translating into Japanese, with the help of Pablo de Santa Fe, the principal articles of faith and short treatises which were to be employed in preaching and catechizing. Leaving Kagoshima about August, 1550, he continued his mission eventually traveling all over Japan preaching the Gospel and establishing missions.

After working about two and a half years in Japan he left this mission in charge of Father Cosme de Torres and Brother Juan Fernández, and returned to Goa, arriving there at the beginning of 1552. Next he turned his thoughts to China, and in April, 1552, he left Goa and in the autumn he arrived at the small island of Sancian near the coast of China. While planning the best means for reaching the mainland, he was taken ill, and as the movement of the vessel seemed to aggravate his condition, he was removed to the land, where a crude hut had been built to shelter him. In these wretched surroundings he breathed his last. A statue, remembering Xavier , stands in Kameyama Park, Yamaguchi, Japan (photo).

In the short space of ten years (May, 1542 - December, 1552), he traveled 9,000 miles, an incredible feat the transportation in those days. He brought the gospel to more than 50 nations, and baptized over one million converts. In the history of missions work his accomplishments have no equal. To many, Francis Xavier is considered the greatest missionary since the time of the Apostles. He was canonized with St. Ignatius in 1622, although due to the death of Gregory XV, the Bull of canonization was not published until the following year.

St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle to the Indies, set sail from Goa for India on his 35th birthday, April 7, 1541 — 466 years ago this week.


Other events that happened this week - April 1-7

April 1, 1548 - British Parliament orders the publication of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) designed to ensure that any Christian in Britain could walk into any church in the land and be familiar with the order of worship. The final form of the BCP was established by Thomas Cranmer and he is rightly credited with its creation, but it should be noted he worked with a committee of scholars to assemble the prayers and other components before editing the final liturgy.

April 2, 1877 - Birth of Mordecai Ham in Allen County, Kentucky. A fundamentalist Baptist evangelist by the end of his ministry, he laid claim to over one million converts—including Billy Graham, who responded to the call at a 1934 Ham meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

April 3, 1528 - Adolf Clarenbach, German teacher and principle, is arrested, for promoting the teachings of the Reformation. After being imprisoned and tortured for over a year, on September 28, 1529, Clarenbach and another reformation preacher, Peter Fliesteden, would become the first martyrs of the Reformation when they are burned at the stake in Cologne.

April 4, 397 - Ambrose of Milan, the most universally loved and respected bishop of the early church, dies. Biblical scholar, political theorist, musician, and teacher, Ambrose was, to use a modern expression, a force to be reckoned with during the fourth century. He once brought Roman Emperor Theodosius I to his knees in repentance after the emperor had ordered a massacare of his citizens. He is most often mentioned in history books as the teacher of his most famous pupil, Augustine of Hippo.

April 5, 1811 - Robert Raikes, founder of English Sunday schools in 1780, dies. Raikes built his Sunday schools not for respectable and well-mannered children of believers, but for (according to one woman's description) "multitudes of wretches who, released on that day from employment, spend their day in noise and riot." In 4 years, 250,000 students were attending the schools; by Raikes's death, 500,000; and by 1831, 1.25 million.

April 6, 1528 - Albrecht Durer, German painter, engraver, and designer of woodcuts, dies. Famous for his religious scenes, he may have been so influenced by Luther (whom he called "the great Christian man who has helped me out of great anxieties") that he converted to Protestantism. His most popular work is "Praying Hands ".

He Didn’t Turn Her Brown Eyes Blue.

When Amy Carmichael was a child in Ireland, her mother told her that if Amy were to pray then God would answer. Since Amy didn’t like her brown eyes she prayed for God to give her blue ones. The next morning Mrs. Carmichael heard her wail in disappointment. It was a while before Amy would understand that "no" was an answer too.

Even though the “no” answer disappointed her she never lost her faith in God. Service to Him became the passion of her life leading Amy to start classes and prayer groups for Belfast’s many poor and homeless children, known as “ragamuffins.” Her Sunday classes were also attended by "shawlies", factory girls so poor that they could not afford hats to wear to church and wore shawls instead. Believe it or not this was enough for “respectable people” to refuse to have anything to do with them.

In the years following her father’s death the Carmichaels found themselves in tough financial circumstances, so Mrs Carmichael decided to move to England and work for Uncle Jacob. Amy and another sister joined her. Uncle Jacob asked Amy to teach his mill workers about Christ and she threw herself into the work, living near the mill in an apartment infested with cockroaches and bed bugs. However, she was constantly sick with neuralgia and had to lie in bed for days at a time. Her bad health eventually forced her to give up the work.

When she announced she was going to be a missionary, her friends thought she was being foolish and predicted that she would soon be back in England for keeps. Nevertheless, in 1892, she answered the call to the mission field and made her way to India.

In Dohnavur, India, Amy Carmichael became a kidnapper. According to local custom young girls dedicated to the Hindu gods were forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests. Amy heard about a five-year-old girl named Kohila who faced just such a fate. Dressed in a sari, her skin stained brown, Amy could pass as a Hindu. Disguised in this way she rescued the little girl and gave her shelter. Now she understood why God had given her brown eyes. Blue eyes would have been a dead giveaway!

When the child’s guardians discovered what had happen they demanded the child’s return. Amy refused to return the little girl to a life of certain abuse and arranged for Kohila to "disappear" to a safe place. Technically that made her a kidnapper. Over the years, Amy would rescue many other children, often at the cost of extreme exhaustion and personal danger. Charges were brought against Amy. She faced a seven year prison term.

Amy did not go to prison. A telegram arrived on February 7, 1914, saying, "Criminal case dismissed." No explanation was ever forthcoming, but those who worship Amy's Lord have no doubt that He had a hand in the decision.

Amy would continue her mission for the next fifty years until her death in 1951. Her first under-cover mission, to rescue little Kohila from the temple, happened on March 9, 1901 — 106 years ago this week.

Other things that happened this week - March 4 - 10.

March 4, 1866 - Alexander Campbell, founder of the Disciples of Christ and the Church of Christ, dies. He sought desperately to get back to a "simple evangelical Christianity," founded on the Bible and the Bible alone. Campbell believed that creeds, confessions and liturgy could only bring division, not unity to the universal Christian church. To use his words, "The testimony of the Apostles is the only and all-sufficient means of uniting Christians.”

March 5, 1899 - Alcoholic-turned-evangelist Sam Jones begins a crusade in Toledo, Ohio, where the mayor was also named Sam Jones. Mayor Jones at first welcomed the publicity, the evangelist Jones was very popular drawing crowds in the tens of thousands every he went. The mayor's enthusiasm would wane however, as evangelist Jones decried the city's immorality --- "If the Devil were mayor of Toledo," the preacher said, "he wouldn't change a thing!". It should be noted that one month after the evangelist folded his tents and left, the mayor was reelected by a significant margin.

March 6, 1629 - In Germany, Ferdinand II issues the Edict of Restitution, which restores all church property appropriated by Protestants since Peace of Augsburg (1555) to the Roman Catholic Church.

March 7, 203 - Perpetua, a Christian about 22 years old, her slave, Felicitas, and several others are martyred at the arena in Carthage. They were flogged, faced hungry leopards loosed by Roman officials, and finally beheaded by a gladiator. She remains one of early Christianity's most famous martyrs.
March 8, 1915 - The US Supreme Court finds religious education in the public schools in volitation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.
March 10, 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII sentences politician, Dante Alighieri, to be burned to death for political reasons. He avoided the fate by living in exile, but he never saw his wife again. During his time of exile Dante turned to writing poetry and eventually penned his most famous work, The Divine Comedy.

Rambo vs The Darkness

I imagine for most of you, the name Rambo calls up images of Sylvester Stallone rampaging through the jungle, explosive tipped arrows in hand, winning wars single-handed against odds that would give the entire armed forces occasion to pause. Defying all odds, and over-coming all obstacles (usually by blowing them up) he always achieves the impossible goal the writers have set for him. One of my favourite lines is where the terrorist leader asks Rambo's captive commander, “Who does this man think he is? God??” To which Richard Crenna (playing the commander) responds, “No... God would be merciful!”

Well, I’d like to tell you about another Rambo, through whom God’s mercy was shown to thousands of people. He too defied the odds and battled to accomplish the seemingly impossible, only instead of an assemblage of Hollywood hacks, the writer of this screenplay was the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Victor Rambo could have been a highly successful surgeon in the United States. Instead his heart was filled with compassion for the blind in India. Victor understood the feeling of total helplessness that befell those who suffered from the likes of cataracts and glaucoma. He often told the story of one woman who, before losing her sight, was known as a hardworking and useful member of the community. But when she became blind, depression set in, to the point where she could not eat unless food was put in her mouth. She did not remember her family, the time of day, or even her own name. Then Dr. Rambo operated on one of her eyes. A week later, he took off the bandages, and by the end of the day the woman had her mind back, and her joy was so great she wept openly. Victor operated on her other eye, too, and then he told her and her family about another man who healed the blind, Jesus.

But with an estimated five million blind people in India, the need was too great for one man, or one clinic. Rambo started recruiting other doctors, and when that proved insufficient, he started training students of his own to meet the need. They would set up “eye camps” travelling from region to region rather than forcing people make the arduous journey to see him.

An advance team would arrive first to clean out and prepare the school or factory where the temporary clinic would be held. Then they would perform a kind of triage, identifying those who could be helped by surgery and tagging them as to which operation they needed. Before the operations began Victor Rambo always made sure his patients and their families understood that all this was being done for the sake of Jesus. He did all he could to calm their fears before the process began, sometimes even tap-dancing on top of a table to entertain them until the whole crowd was laughing and enjoying themselves.

Then the surgery would begin, all the teams working simultaneously, often lasting well into the night because, like his Hollywood namesake, this Rambo would not quit until everyone had been saved. After all the surgeries were done, and time came for Rambo to move on, a nurse would remain behind to make sure the bandages did not come off until the eyes had chance to heal properly. Teams also continued the gospel message, a message heard all the more because of the clear demonstration that Victor cared as much about them as he did about the preaching the gospel.

Dr. Victor Rambo clearly demonstrated that meeting people’s spiritual needs is most effective when we meet their physical needs as well. Too often in the church’s history great crusades have swept into a region preaching eternal salvation and then left their new converts to meet their saviour all too soon because they had no food for their stomachs or clothes for their backs. They fail to see the hypocrisy that exists in walking away after telling about the man who walked upon the water to a people who’s only source of drinking water is the disease infested run off from a garbage dump.

Dr. Victor Rambo had no such duplicity in his character. He knew in his heart, from the very beginning, that it would be easier for people to see Jesus, once they could see their friends and families. When Victor set out for India, he had never removed a cataract before, it was not part of his training. But he would soon learn, and make such a dent in that five million that he would become one of the most famous eye doctors in the world, winning the hearts of thousands for the Kingdom of God.

He set sail for India on January 12, 1924 – 83 years ago this week.


Other things that happened this week - Jan. 7-13

January 7, 367 Early church father Athanasius, famous for his battles against the Arian heresy (they denied the divinity of Christ), writes a letter that contains a list of what he thinks should be considered the canon of Scripture. At the Council of Hippo (Africa) in 393 his list would be accepted by the church.

January 8, 1956 Plymouth Brethren missionaries Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming are killed by Ecuadorean Indians they sought to evangelize. The story of the missionaries and their deaths along the Curaray River was publicized by Elliot's widow, Elizabeth, in 'Through Gates of Splendor', published the following year.

January 9, 1569 Philip of Moscow, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, is murdered by Czar Ivan IV, just one of the many reasons he was called Ivan the Terrible.

January 10, 1739 George Whitefield, Anglican preacher who launched America's first Great Awakening, is ordained to the ministry. Jealous of his popularity, many ministers denied Whitefield the use of their pulpits, so he took to open-air preaching. Good choice -- his booming voice, according to reports, could be heard up to a mile away.

January 11, 1759 The first American life insurance company is incorporated in Philadelphia. Since Madison Avenue wasn’t in the advertising game yet, the company had the cumbersome title of – "Corporation of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers."

January 13, 1501 The world's first hymn book printed in the common language of a region was published in Prague. It contained 89 hymns in the Czech language. I’d love to tell you what the name of it was, but the only surviving copy is missing its title page.