St. Francis Xavier
St. Francis Xavier, the
great missionary to the East, arrived in Malacca in 1545 and served the sick
and the children there. He left shortly afterwards, but came back to the town in
1547, when a military victory was attributed to him. He travelled to many
countries and stopped by Malacca whenever he was around the region. His fame
spread far throughout Asia.
In 1574, the saint died in a
ship before he could reach China, a place that he was anxious to Christianize.
People found his body perfectly incorrupt, and sailed it to Malacca. People in
Malacca were in deep mourning at the funeral. On the day of the funeral, the
saint, after his life on earth, performed a miracle and stopped a plague that
had been causing many deaths every day.
The body of St. Francis
Xavier was later shipped to Goa in India, after parts of the relics were stolen
or taken by different people. Today, most of his remains still rests in the
Basilica of Bom-Jesus in Old Goa. He is the patron of the Indies and is called
"the apostle of the East".
The present St. Francis
Xavier Church was completed in 1856.
Source : Blog cuti malaysia
