Apostle of the Indies

For missionaries — and the Novena of Grace.

One of the first companions of St. Ignatius, Francis Xavier left Europe in 1541 and spent eleven years preaching in India, the Moluccas and Japan, dying within sight of China. He is co-patron of the missions with St. Thérèse, who never left her convent.

The Prayer

O most amiable and most loving St. Francis Xavier,
in union with you I adore the Divine Majesty.

I give thanks to God for the singular gifts of grace
bestowed upon you in life,
and of glory after death,
and I beg of you to obtain for me,
by your powerful intercession,
the grace to live a holy life and to die a holy death.

I beg you to obtain for me [name your request],
but if what I ask is not for the glory of God
or the good of my soul,
obtain for me what is more conducive to both. Amen.

The Novena of Grace

Prayed from 4 to 12 March each year, ending on the anniversary of his canonisation, the Novena of Grace is one of the most widely kept novenas in the Jesuit world and is offered in churches across Asia and Latin America.

About This Devotion

His feast is 3 December. He wrote back to Ignatius complaining that his arms ached from baptising and his voice had given out from repeating the Creed — the letters of a man doing more than one person can, which is what he did for eleven years and then died at forty-six.