sanctuary still haunted by the mournful strains of the Tenebra of the evening before; when but one Mass is sung, and so all the faithful, priests as well as laymen, crowd to the altar to receive the Blessed Sacrament on the day of its first institution from the hands of the Superior of the Church. Francis himself would probably say the Mass and give communion to all his brethren, to the students of the college, to the throngs of the faithful to whom he was so dear. Then he would bear in solemn procession, while the Pange lingua was being sung, the consecrated host, which was to be consumed on the following morning of Good Friday, to the altar of the Sepulchre, there amid lights and flowers to be adored without ceasing until the time came for the ceremony of the next day. He would then depart, with his heart full of love and thankfulness, never to return alive." On arriving at Malacca, towards the close of the spring of 1552, Xavier found it afflicted with a plague, and immediately undertook the charge of the stricken, in which capacity his knowledge of medicine proved of signal service. His courage, his faith, and his skill carried him uninjured through this trial; and as soon as the pestilence had somewhat subsided, he began to prepare for his Chinese expedition. It had been arranged that he should accompany a commercial embassy, under Diego Pereira, but the jealousy of the Governor of Malacca thwarted the design, though Xavier pressed it with his utmost energy. No obstacles or difficulties could induce him to forego his labour of love, and after a tedious delay, he obtained permission to go alone. On the 25th of June he set sail for the island of San Chan, which lay over against Macao, the Portuguese port for commercial intercourse with China. There he endeavoured to obtain the means of passage to the Chinese shore; but the hostility of the Chinese to European priests was so well known, that no trader would incur the risk of taking him on board his vessel. It was feared, moreover, that the Chinese authorities, in their indignation, would prohibit any further trading. As soon as he had recovered from an attack of fever, Xavier, with indefatigable energy, went from one to the other, until at last, for the heavy price of 200 gold pieces, he engaged a Chinese merchant, with a small crew, to land him on some desolate part of the Chinese coast, and there leave him, while they returned in safety to San Chan. But the Portuguese traders obtained information also of this design, and again interfered. The Chinese merchant did not keep his engagement; his interpreter abandoned him; what was to be done? He resolved to go to Siam, and to endeavour to enter China that way. While he was preparing for this last desperate adventure, he was seized a second time by the fever. This was on Sunday, the 20th of November, after he had said mass. A presentiment of death was upon him, and he went on board the ship used as a hospital that he might fare in all respects like the meanest; but finding it difficult there to engage his thoughts wholly in devotions, he begged to be taken ashore. Untended and helpless, he was lying on the bare ground, exposed to the wind and weather, when a sailor named Jorge Alvarez, shocked at his condition, took him into his own hut-a shed made with poles and tarpauling-and gave him shelter. Through the week he suffered greatly; lying in that miserable cabin, gazing up to heaven through a small window in the side, and praying tenderly and devoutly to a little crucifix which he held constantly in his hand. On the eighth day he was delirious for a time, and in his wanderings talked about his mission to China. After this he lost his speech; but he recovered it on the Wednesday, and thenceforward his mind was perfectly clear. He expressed a wish that the vestments and sacred vessels which he had used for Mass, as well as a manuscript of the Christian Doctrine which had been transcribed in Chinese characters, might be taken on board the ship. He spoke a good deal in ejaculations, but the lad who waited upon him could remember only those which were familiar to him, such as, "O sanctissima Trinitas!" "Jesu, Fili David, miserere mei !" and "Monstra te esse matrem !" Without physician or medicine, he lay a victim to the fever, which ran its course rapidly. On Friday, the 2nd of December, about two in the afternoon, he fixed a last rapturous gaze upon his crucifix; his face kindled with joy; sweet tears streamed from his eyes; and he passed away into his rest, repeating with his last breath the concluding words of that glorious 66 66 Te Deum which, for generations, has been the triumphant expression of Christian joy :-" In te, Domine, speravi; non confundar in æternum !" (In Thee, O LORD, have I trusted; let me not be confounded for ever). His remains were removed to Malacca, and interred in the church of Santa Maria del Monte. A twelvemonth afterwards they were translated to Goa, where, on the 17th of March, they were solemnly deposited in the sanctuary of the College Church. The estimate which I have been led to form of "the Apostle of the Indies" has been so sufficiently set forth in the preceding pages, that I need not here attempt a formal analysis of his character. But lest the reader should consider me unwisely partial, and look upon my judgment as that of a panegyrist, I propose to give the words of the late Frederick Myers, whom no one will suspect of an excess of sympathy with the enthusiasts of the medieval Church. : "We have before us," he says, "the idea of a Missionary of the Gospel realised in a greater degree than I know of anywhere but in the Inspired Records of our Faith. We have an instance of a young man and a noble, renouncing pleasure and preferment, to take up the Cross: of a Sadducee becoming a Saint of a Collegiate Professor converted to do the work of an Evangelist. We have a remarkable instance of sanctity and self-sacrifice united with charity and zeal; and this alone is an approximation to the distinctive character of a Christian Apostle. Power of endurance and meekness beyond ordinary men were also conspicuous in Xavier and these again are noble and Apostolic qualities. The most marvellous self-control was his-ever enabling him to calm a fiery nature into acquiescence in insult, and to submit to open shame with no other change of countenance than a smile, with no other utterance of the lips than a prayer. An uniformly cheerful man was he, always courteous, gentle, and genial-of the Pauline school. He had sold himself, or rather had surrendered himself, once for all, to work good in the sight of the LORD all his days and so he never felt himself his own, but CHRIST'S and his brethren's: and thus toil and affliction of all kinds 1 Frederick Myers, "Lectures on Great Men," p. 102. Y he counted his ordinary state; absence of suffering was his highest pleasure, and repose his only indulgence. And joined to these singular passive virtues was a peculiar continuous zeal, inspiring without inflaming him-manifesting itself rather by a fuller and more living development of the ordinary graces of the Christian character than by any partial or irregular outbreaks: so that you could not say that he was extravagant in any way, at the same time that you could not deny that he was altogether extraordinary. For a model of severe piety unrelieved by unceasing charity; of asceticism without gloom, and yielding gentleness never spoiled by insincerity-I know not where to point you in these later ages better than to FRANCIS XAVIER.” |
