Xavier's letters reveal the character of a man of sanguine temperament and affectionate nature, a Christian of deep, fervid devotion, true humility, and passionate earnestness for the winning of souls. His biographers surround his career with a halo of miracles; yet in his letters he lays claim to no such performances, a silence which admirers ascribe to modesty. In the breviary office for his festival he is said to have enjoyed the miraculous gift of tongues; but his letters show that he had to resort to an interpreter for communicating with the native population. These letters bring us close to the real man, and help us to form a vivid picture of his labours. Xavier would go about through the streets ringing a bell and inviting the people—men, women, and children—to come and hear him preach. The following is his own account of his method: "I used to preach to the people promiscuously," he says, "in the morning, on Sundays, and on holy days. In the afternoon I expounded the articles of the creed to the natives, and the crowd of hearers was so great that the church could hardly contain them. I afterwards taught them the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments of the law of God. On Sundays I used to say mass for the lepers, whose hospital is close to the city, heard their confessions, etc."[1] Xavier established a college at Goa to hold five hundred students, which was partly supported by the government. After his first five months in Goa he set out with three students on a missionary journey, of which he gives a full description in his letters to the Society at home. Travelling barefooted, with a torn cassock and wearing a black stuff hat on his head, he visited the Paravas, a poverty-stricken people of low caste, with whom he spent fifteen months. Like our modern missionary he had found the Brahmin almost hopeless. Next he went to Travancore, which was partly heathen and partly Mohammedan; yet there he tells us that village after village received him with joy.
- ↑ Coleridge, Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, vol. i. p. 120.
