St. Francis Xavier

3rd December - The Life and Letters of Saint Francis Xavier is the classic life of the great Jesuit who renewed the labours and the miracles of the Apostles in the sixteenth century.

Weaving his text around 124 full-length original letters written by the saint, Father Henry James Coleridge brings him to life and allows us to know him intimately: the arm fatigued by so many baptisms, the gentle voice that converted, the heart that loved and was loved, the eye that penetrated the soul and the future: the miraculous cures, resurrections, deliverance from impending disaster, the bilocations, the gift of tongues, the burning zeal to spread the kingdom of Christ, the tender charity for every misfortune, the daily combat to rescue souls from damnation, the faith that saw the truths of the catechism as clearly as we see material objects, the terrible anathemas thundered against those who obstruct the Church's mission - and finally the death, alone, at Chan, yearning to win China but summoned to glory at just 46 years of age.