Francis, the first pope to visit Japan in 38 years, began his stay by telling bishops in Tokyo of his youthful dreams to be a missionary in Japan and how they were finally being fulfilled.

St. Francis Xavier, who was born in Spain and evangelized in Asian countries including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and China, died in 1552 after converting 100,000 people to Catholicism.

RELATED: Relics of St. Francis Xavier shown in Goa, India “So he ventured as a messenger of the Gospel to Japan with the intention of entering China but died on the island of Shangchuan.

In Malaysia, St. Francis Xavier met a Japanese who interested him in that island nation and, from 1549-52 was involved in spreading the Gospel there. The year 1552 found him back in Goa.

The 465-year-old arm of St. Francis Xavier is making its way across Canada and stopped at a Vancouver church Wednesday. Local Catholics spent a brief moment in the presence of a piece of religious ...

The relic of St. Francis Xavier, whose body lies in Goa, India, will be viewed and venerated by tens of thousands of Catholics as it makes its way from St. John’s to Victoria as part of a tour ...

The relic of St. Francis Xavier is treated, in some ways, like the Stanley Cup. It is carried around in a large padded duffel bag, escorted by an appointed guardian, D'Arcy Murphy.

The legacy of St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who died four centuries ago, continues shaping generations in the Asian Church, says Indian Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao. Ferrao, ...

Vatican City (Fides Service) - The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has, 14 May 2004, accepted the renunciation of the pastoral government of the Diocese of Takamatsu (Japan), presented by Bishop Joseph ...

Francis Xavier died in China in 1552, but his body was taken to Goa the next year. The Jesuit saint was the chief missionary of Asia, preaching Christianity in what is now India, and also China ...