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Biography A founding member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and honoured in the Catholic Church as patron saint of missions, Francis Xavier (1506-52) was a Spanish priest who laboured as a missionary in Asia. He worked in India and Japan, then died as he was about to enter mainland China. His connection with Africa was incidental to his journey to Asia. As he travelled by ship around Africa, Francis stopped in Mozambique for six months, August 1541 to February 1542, then at Malindi on the coast of today’s Kenya for about three to five days…

'Letter of S. Francis Xavier, to his companions living in Rome, Goa 20 September, 1542' Francis Xavier Date: 1542 Original Language: Spanish Description This is a small part of a much longer letter that Francis wrote from Goa to his companions in Rome, dated 20 September 1542. It tells of an encounter that took place between Francis and some Muslims in the town of Malindi in East Africa, where he had stopped off on his journey east. The Spanish original occupies ten pages in the Monumenta historica Societatis Jesu. Monumenta Xavieriana (vol. 2, pp. 250-60). Francis describes Malindi as ‘a…