Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest
Many legends have arisen from the life of St. Francis Xavier. He was such a holy man, and he accomplished so many heroic deeds that ever since, his stories and his relics have always been in high demand. In 1614, five decades after his death, his right arm was amputated and brought to Rome where it remains permanently on display for veneration. The legends say that, during the arm’s sea voyage from India to Rome, Dutch pirates attacked. The Portuguese ship that was carrying the relic was slow and unarmed. The sailors gave themselves up for lost, until they remembered the arm of the great saint. As the pirates drew near, a priest brought the relic up from below decks and held it aloft. The crew knelt before it and implored its saintly owner to have mercy on them and defend them from the pirates. The sailors did not consider themselves worthy of mercy, so they asked St. Francis Xavier merely to have mercy on his own arm. At that moment, the pirate ship was stopped in its tracks, and yet the Portuguese ship continued sailing along safely all the way to Italy. The relic was brought into Rome with great solemnity on November 11, 1614.
Scholars who read these legends use scientific techniques to sort out how many of them are certainly true, how many are probably true, and how many are probably pious exaggerations. Scholars need to remember that the gospels encourage us, from time to time, to have a childlike receptivity to the world around us. “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike’” (Luke 10:21). Even if some legends are only probably true, and even if some legends are pious exaggerations, it remains certainly true that God has accomplished miracles far more amazing than anything our imaginations can come up with.