The commemoration of Zephaniah the prophet.
In 1552, in China, St. Francis Xavier. Francis was born in a castle near Pamplona. At seventeen he went to the University of Paris, where he became one of the first followers of his fellow Basque aristocrat, Ignatius of Loyola (July 31). In 1541, at the age of 35, he was appointed apostolic nuncio in the East and set sail for Goa, reaching that city after a thirteen-month voyage. Living as a poor man among he poor, he had considerable missionary success among the lower castes, whose cause he championed. He then worked for several years in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. He made many converts in Japan. He returned to India, and then went to China, where he died not long after. He was canonized in 1622, along with St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Teresa of Avila (October 15) and St. Philip Neri (May 26).
Our daily martyrology was written by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB. Copyright © 2008 by the Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID 83338.
