Case file · File · Prove All Things

His Arm Is in Rome. The Rest of Him Is in India.

“But prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Douay-Rheims

The case

His right arm is in Rome. The rest of him is in India. Francis Xavier was one of the first Jesuits. He sailed from Portugal for India in fifteen forty-one and never came home. India, Japan, the islands in between. Eleven years. Tradition says he baptized tens of thousands of people with that right hand.

The evidence

Every quotation below is printed in the words of the edition named under it. Nothing is paraphrased.

“And some that were burying a man, saw the rovers, and cast the body into the sepulchre of Eliseus. And when it had touched the bones of Eliseus, the man came to life, and stood upon his feet.”

4 Kings 13:21 (Douay-Rheims; 2 Kings in most Bibles) — read it at the source

“So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them.”

Acts 19:12 (Douay) — read it at the source

Catholics do not worship bones. The honour given to a saint's remains is veneration of the body God worked through, and a statement that it will rise again (Catechism 1674 on the veneration of relics within popular piety; the Creed's "I believe in the resurrection of the body").

What’s established, and what isn’t

What the sources support, claim by claim — each one checked against the sources listed at the foot of this page:

Xavier was one of the first companions of St Ignatius and one of the first Jesuits
Sailed from Lisbon in 1541; never returned to Europe
Worked in India, the Malay and Moluccan islands and Japan for about eleven years — he embarked 7 April 1541, reached Goa 6 May 1542, and died in December 1552
Tradition credits him with tens of thousands of baptisms
Died on Shangchuan (Sancian) Island of fever, waiting for passage into China — 2 or 3 December 1552; the sources differ
Buried in quicklime; exhumed months later found undecayed (per witnesses)
Body moved to Goa, where it rests in the Basilica of Bom Jesus
It is not whole: organs and bone were removed and given away as relics from the seventeenth century on, and the remains are venerated as sacred relics, not as an incorrupt body
Right forearm severed in 1614 by order of the Jesuit Superior General and sent to Rome (the Gesu)
4 Kings 13:21 and Acts 19:12 are the passages traditionally cited for the honour given to relics

Where the record stops short:

That the body was found undecayed months after burial in quicklime rests on the accounts of the witnesses who exhumed it.
The number of baptisms credited to Xavier - tens of thousands - comes from tradition, not from a register.

For your men’s group

He sailed from Portugal in 1541 and never came back. What is the furthest you have gone for something you believed?
His arm is in Rome and the rest of him is in Goa. Why do Catholics keep the bodies of the saints at all - what is the honour for?
He died waiting to get into China, with the work unfinished. What would it take for you to be at peace with that?

Every source

Found an error? [email protected] — errata corrected the day they’re found.

Drafted with AI assistance, founder-directed, and checked against the sources linked here. Our editorial standards.

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