In the Shadow of Francis Xavier: Martyrdom and Colonialism in the Jesuit Asian Missions

Abstract

This article focuses on the violent deaths of the Jesuit missionaries Rodolfo Acquaviva, Marcello Mastrilli, and Diego Luis de San Vítores, who were killed in the course of their evangelical endeavors in India, Japan, and the Mariana Islands, respectively. It elucidates the ways in which the figure of St. Francis Xavier intersected with the Jesuit ideal of martyrdom, while situating the three martyred Jesuits within the history of Iberian imperialism and colonialism. Xavier became the dominant Jesuit image of apostolic sanctity, and he greatly energized the evangelical zeal of many Jesuits, eager to missionize in distant East Asia. At the same time, the Jesuit evangelical impulse in the early modern period became closely intertwined with the desire for martyrdom. In their efforts to create saintly figures of the three slain missionaries, Jesuit authors would establish a special connection between St. Francis Xavier and the martyred Jesuits, Mastrilli and San Vítores being described as almost perfect replicas of the saint, even though Xavier never experienced martyrdom.