The sixteenth-century Jesuit Francis Xavier was invoked as the patron saint of Catholic missionaries as a result of his endeavors in India, Japan and China. The book is a detailed account of the life and work of St. Francis Xavier, who was a Jesuit missionary and a patron saint of Catholic missions. The author has compiled the book from the personal correspondence of St. Francis Xavier, which gives a firsthand account of his experiences and the challenges he faced during his missionary work. The book covers the life of St. Francis Xavier from his early days as a student in Paris to his journey to India, Japan, and other parts of Asia. The author describes the various obstacles that St. Francis Xavier faced during his missionary work, including language barriers, cultural differences, and resistance from local authorities. The book also provides insights into the religious and social conditions of the regions where St. Francis Xavier worked. He is credited with spreading Christianity to many parts of the world and his work has had a lasting impact on the Catholic Church. Overall, the book is a comprehensive account of the life and work of one of the most important figures in the history of Catholic missions. The book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the history of Christianity and the spread of Catholicism around the world.
Henry Venn (1796-1873) was an Anglican clergyman who is recognised as one of the foremost Protestant missions strategists of the nineteenth century. He was an outstanding administrator who served as honorary secretary of the Church Missionary Society from 1841 to 1873. He was also a campaigner, in the tradition of the Clapham Sect, who frequently lobbied Parliament on social issues of his day, notably on ensuring the total eradication of the Atlantic slave trade by retaining the West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy.
THE history of modern Roman Catholic Missions to heat en countries forms an important subject of inquiry with all who take an interest in the progress of Christianity. One of the most remarkable periods in this history is that which extends from the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth centuries. It was then that Jesuit Missionaries and some of the ablest men appeared in the field. The great influence and wealth of Portugal were at that time exerted to give effect to the work of evangelizing India, Japan, China, and America. It is difficult to calculate the number of Missionaries which the Church of Rome maintained during that period in all parts of the known world. Long after the work had declined, by the expulsion of the Portuguese from their Eastern supremacy, Niecamp, who wrote a History of the Danish Mission in South India, states, that when the first two Protestant Missionaries were sent out (in 1706), the number of Ro- mish Missionaries then in the East was estimated at two thousand.
Yet our information of Roman Catholic Missions is very meagre and unsatisfactory. The sources of in- formation are either various collections of letters of Missionaries, or dry compilations from those letters. But these sources of information cannot satisfy any one who desires a clear knowledge of this subject. He will seek for histories of Missions written from the field of labour by the labourers themselves, or by those who have witnessed the work abroad or the Journals and collected letters of individual Missionaries. Since Missions were taken up in earnest by the Protestant Church, at the close of the eighteenth century, the press, in England and America, has teemed with such Missionary histories and biographies. Numerous volumes have been written by Missionaries themselves, or by their relatives and others. In such books we see the living man and his real work. As soon, therefore, as my attention was turned to the subject of Romish Missions, I sought out for some such authentic biographies, memoirs, or histories of Romish Missionaries. Wherever I inquired, the Life of Xavier was presented to me, and no second work of that class could be named. I searched public libraries and booksellers' shops without success. I made inquiries personally at the head-quarters of Romish Missionaries in France, namely, the Institute of the Faith at Lyons, but was assured that the Life of Xavier was the only biography of any authority: the same answer was returned to a friend who made the inquiry at the College of the "Propaganda" at Rome; and my friend was further informed that it was contrary to the principles of the Romish Church to permit the unauthorized publication of the personal history of its Missionaries.
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