Longtime HomelessHapas readers may recall our previous encounters with St. Francis Xavier in Goa, India, and Melaka, Malaysia. Well, we met him again right here in Kagoshima. We had not known that the guy made it to Japan, much less right here to Kagoshima, so it was a pleasant surprise to see there was a park dedicated to him on our tourist map. We strolled over to the park, which is in downtown Kagoshima and sure enough, there were a few different statues of the legendary traveler monk that we’ve been following around Asia.

Apparently, a Japanese trader in Melaka invited St. Francis to Japan to do missionary work there. So he sailed to Kagoshima, which was the only port open to foreigners until the 19^th century. He even went as far north as Kyoto, where he unsuccessfully attempted to gain an audience with the emperor. He traveled around Japan a bit before sailing to Goa. He then sent one of his Japanese disciples (whom he gave the Portuguese name Bernard) to Rome, where he met the pope. But this guy Bernard was the first Japanese to ever visit Europe- who thought the first Japanese to visit Europe would be named Bernard? He even stayed in Europe for four years, until his death in Portugal.

Besides the newest story I just recounted, I am amazed with this guy St. Francis Xavier. That guy got around. I mean he’s been nearly everywhere we have on this trip except he did it in the 16^th century. From Europe to India to South East Asia to China and Japan, he seems to be the most prolific traveler of his era, falling chronologically between Ibn Battuta and Magellan. I have become quite an admirer of him and feel a somewhat strange connection knowing that he preceded us on the same itinerary 450 years ago. I would give anything to have travelled around with him and seen all the same places we’ve seen back then. It would be awful travel, but I feel the amazingness would more than make up for it all. Eh, dreams. I did some internet research and found out that besides being a well-traveled guy who’s preserved body sits in Goa, he is famous for some other good and bad reasons. If you’re a Christian, you may think it good that he’s credited with converting more people than anyone since Paul. On the other hand, he imported The Inquisition from the Iberian Peninsula and established the Goa Inquisition. And also, apparently, he had quite a condescending attitude towards non-Christian native peoples. So it seems that he was a pretty bad dude, but it still seems somewhat odd and amazing that we keep crossing paths with him.