Question

When did St. Francis Xavier come to India?
A.1540
B.1541
C.1542
D.1543

Answer 1

Hint:St.Francis Xavier, born in 1506, was one of the greatest Roman Catholic missionaries of modern times. He is pivotal to the spread of Christanity in India with his arrival in Goa. He was also the co-founder of the Society of Jesus and one of the first seven Jesuits who took the vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris in 1534 under leadership of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Complete answer:
St. Francis Xavier was one of the most prominent figures to the propagation of Christianity in India. He first arrived in Goa in 1542, and began his journey by treating the sick in the hospitals. He then commenced spreading the word of God to the masses. He’d taken a group of people to Church and taught them about Cristianity. He was the one who commenced the Cristian missionary activities in India.
He spent the next three years on the southeastern coast of India among the simple, poor pearl fishers, the Paravas. About 20,000 of them chose to accept baptism.
He used a small catechism translation to native Tamil with the help of interpreters, he travelled from village to village in order to spread the word of God.
Soon after Macuans declared their desire to be baptized, St.Francis baptized 10,000 people in the last months of 1544.
In 1584, he sent three missionaries to the three main Indian centers to spread the faith of Christianity.

Hence, the correct answer is option (C).

Note: A 20th-century estimate put the figure of those baptized by him at about 30,000, as opposed to the 1,000,000 asserted by Baroque exaggeration. He had to struggle a lot with linguistic barriers of communication. Ultimately, it was his idea that the missionary must adapt to the customs and language of the people he evangelizes.