The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

by John Dryden

He was six-and-forty years of age, and had passed ten-and-a-half of them in the Indies. His stature was somewhat above the middle size; his constitution strong; his air had a mixture of pleasingness and majesty; he was fresh-coloured, had a large forehead, a well-proportioned nose; his eyes were blue, but piercing and lively; his hair and beard of a dark chesnut; his continual labours had made him gray betimes; and in the last year of his life, he was grizzled almost to whiteness. This without question gave occasion to his first historians to make him five-and-fifty years old, before the certain proofs of his age came at length to be discovered.

When it was known that Father Francis was expired, many of the ship, and even the most devoted to the governor, ran to the cabin. They found the same fresh colour on his face as he had when living, and at the first sight could hardly persuade themselves that he was dead. When they had looked on him at a nearer distance, piety began to be predominant over all their other thoughts: they kneeled down by him, and kissed his hands with reverence, recommending themselves to him, with tears in their eyes, as nothing doubting but that his happy soul was perfectly enjoying God in heaven.

His corpse was not laid into the ground till Sunday towards noon. His funerals were made without any ceremony; and, besides Antonio de Sainte Foy, Francis d'Aghiar, and two others, there were not any more assistants. An historian of the Indies has written, that the unsupportable coldness of that day, was the occasion of it. But in all probability, the apprehension which the ship's company had of drawing on themselves the displeasure of the governor, Don Alvarez, had at least as great a share in it as the sharpness of the season. They took off his cassock, which was all in tatters; and the four, who had paid him those last duties, divided it amongst them, out of devotion; after which they arrayed him in his sacerdotal habits.

George Alvarez took upon himself the care of bestowing the body in a large chest, made after the Chinese fashion; he caused this chest to be filled up with unslaked lime; to the end that, the flesh being soon consumed, they might carry the bones in the vessel, which within some few months was to return to India.

At the point of the haven there was a little spot of rising ground, and at the foot of this hillock a small piece of meadow, where the Portuguese had set up a cross. Near that cross they interred the saint: they cast up two heaps of stones, the one at his head, the other at his feet, as a mark of the place where he was buried.

In the mean season, God made manifest the holiness of his servant in the kingdom of Navarre, by a miraculous accident, or rather by the ceasing of a miracle. In a little chapel, at the castle of Xavier, there was an ancient crucifix made of plaster, of about the stature of a man. In the last year of the Father's life, this crucifix was seen to sweat blood in great abundance every Friday, but after Xavier was dead the sweating ceased. The crucifix is to be seen even at this day, at the same place, with the blood congealed along the arms and thighs, to the hands and sides. They, who have beheld it, have been informed by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, that some persons of that country having taken away some of the flakes of that clotted blood, the bishop of Pampeluna had forbidden any one from henceforward to diminish any part of it, under pain of excommunication. They also learnt, that it had been observed, according; to the news which came from the Indies, that at the same time when Xavier laboured extraordinarily, or that he was in some great danger, this crucifix distilled blood on every side; as if then, when the apostle was actually suffering for Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ was suffering for him, notwithstanding that he is wholly impassible. The ship, which was at the port of Sancian, being at the point of setting sail For the Indies, Antonio de Sainte Foy, and George Alvarez, desired the captain, Luys Almeyda, not to leave upon the isle the remainders of Father Francis.

One of the servants of Almeyda opened the coffin, by the order of his master, on the 17th of February, 1553, to see if the flesh were totally consumed, so that the bones might be gathered together; but having taken the lime from off the face, they found it ruddy and fresh-coloured, like that of a man who is in a sweet repose. His curiosity led him farther to view the body; he found it in like manner whole, and the natural moisture uncorrupted. But that he might entirely satisfy all doubts and scruples, he cut a little of the flesh on the right thigh, near the knee, and beheld the blood running from it. Whereupon he made haste to advertise the captain of what he was an eye-witness; and carried with him a little piece of flesh, which he had cut off, and which was about a finger's length. All the company ran immediately to the place of burial, and having made an exact observation of the body, found it to be all entire, and without any putrefaction. The sacerdotal habits, with which he had' been vested after his disease, were nowise damaged by the lime. And what was most amazing to them all, was, that the holy corpse exhaled an odour so delightful, and so fragrant, that, by the relation of many there present, the most exquisite perfumes came nothing near it, and the scent was judged to be celestial.

Then those very people, who, basely to comply with the brutality of Alvarez, had misused Father Xavier in his life, after his decease did honours to him; and many of them asked his pardon with weeping eyes, that they had forsaken him so unworthily in his sickness. Some amongst them exclaimed openly againt Alvarez, without fearing the consequence; and there was one who said aloud, what was said afterwards by the viceroy of the Indies, Don Alphonso de Norogna, "That Alvarez de Atayda had been the death of Father Francis, both by his persecutions at Malacca, and by the cruelties of his servants at Sancian." With these pious meditations, having laid the unslaked lime once more upon the face and body, the sacred remains were carried into the ship; and not long after they set sail, esteeming themselves happy to bear along with them so rich a treasure to the Indies.

They arrived at Malacca, March 22, without meeting in their passage any of those dreadful whirlwinds which infest those seas; as if the presence of this holy corpse was endued with virtue to dispel them. Before they had gained the port, they sent in their chalop to give them notice in the town of the present which they were about to make them: though none of the Society were in Malacca, and that the plague was there violently raging, yet the whole nobility, and all the body of the clergy, came with James Pereyra to the shore, to receive the blessed body, each with a waxen taper in his hand, and carried it in ceremony to the church of Our Lady of the Mount, followed by a crowd of Christians, Mahometans, and Idolaters, who on this occasion seemed all to be joined in the same religion.

Don Alvarez was the only person who was wanting in his reverence to the saint: he was then actually at play in his palace, while the procession was passing by; and, at the noise of the people, putting his head out at the window, he miscalled the public devotion, by the names of silliness and foppery; after which, he set him again to gaming. But his impiety did not long remain unpunished, and the predictions of the man of God made haste to justify their truth.