ASIA/INDIA - “A Bridge between Europe and Asia: Saint Francis Xavier 5th centenary”: Goa hosts international Conference on the patron Saint of the Missions promoted by Navarra University in Spain

Goa (Agenzia Fides) - “A Bridge between Europe and Asia: Saint Francis Xavier 5th centenary” is the title of an International Conference on Saint Francis Xavier organised 22-25 January in the Indian city of Goa by the University of Navarra in Spain as part of initiatives to conclude special celebrations for the 5th centenary of the birth of the Patron Saint of the Missions (3rd December 1506). Participants will include 40 experts from various countries including Spain, Portugal and India who will reflect on the life of Saint Francis Xavier the missionary "bridge” between East and West.
Papers will focus on history, art and literature in relation to the life of Saint Francis Xavier: Xavier’s missionary pedagogy; Experience of God in Saint Francis Xavier in the light of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola"; Saint Francis Xavier and his path to Moluccas; Letters of Saint Francis Xavier from the East before Japan. The Conference will include a Spanish guitar concert and a play on the Saint’s life performed by the Memory Theatre Company from Colombia. The highlight of the Conference will be a special Mass in the Bom Jesus Basilica, Goa where the body of Saint Francis Xavier is buried. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 11/1/2007; righe 16, parole 220)