Xavier Leaves Japan

1551

Disheartened by his inability to learn the language yet hopeful for Asia's future, Francis Xavier sailed from Japan after two years of missionary labor. He had baptized perhaps a thousand converts and left small but stubborn Christian communities in Kagoshima, Hirado, and Yamaguchi. Next stop, he decided: China. His strategy of targeting elites and adapting teaching to Buddhist categories established the Jesuit model Matteo Ricci later refined in China.