St. Francis Xavier was born in 1506 in Navarre, Spain and died in 1552 on the Chinese island of Shangchuan. As a young man, he joined the Society of Jesus and became one of the first Jesuits. He spent much of his life traveling and working as a missionary, bringing Catholicism to many places in Asia such as India, Indonesia, and Japan. He is considered one of the greatest missionaries in history for his extensive travels and the number of converts he helped attract to the Catholic faith in Asia during his lifetime.