St. Francis Xavier in Mindanao

In a map of the Philippines drawn up by the Jesuit Murillo Velarde and engraved by the Filipino Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay in 1744, my attention was riveted by St. Francis Xavier shown close to Mindanao, because it was once believed that he visited the Philippines in his missionary voyage through Asia. At Francis Xavier’s feet is a crab carrying a crucifix—a portrayal that retells one of his famous miracles.

Caught in a violent storm at sea, the saint raised his eyes to the heavens and prayed. He took a crucifix hanging from his neck and, depending on the version you are told, either dipped it into the waters where it fell from his hand or threw it in the turbulent waters that then turned calm. Soon the crew sighted land.  On the shore, a crab emerged from the depths to return Francis Xavier’s cross; the saint blessed the crab in gratitude. The story goes that the crab was not eaten and returned to the sea, and that its relatives and progeny are now marked by a cross on the shell. I was once fed some of these crabs in Gensan and I realize now that I should have taken the shells as a souvenir. Those crabs are also seen as proof that Francis Xavier visited Mindanao.

Did Francis Xavier set foot on Mindanao or any other part of the Philippines? The negative answer is to be found in a very long and detailed footnote in one of the four volumes that tell the life of the saint by Georg Schurhammer, SJ. First he listed down the sources that say Francis Xavier visited Mindanao: Garcia Serrano (1623), Mastrilli (1637), Sanvitores (1661), Colin (1663), Combes (1667), Garcia (1673), Massei (1681), Sousa (1710), Alcazar (1710), Murillo Velarde (1749), Delgado (1754), Retana (1894 and 1906), Pastells (1897, 1923, 1925), Ravago (1909), Apalategui (1920), Feeney (1931), Cannon (1934), Ubillos (1945), and  Eguren (1953).

These may look very impressive against the sources that say otherwise: Chirino (1604), Juan de la Concepcion (1788), Pio P1 (1909), Brou (1912), Santiago Vela, Repetti (1936), and Brodrick (1952). Contrary to popular belief, history is not a popularity contest. The sources for Francis Xavier’s visit to Mindanao lose to those against and two undecided: Astrain (1902) and Perez Goyena (1922).

This is all too bad for local tourism and those who want to install a historical marker there to draw pilgrims and the curious. Schurhammer listed the places Francis Xavier is said to have visited: Jolo, Buhayen,  Mindoro, Paragua, Davao, Caraga, Butuan, Lake Lanao and Manila! Schurhammer pointed out that a story published in 1614 about Francis Xavier being caught in a storm that lasted five days and blew his ship from the coast of Kyushu in the direction of Papua, Celebes, and Mindanao was not reliable. Then he pointed out that the text in the Bull of Canonization that says Francis Xavier was the first to evangelize in specific places in Asia did not necessarily mean he had visited them. For example, he preached to imprisoned Achinese in Malacca and didn’t really visit Aceh, and he preached to Mindanao women married to Portuguese men in Ternate and didn’t really visit Mindanao.

It may surprise some that Schurhammer even disputed the Bull of Canonization for Francis Xavier that was cited by one pious author who declared it as “the greatest authority even in historical questions, prepared and published with the greatest care while [Xavier’s] contemporaries were still alive, none of whom spoke against it.” Schurhammer simply stated: “The bull is full of historical errors.”

Schurhammer focused on Pablo Pastells, historian of the Philippines famous for an exchange of letters with Jose Rizal. Schurhammer conceded that Pastells knew the Philippine material in the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla but “knew little about Moro territory and the Portuguese and Dutch sources on this mission. During the course of his studies, [Pastells] changed his position three times.”

In 1897 Pastells wrote that Francis Xavier visited Northeastern Mindanao from Celebes and returned to Ternate. In 1900 he wrote that Francis Xavier used this itinerary from September to November 1546: Ternate-Morotai-Morotia-Talaut-Davao-Surigao-Davao-Talaut-Siau-Menado-Ternate. In 1925 he said Francis Xavier sailed to Mindanao in July 1547 and stayed 18 days in Illana bay before returning to Malacca. On this Schurhammer commented: “This would have been a completely impossible route and it is contradicted by all the contemporary documents.”

After reading Schurhammer’s definitive footnote debunking Francis Xavier’s visit to Mindanao, I realized yet again what primary-source research and scholarship is all about. Schurhammer reminded me of the painstaking study and inquiry that went into the Folger editions of Shakespeare that we used in high school. These had Shakespeare’s text on the left side of the book, and line-by-line annotations and explanatory notes on the right. These comprise absolutely useless information by themselves but are indispensable for anyone seriously studying Shakespeare.

My appreciation for research and scholarship began in high school. My lifelong work on Rizal and his world began with Folger editions of Shakespeare, and led to admiration for shameless displays of erudition by scholars like Schurhammer.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu