Aeterne rerum omnium effector Deus, memento abs te animas infidelium procreatas, easque ad imaginem et similitudinem tuam conditas. Ecce, Domine, in opprobrium tuum his ipsis infernus impletur. Memento Iesum Filium tuum pro illorum salute atrocissimam subiisse necem. Noli, quaeso, Domine, ultra permittere ut Filius tuus ab infidelibus contemnatur; sed precibus sanctorum virorum et Ecclesiae, sanctissimae Filii tui sponsae, placatus, recordare misericordiae tuae, et oblitus idololatriae et infidelitatis eorum, effice ut ipsi quoque agnoscant aliquando quem misisti Dominum Iesum Christum, qui est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra, per quem salvati et liberati sumus, cui sit gloria per infinita saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Prayer of St. Francis Xavier for the Conversion of Unbelievers
The missionary's own prayer: 'Remember that Thou alone didst create the souls of unbelievers… suffer not Thy Son to be any longer despised' — indulgenced by Pius IX in 1847.
Eternal God, Creator of all things, remember that Thou alone didst create the souls of infidels, framing them to Thy own image and likeness: behold, O Lord! how, to Thy dishonour, hell is daily replenished with them. Remember, O Lord! Thy only Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered for them, most bountifully shedding His precious blood: suffer not, O Lord! Thy Son and our Lord to be any longer despised by infidels; but rather, being appeased by the entreaties and prayers of the elect, the saints, and of the Church, the most blessed spouse of Thy Son, vouchsafe to be mindful of Thy mercy, and, forgetting their idolatry and infidelity, cause them also to know Him whom Thou didst send, Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord, who is our health, life and resurrection, through whom we are made free and saved, to whom be all glory for ever. Amen.
On 3 December, the saint's feast; during the Novena of Grace (4–12 March); on World Mission Sunday; for the missions.
Francis Xavier baptised tens of thousands in India, the Moluccas and Japan between 1542 and his death on the island of Sancian, within sight of China, in 1552. This is the prayer the Church has kept as his: it does not ask for his own success but pleads God's own interest — that the souls of unbelievers are His creation and His image, that His Son died for them, and that hell is filling with them to His dishonour. Its blunt final petition is the whole of the missions: 'cause them also to know Him whom Thou didst send.'
Pius IX indulgenced it in 1847 and the Raccolta placed it among its first prayers 'to Almighty God'. Pius XI named Xavier patron of all the missions in 1927. The English is the New Raccolta's of 1903.
Three hundred days, once a day — Pius IX, rescript in his own hand, 24 May 1847 (New Raccolta, 1903).
