The only European left standing on St Paul's Hill today is a Basque Spaniard and a 1529 Masters degree graduate from the renowned University of Paris. He could have lived it up, his was a family of noblemen and estate holders, but he chose priesthood and spent his adult life converting and trying to convert people of Tamil, Malay and Japanese tongues to Roman Catholicism. His missionary tenure in Malacca was fleeting, just three years from, but then his life was short. St. Francis passed away in 1552 in Sancian, a desolate island off the shores of China, while awaiting a boat to go to the mainland to preach.
The Statue of St Francis Xavier stands in front of the ruins of St. Paul's Church, completed only in 1952 marking the 400th anniversary of St Francis Xavier's visit to Malacca while on his way to the Far East. When he died in China a year later and his body was sent back to Malacca, where it was interred here for nine months. When a decision was made to transfer it to Goa, the exhumers were astounded to learn that his body showed little sign of decay, even though it had been buried for nine months. This led to request for the missionary to be made a saint. So in order to be canonized, the Catholic church needed a relic and thats when the arm of Francis Xavier was severed, after nine month without life, it still dripped blood. So if you take a look at Francis Xavier's statue, you will see that his right arm is also missing. That is not the initial design of the statue. A day after the statue was consecrated, a large tree fell on it, breaking off its right arm. With that, it stands today without its right arm.
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