Advent, A.D. 2025, by Francis X. Maier

The Island of Mozambique is a speck on Google Maps, a tiny patch of land two miles off the East African coast.  Today, it’s a sleepy UNESCO World Heritage site.  It’s also a magnet for hardcore tourists.  One reason is its beauty.  The other is its history.  Five hundred years ago, it was a vital, heavily fortified Portuguese trading and administrative center.  It stood midway between Europe and Portuguese possessions in the Far East, and thus had immense strategic value.  I first saw the island in the early 1970s, reporting on Portugal’s colonial wars.  From the mainland, it looked like the ends of the earth; an exotic jumble of poverty and decaying wealth floating on the horizon.

At the time, though, that’s not what piqued my interest.  Remembering a particular saint did.  My family, when I was a child, had a special love for the missions, and (St.) Francis Xavier spent seven months on Mozambique Island, August 1541 to March 1542, on his way to India.  He devoted himself to preaching, baptizing, hearing confessions, and working among the sick and dying in the island’s hospital.  He almost certainly celebrated Mass in the island’s Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte (“Our Lady of the Bulwark”).  Built in 1522 by Portuguese sailors, it still exists today.  It’s the oldest European structure in the southern hemisphere. ….

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