Saint Francis Xavier was a Navarrese pioneering Roman Catholic Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order). The Roman Catholic Church considers him to have converted more people to Christianity than anyone since St. Paul. Pope Benedict XVI said of both Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier: "not only their history which was interwoven for many years from Paris and Rome, but a unique desire a unique passion, it could be said moved and sustained them through different human events: the passion to give to God-Trinity a glory always greater and to work for the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ to the peoples who had been ignored."[4] As the foremost saint from Navarre and one of the main Jesuit saints, he is very venerated in Spain and the Hispanic countries where Francisco Javier or Javier are common male given names.[5] As a spin-off, Xavier itself became a male name popular in Portugal, Brazil, France, Belgium, and southern Italy. In Austria and Bavaria the name is spelled as Xaver (pronounced Ksaber and often used in addition to Francis as Franz-Xaver. Xavier is one of the few names starting with X in English. Francis Xavier is a Catholic saint. He was beatified by Paul V on October 25, 1619, and was canonized by Gregory XV on March 12, 1622, at the same time as Ignatius Loyola. He is the patron saint of Navarre, Spain; Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippines; Australia; Borneo; China; the East Indies; Goa, India; Japan; New Zealand, and of missionaries. His feast day is December 3.