The Moluccas
A place in the history of the Church
Islands very far away, in Asia, where the Portuguese traded.
What happened here
- St. Francis Xavier: around 1546 he went to the Moluccas. There he put the catechism into verse, in the local language, and taught people to sing it.
Today
Today they are part of Indonesia.
Source: Pope Francis, general audience of May 17, 2023; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Francis Xavier”