In plenary session of the Executive Council period of Catholic Reform, when there were renewed ideals of sanctity, the Deputation of the Kingdom of Navarre received St. Francis Xavier as patron saint in 1621, proposing that the Cortes, as an institution that embodied the Kingdom itself, ratify the board of trustees, something that happened in 1624. In Navarre, the Xavierists, strongly influenced by the Jesuits, had their support in the institutions (Cortes and Diputación), among whose members there were Jesuit alumni. The Ferminists, who did not share that decision, had their supporters in the city of Pamplona and the chapter of its cathedral, together with a large part of the clergy, suspicious of the power and influence that the sons of St. Ignatius had been gaining. That struggle should be contextualized with other confrontations in the Spain of the sixteenth century, highlighting what happened with the board of trustees of Santiago and Santa Teresa.

The differences between the two sides became more acute in 1643, when the Diputación published a proclamation declaring Saint Francis Xavier as the only patron saint of the Kingdom. The efforts of both sides to gain supporters intensified. A list of the followers of the positions of the Kingdom, and therefore javieristas, includes Tudela (dean, collegiate chapter, all the parishes and the brotherhood of San Dionís), Viana (city and ecclesiastical chapter), Cascante (city and ecclesiastical chapter), Tafalla (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Corella (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Olite, which after giving power revoked it, Puente la Reina (town), Sangüesa (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Aibar (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Cáseda (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Villafranca (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Valtierra (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Arguedas (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Zúñiga (town and ecclesiastical chapter), Cintruénigo (town), Monteagudo (town), Buñuel (town), Ablitas (town), Barillas (town), Fontellas (town), Fustiñana (town), Cortes (town), Rocaforte (town), Murchante (place), Mendigorría (ecclesiastical chapter), San Martín de Unx (ecclesiastical chapter). Among the neutral towns were Monreal, Estella, Lumbier, Aoiz, Espronceda, Santesteban, Aguilar and the monasteries of Irache, Marcilla and Leire. Those who had seized the city of Pamplona and the Ferminists were the city of Olite, revoking the one it had previously given for the Kingdom, the towns of Miranda, Mendigorría, Artajona and Burlada, the collegiate church of Roncesvalles, the monastery of Fitero -which changed its first support to Javier- and the cathedral of Pamplona.

The confrontation ended with a Papal Brief of 1657, which declared San Fermín and San Francisco Javier aeque principal patrons of the Kingdom, with certain preeminences for the first one, due to his condition of martyr. Festive celebrations in style, came to corroborate the pontifical decision.

Joy and music in the novena and confraternities

The Jesuit saint was not only celebrated in December, but also in March with the celebration of the Novena of Grace which, as is known, had its reason for being in the commemoration of the date of his canonization, and its origin in the healing, in 1634, of Father Marcelo Mastrilli, a Jesuit who was about to die and was healed through the intercession of the saint from Navarre. Together with that fact, another prodigy worked with Father Alexander Philippuci in 1658, triggered the popularity of the novena. It spread rapidly through the Jesuit schools. In Pamplona, that of the high school de la Anunciada, endowed since 1713 by Francisco Antonio Galdeano, was of great solemnity. In 1781, the Deputation of the Kingdom made an effort to obtain graces and indulgences for those attending and, in 1922, the Bishop of Pamplona declared it obligatory in all the parishes of the diocese, since until then it had been celebrated by custom.

The joys were sung and recited at the end of the novena. Its most widespread text was that of the Jesuit Francisco García (1641-1685), who also wrote a biography of the Navarrese saint. His couplets and refrain were very popular in towns and cities for two main reasons. On the one hand, they were a very simple way of teaching the people about the life and work of St. Francis Xavier. On the other hand, when they were sung and accompanied, either with a small chamber orchestra or organ, they became the part that aroused most expectation among those attending the event.

The content of those gozos is a summarized and popular version of the bull of canonization of the Navarrese saint and his extensive hagiography. The first of his couplets reads: "Being noble Navarre gave you / Full Professor Paris / Soldier to Ignatius you follow / When heaven reformed you / You despise the value / and all the human applause". Through these simple lyrics he gave an account of his origin and birth. Many people in Europe and America would listen to the reference letter a Navarra at that time. The musicalization of the gozos was also very abundant until the 19th century.

As for confraternities in Navarre, leaving aside the archconfraternity founded in the parish of San Agustín in 1885 and the brotherhood established in 1940, the old ones were in Uztárroz (1676), Caparroso (1692), Isaba (1694), Mélida (1705), Estella (1706), Puente la Reina (c. 1714), Lesaca (1720, women only), Aoiz (1723), Javier (1726), Sangüesa (1742), Falces (refounded in 1784), Abaurreas (refounded in 1806) and Ochagavía.

Countless images

The first image of the co-patrons is a canvas of 1657 of the City Hall of Pamplona, made by Juan Andrés de Armendáriz. On the cover of the Annals of Navarre by Father Moret (1684), they appear in an engraving, which gave rise to pictorial versions. In some cases, the representations of the co-patrons reached American lands, as shown in a canvas by Juan de Correa or the reliefs of the church of Santa Rosa de Michoacán, made under the sponsorship of Bishop Martín de Elizacoechea, who ruled that diocese between 1745 and 1756. However, the most important iconographic consequence of the Papal Brief of 1657 was the presence of Fermín and Javier, making pendant, in many major altarpieces of Navarre, built from the second half of the 17th century (Miranda de Arga, Larraga, Arizcun, Azpilcueta or Santiago de Sangüesa). In them San Fermín appears on the preferential side of the Gospel, as a martyr, while Javier, in his capacity as confessor, appears on the Epistle side.

Beyond the Comunidad Foral, several engravings of Javier usually show his Navarrese nature. Series such as those of the Imperial high school of Madrid (Paolo de Matteis, 1692), today scattered, those of Mexico, the Merced of Quito or the castle of Javier (Godefrido de Maes, 1692) constitute a magnificent exponent of his cult, in addition to his chapels and altarpieces in the internship totality of the churches of the Jesuits all over the world. The interested reader can consult the doctoral thesis of Gabriela Torres on the iconographic networks that were generated around his image. In relation to his iconography, it should be remembered that the life of the saints did not end with their death, since, after leaving the earthly world, another decisive stage in their historiography began: that of the fabrication and reception of their transfigured figure.

Great artists of the Baroque period represented Javier as a pilgrim, missionary, or in scenes of his life and working miracles. Rubens, Murillo, Zurbarán, Gregorio Fernández, Matteis and a long etcetera left exceptional and numerous examples. Behind that abundance, we must point out some causes linked to his role of first order in the history of the Society, together with St. Ignatius, as well as his model as a young missionary who leaves everything to follow Christ. In many cases, the miracles of Xavier are behind patronages and images. The times of the Counter-Reformation were also times of new models of holiness, in tune with a missionary Church and defender of the works of mercy, as valid to obtain salvation. The construction and diffusion of the image of Xavier as a thaumaturgist, missionary, static and miracle-working saint was something that contributed to his international fame, being acclaimed as patron saint in cities of the category of Naples or Bologna and having outstanding confraternities in different continents. The 17th century required thaumaturgical saints and it was not enough for Rome to present to God blessed ones of great merit and sanctity, but also for God to offer them to Rome. The sign of divine approval was the miracle, a sign that left no doubt about holiness.

Filiation with his homeland in literary works and in the project of the New Kingdom of New Navarre.

Ignacio Elizalde conducted a study on St. Francis Xavier in Spanish literature. Some texts linked the saint and Navarre. For example, Father Bernardo Monzón's Xavieradas ( 1600-1682), a poem full of symbolism, in which the gods of the Greco-Latin pantheon and countless allegories are given quotation . To the Navarrese saint he applies all the nicknames of the Navarrese monarchs, with their justification: arista (swift athlete in his youth); tremulous (he trembled once before the final judgment, but not since St. Jerome appeared to him in Venice); strong (in dreams he carried the Ethiopian); long (generous to God); meek (with gentleness he got a Portuguese who of seven wives left six); wise (he defeated in disputes many bonzes); closed (out of humility he hid his miracles); cruel (he was cruel against himself by punishing his lightness in sport); bad (because he spoke badly of himself and well of all); beautiful (in face and above all in soul); desired (the Parabas considered him God); greater (he was greater than all those who gave glory to Navarre).

We can also highlight a theatrical piece, in the form of a scenic dialogue, represented in 1753 in Orihuela, in which we find the topic of the saint and Navarra, precisely in several dramatic steps, the first of which carries by degree scroll: "Dialogue of San Francisco Xavier between India and Navarra".

The famous Jesuit missionary, explorer and cartographer Padre Kino (1645-1711) who traveled to New Spain with the Navarrese P. Goñi de Viana and Admiral Atondo de Valtierra, proposed the name "Nuevo Reino de la Nueva Navarra" for a mission statement and a territory of the leave California, because of his admiration for the saint.

Beyond the foral borders: patron saint of missions, navigators, tourism, to take state and advocate against the plague.

The nickname of Apostle of the Indies for St. Francis Xavier became popular since the end of the 16th century. The bull of canonization itself (1622) came to revalidate that state of opinion, when, in narrating his death, it describes him as "Apostle of the East Indies". A new, although belated endorsement, was the designation, on the part of Benedict XIV, as Patron of the East, in 1748. In 1904 he was proclaimed Patron of the works of the Propagation of the Faith, in 1927, Patron of all the Missions together with St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and in 1952 Patron of Tourism.

The maritime voyage of St. Francis Xavier and his special protection in the navigation of the lands of the East made the men of the sea invoke him, when the oceans were a mass of adversities. Several prodigies supported that protection, especially the miracle of the return of his crucifix by the crab.

As an advocate of the good death he appears in loose and bookish prints. Likewise, he was invoked at the time of taking state. In the latter case, some engravings propose him as "Patronus de vitae statu deliberantium" and present him as a richly dressed young man, with a Crucifix, before the book of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and next to symbols and attributes of the world and its vanities: weapons, helmets, necklaces, crowns, bonnets, books, coins and the horn of plenty.

The spectacular miracles worked by his intercession gave rise to paintings such as the one by Rubens (1617-1621) and to numerous prints that spread rhetorical models in order to present Xavier as a sympathetic advocate against the dreaded plague.

In modern times: around the castle, the javieradas and the Day of Navarre

The 19th century, with its political ups and downs, without the presence of the Society of Jesus in Navarre until the end of the century, did not present the best conditions for new developments in the cult and the report of Xavier. The liberal society was going to enter by other routes and the signs of identity were also going to swell with others, of different nature and character. However, the figure of Javier continued to be very popular, especially from the last decades of the 19th century, when Pamplona was placed under his protection on the occasion of the cholera epidemic, his archconfraternity was founded (1885) and the first great pilgrimage to Javier took place in 1886, with the attendance of 12,000 people. The restoration of the castle and the creation of high school of San Francisco Javier de Tudela should be placed in the same context.

The celebrations of the IV centenary of his birth and, above all, of the III centenary of his canonization in 1922, were also important milestones in Navarre, especially the latter. The javieradas, the Luz y Sonido show and the construction of the parish of San Francisco Javier in Pamplona, are other examples of what was done in his shadow throughout the last century.

In the preamble of the 1985 Foral Law on the celebration of the Day of Navarre, he is mentioned as "an outstanding example of human and intellectual restlessness, of a dedicated and adventurous spirit, of a man who did not disdain difficulties to travel the most remote areas of the Earth... a prototype of a universal Navarrese open to the cultures and peoples of the whole world, remembered and admired, even today, by communities of great issue of countries in all continents".