Francis Xavier

About Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier (1506–1552) was a pioneering Catholic missionary and a co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). His historical importance, recognized by his #995 rank in the Pantheon project, stems from his extensive missionary work across Asia, particularly in India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. He is credited with establishing a significant Christian presence in these regions during the Age of Exploration, cementing his status as one of history's most influential religious figures.

In the modern digital landscape, Francis Xavier’s attention profile shows a near-perfect alignment with his historical weight, achieving an Attention Gap of approximately 1x. His 462K Wikipedia views in 2025 are relatively in line with the global cultural impact MIT's index estimates. For comparison, Henry Dunant, ranked significantly higher at #636 importance, garnered only 129K views in the same year, suggesting Xavier receives proportionally more attention than some figures ranked substantially higher in historical importance.

Despite this general balance, his recent online engagement shows some volatility: his pageviews saw an 18.2% decrease year-over-year. However, this might be countered by a recent, small surge in interest, as indicated by a +15% momentum change between the first and third quarters of 2025.