Abstract
This study explores the 138 preserved writings of St. Francis Xavier, which consist of only thirty three original documents and eight autographs among a greater number of dictated works. These writings, including letters, catechisms, and other materials, recount his arduous journeys and periods of evangelization in Southeast Asia from 1544 to 1552. The research emerges from the notable absence of specific terms; Xavier does not use words such as mission, missionary, society, or culture. With this in mind, we aim to uncover the vocabulary and concepts that the Jesuit employed to describe his religious endeavors, along with the societies, communities, spaces, and cultures he encountered between Malacca and the Moluccas. Ultimately, Xavier’s vivid descriptions in 1548 of alleged cannibalism among the inhabitants of the Moro Islands (Sugibawah), located northwest of Halmahera, offer a framework for a more nuanced interpretation of the cultural distance that characterized his movements, settlements, preaching, and teaching in what is now known as Southeast Asia.