Reliquary theca with relic of St. Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Society of Jesus

Oval glass-fronted brass pendant reliquary theca housing the first-class ex ossibus (of the bone) relic of Saint Francis Xavier. The relics are affixed to a silk ground surrounded by silver wire ornamentation and identified in Latin on a manuscript cedula label as S. Francisci Xav. (Saint Francis Xavier). On the back, under a protective cap, the theca is secured with a perfectly preserved seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint with a coat of arms of Cardinal Bernardino Honorati (†1807), Titular Bishop of Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano in Rome. 

Saint Francis Xavier, S.J., († 1552), was a Navarrese Basque Roman Catholic missionary, born in Xavier, Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain), and a co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He was a companion of St. Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris in 1534. He is a patron of African missions; Agartala, India; Ahmedabad, India; Alexandria, Louisiana; Apostleship of Prayer; Australia; Bombay, India; Borneo; Cape Town, South Africa; China; Dinajpur, Bangladesh; East Indies; Fathers of the Precious Blood; foreign missions; Freising, Germany; Goa, India; Green Bay, Wisconsin; India; Indianapolis, Indiana; Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan; Joiliet, Illinois; Kabankalan, Philippines; Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippines; Alegria, Cebu, Philippines; diocese of Malindi, Kenya; missionaries; Missioners of the Precious Blood; Navarre, Spain; navigators; New Zealand; parish missions; plague epidemics; Propagation of the Faith; Zagreb, Croatia; Indonesia; Malacca; Malaysia, and Mongolia.