In the midst of his conversations with secular men, the saint was often called aside of God, by certain sudden illuminations which obliged him to retire; and when afterwards they sought him, he was found before the holy sacrament, in some lonely place, engulphed in deep meditations, and frequently suspended in the air, with beams of glory round his countenance.  Many ocular witnesses have deposed this matter of fact; but some have affirmed, that at first they have found him on his knees immovable; that they have afterwards observed, how by degrees he was mounted from the earth; and that then, being seized with a sacred horror, they could not stedfastly behold him, so bright and radiant was his countenance.  Others have protested, that while he was speaking to them of the things of God, they could perceive him shooting upward, and distancing himself from them on the sudden, and his body raising itself on high of its own motion.

These extraordinary ravishments, which bore some manner of proportion to the glory of the blest above, happened to him from time to time during the sacrifice of the mass, when he came to pronounce the words of consecration; and he was beheld elevated in that manner, particularly at Meliapore and at Malacca.  The same was frequently observed at Goa, while be was communicating the people; and what was remarkable, as it was then the custom to give the sacrament in kneeling, he appeared to be lifted from the earth in that humble posture.

For common extasies, he had them almost every day, especially at the altar, and after the sacrifice of the mass:  insomuch, that many times they could not bring him to himself, with pulling him by the robe, and violently shaking him.

The delights which he enjoyed at such a time, are only to be comprehended by such souls, which have received from heaven the like favours.  Nevertheless, it is evident, that if it be possible for man to enjoy on earth the felicities of heaven, it is then, when the soul, transported out of itself, is plunged, and as it were lost, in the abyss of God.

But it was not only in these extatic transports, that Xavier was intimately united to our Lord:  In the midst of his labours, he had his soul recollected in God, without any dissipation caused by the multitude or intricacy of affairs; insomuch, that he remained entire in all he did, and at the same time whole in Him, for whose honour he was then employed.

This so close and so continual an union, could only proceed from a tender chanty:  the divine love burning him up in such a manner, that his face was commonly on fire; and both for his interior and outward ardour, they were often forced to throw cold water into his bosom.

Frequently in preaching and in walking, he felt in himself such inward scorching, that, not being able to endure it, he was constrained to give himself air, by opening his cassock before his breast; and this he has been seen to do on many occasions, in the public places at Malacca and at Goa, in the garden of St Paul’s college, and in the sandy walks of the sea-shore.