Before the coming of Father Francis to the Indies, Christianity had made but little progress in those countries; and of an infinite number of Pagans, inhabiting the isle of Goa, and the parts adjoining, scarce any man thought of forsaking his idolatry.  In the year 1541, James de Borba, a Portuguese preacher and divine, whom king John III. had sent to India, searching out the cause of so great a misfortune, found, that it was not only because the Europeans could not easily learn the Indian tongue, but also, because if an Indian happened to be converted, they exercised no charity towards him; and that the children of the faithful, who died poor, were destitute of succour in their wants.

He gave notice of this to the grand vicar, Michael Vaz, to the auditor general, Pedro Fernandez, to the deputy-governor, Rodriguez de Castel Blanco, and to the secretary of state, Cosmo Annez, who were all of them his particular friends, and virtuous men.  These being in the government, considered of the means to remedy the growing evil, the foundation of which had been discovered to them by Borba; and he himself excited the people to be instrumental in so good a work.  For, one day preaching, he passionately bemoaned the damnation of so many Indians, and charged it on the conscience of his auditory, that the salvation of that idolatrous people depended, in some sort, on them.  “I pretend not,” said he, “that you should go yourselves to the conquest of souls, nor learn barbarous languages on purpose, to labour in the conversion of Gentiles.  What I beg of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, is, that each of you would contribute something towards the maintenance of the new Christians.  You will perform by that, what it is not in your power to do by the preaching of the gospel; and gain, by your temporal goods, those immortal souls, for which the Saviour of the world has shed his blood.”

The Holy Spirit, who had inspired his tongue, gave efficacy to his words, by touching the hearts of those who heard them.  Many of them being joined together, it was resolved to form a company, which should provide for the subsistence of those young Indians newly converted; and that society at first was called, the Brotherhood of St Mary of the Light, (or Illumination,) from the name of that church where the fraternity assembled, to regulate that new establishment.

It is true, that, as great works are not accomplished all at once, in the beginning of this, there was only founded a small seminary, for the children of Goa, and those of the neighbourhood; but the revenues were increased so much afterwards by the liberality of Don Estevan de Gama, governor of the Indies, and by the bounty of John III., king of Portugal, that all the idolatrous children, who turned Christians, of what country soever, were received into it.

There was also a fund sufficient for the building a fair house and a magnificent church in a larger plot:  and the seminary, over which Borba presided, was then called, the Seminary of Holy Faith.