This paper looks at the gigantic turn experienced by Francis Xavier: from university student to universal man. He came to the Sorbonne University with the intention of becoming a scholar and to prepare himself for a career, probably an ecclesiastical one, desiring to recover the fame of his name and the honor of his family, humiliated by the defeat and the loss of autonomy of the Kingdom of Navarre. His openminded character, his brilliant intelligence, his passionate personality gave a strong impulse to his project. Ignatius of Loyola came across his life, who progressively opened his mind to more universal horizons and kindled his heart with the ideal of following Christ through a total identification with him. Xavier directed the whole strength of his being, through the experience of the Exercises, and especially through the meditation of the Eternal King, to the conquest of the most remote, most different, most forgotten peoples for the Gospel. He opened to the Church the cultures of the East and died exhausted by this immense endeavor.