Francis Xavier baptizes a ‘Moor’: Unrecorded engraving.

[Devotional engraving]. S. Franciscus Xaverius, Soc. Jesu. Der theure Man[n] von Gott bescherrt, Viel taustent Mohren hat bekehrt. Augsburg: Philipp David Danner, s.a. [c. 1750]. [10.7 x 6.8 cm], [1] f. engraving with contemporary hand color, including highlights in gold paint. Trimmed inside platemark, minor edge wear and rubbing, colors still fresh.
 
 
Unrecorded 18th-century devotional engraving depicting St. Francis Xavier (1506-52) baptizing a native, who is referred to in the German couplet at the foot of the sheet as a “Moor.” Francis Xavier was, of course, well known for his extensive missionary work in Mozambique, Goa, Malacca, Molucca, Japan, etc., but this iconography is rather unusual among images of the saint. The print—published around 1750 in Augsburg by Philipp David Danner—is here preserved in an example in original hand-color with highlights in gold.
 
A bust-length, haloed St. Francis is shown atop a rocaille rock arch. The Sacred Name of Jesus is shown to his left. He holds a crucifix in his left hand and with his right hand pours baptismal water on the native below, who kneels, bows his head, and clasps his hands together in prayer. The sea and a sailing ship are seen in the distance; a palm tree suggests an exotic locale. 
 
The German distich reads, “The dear man bestowed by God, converted many thousand Moors.” Francis Xavier (somewhat mysteriously) used the term “Mauri regio” to refer to an island four hundred miles from Amboina (see De Vos, p. 299), but his conception of what was Moorish seems to have been flexible (and also flexible was the term “Mohren” in 18th-century Augsburg). “Saint Francis Xavier’s ‘Moors’ ranged from Moroccans, Algerians, and Tunisians, to even Egyptians: all Africans not noted by nation but by devotion” (Malieckal, p. 53).
 
 
This engraving is not located by OCLC, KVK, OMNIA, or the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.
 
*B. Malieckal, “India’s Luso-Africans: The Politics of Race, Colonialism, and Gender in Early Modern Portugal and Post-Colonial Goa,” P.C. Manuel et al., eds., Religion and Politics in a Global Society Comparative Perspectives from the Portuguese-Speaking World, pp. 47-74; Eduard De Vos, Leben und Briefe des heiligen Franciscus Xaverius Apostels von Indien und Japan, p. 299; G. A. Bailey, The Spiritual Rococo Decor and Divinity from the Salons of Paris to the Missions of Patagonia, p. 124 (on Danner).