One of the first European hagiographic and epic poems, Bernardo de Monzón's Xavieradas unifies the western epic tradition, visual elements, metaphors, with some oriental knowledge, to bring back to life the adventures of Francis Xavier through East Asia. The story of Xavier's pilgrimage is accompanied by geographical descriptions, dramatic twists often dreamlike and unreal, portraits of illustrious people, historical events, appearances of nymphs, and much more.

This very extensive heroic piece (more than 2,000 verses) has a solid structure and a clear language, in...