The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier is a large altarpiece painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1617 or 1618.

[3] This painting, along with The Miracles of St. Ignatius of Loyola, were purchased by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa after a fire caused the St. Charles Borromeo Church to close in 1773.

[4] Near the upper left corner of the altarpiece between the two columns, there is statue that wears a crown and has an open mouth at the middle portion of the body.

[4] Rubens created studies of St. Francis Xavier's gestures to give him a pose that shows that he is healing people.

[4] The paintings contained a lot of dynamic movement, barely visible outlines, and variety of tones.

[4] This was used to show that St. Francis Xavier had the ability to perform miracles and restore faith to the Roman Catholic Church.

[8] Researchers know that Rubens received information about the geography and history of Asian culture from Theodore de Bry.

[2] In the middle of the painting, there are men in Korean outfits who symbolize people who initially questioned St. Francis Xavier's ability to perform his miracles.

[7] Rubens drew this figure based on the information he received from sculptures and travel accounts about Indian culture.

[2] Another possibility is that Rubens was inspired by an art piece created by Jacopo Tintoretto, called St. Roch Healing Plague Victims.

[10] The figure was originally going to wear Turkish attire, but the Jesuits wanted a variety of clothing to represent their activity in Asia.

[10] The East Asian attire in this painting symbolizes the belief that Catholicism was superior while demoting paganism to a primitive status.

[10] Recent research has demonstrated that the man is actually a Chinese Protestant from the Ming period named Yppong.