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Xavier Lyrics

Xavier

Fair Roseanna your vagrancy's a familiar tale
Fraught with danger the lives you led were judged profane

Hatred enfolds us
Inculcates the minds with it's heresy
Laymen enfold us
Clemency arrives to set you free

Faith
Although Xavier has prayed
That life-giving waters may rain
Down on the souls of man
To cure them of their ways

These were the sins of Xavier's past
Hung like jewels in the forest of veils
Deep in the heart where the mysteries emerge
Eve bears the stigma of original sin

Freedom so hard when we are all bound by laws
Etched in the seam of nature's own hand
Unseen by all those who fail in their pursuit of faith

Although Xavier has prayed
That life-giving waters may rain
Down on the souls of man
To cure them of their ways

And as the night turns into day
Will the sun illuminate your way
Or will the nightmares come home to stay
Xavier's love lies in chains

These were the sins of Xavier's past
Hung like jewels in the forest of veils
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Cover art for Xavier lyrics by Dead Can Dance

Brenden revealed recently that this song is about Roseanna Xavier (one person), a fictitious character who is dealing with being a woman born into a man's world. For YEARS I wondered who this Xavier person was, and if it was a historical character. But Roseanna is the combined name of Brendan's mother and aunt.

Cover art for Xavier lyrics by Dead Can Dance

The fourth track from Dead Can Dance’s third album, Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, details the trials of one Roseanna Xavier, a fictional woman who is unjustly persecuted for unspecified (but subtly implied) reasons. Xavier makes for a tragic feminist heroine subjugated by the confines of a society dominated by men.

The narrator makes an appeal for humanity to look on the judgements of Xavier with a critical eye, and for empathy to rule over the fear of the unknown and of that which differs from convention.

The exact nature of the persecution that Xavier suffers is undisclosed but centers around the fact that she is a woman. She is judged a vagrant and profane, suggesting perhaps that she suffers due to an open expression of sexuality or of a strong identity that diverges from the expectations of a patriarchal society that favours submissive and conforming women.

St. Francis Xavier was the the greatest Roman Catholic missionary of modern times. I am thinking there was some inspiration for why he chose that as the songs name. With encouragement from his friend Ignatius of Loyola, Xavier devoted himself to religious service and became one of the founders of the Jesuit order. so I do agree with unfashioned's comment especially since it's from Brendan Perry himself but I have always believed there was some genuine religious undertones in this songs lyrics and title that cannot be ignored.

Song Meaning
Cover art for Xavier lyrics by Dead Can Dance

Even the savior has sins... though he has traveled far into the mysteries, go in deep enough and you can see his flaws as well