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The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

A >> Alban Butler >> The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints




{362}

APPENDIX

ON

THE MARTYRS OF CHINA.

THE devil set all his engines to work, that he might detain in his
captivity those great nations, which, by the inscrutable judgments of
God, lay yet buried in the night of infidelity, and by their vicious
habits and prejudices had almost extinguished the law written in their
breast by their Creator. The pure light of the gospel sufficed to dispel
the dark clouds of idolatry by its own brightness; but the passions of
men were not to be subdued but by the omnipotent hand of Him who
promised that his holy faith and salvation should be propagated
throughout all nations. All the machinations of hell were not able to
defeat the divine mercy, not even by the scandal of those false
Christians, whom jealousy, covetousness, and the spirit of the world
blinded and seared to every feeling, not only of religion, but even of
humanity. Religious missionaries, filled with the spirit of the
apostles, and armed with the power of God, baffled obstacles which
seemed insurmountable to flesh and blood; and by their zeal, charity,
patience, humility, meekness, mortification, and invincible courage,
triumphantly planted the standard of the cross in a world heretofore
unknown to us, and but lately discovered, not by blind chance, but for
these great purposes of divine providence.

It appears from the Chinese annals, in F. Du Halde's History of China,
that this vast empire is the most ancient in the world. Mr. Shuckford
(B. 1, 2, 6) thinks, that their first, king, Fo-hi, was Noah himself,
whom he imagines to have settled here soon after the deluge. Mr.
Swinton, in the twentieth tome of the Universal History, justly censures
this conjecture, and rejects the first dynasty of the Chinese history;
which Mr. Jackson in his chronology, with others, vindicates. We must
own that the Chinese annals are unanimous in asserting this first
dynasty, whatever some have, by mistake, wrote against it; and this
antiquity agrees very well with the chronology of the Septuagint, or
that of the Samaritan Pentateuch, one of which several learned men seem
at present much inclined to embrace. As for this notion that the Chinese
are originally an Egyptian colony, and that their first dynasty is
borrowed from the latter; notwithstanding my great personal respect for
the worthy author of that system, it stands in need of proofs founded in
facts, not in conjectures. A little acquaintance with languages shows,
that we frequently find in certain words and circumstances a surprising
analogy, in some things, between several words or customs of the most
disparate languages and manners of very distant countries: several
Persian words are the same in English, and it would be as plausible a
system to advance that one of these nations was a colony of the other.
From such circumstances it only results, that all nations have one
common original. Allowing therefore the Chinese an antiquity of which
they are infinitely jealous, Fo-hi was perhaps either Sem himself, or
one that lived very soon after the flood, from whom this empire derives
its origin. Confucius was the great philosopher of this people, who drew
up the plan of their laws and religion. He is thought to have flourished
about the time of king Solomon, or not much later. He was of royal
extraction, and a man of severe morals. His writings contain many
sublime moral truths, and show him to have been the greatest philosopher
that ever lived. As he came nearer to the patriarchs in time, and
received a more perfect tradition from them, he surpassed, in the
excellency of his moral precepts, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato. He
taught men to obey, honor, and fear the Lord of Heaven, to love their
neighbor as themselves, to subdue irregular inclinations, and to be
guided in all things by reason; that God is the original and ultimate
end of all things, which he produced and preserves, himself eternal,
infinite, and immutable; one, supremely holy, supremely intelligent, and
invisible. He often mentioned the expectation of a Messias to come, a
perfect guide and teacher of virtue; calling him the holy man, and the
holy person, who is expected to come on earth. It is a tradition in
China, that he was often heard to say, "That in the West the Holy One
will appear." This he delivered from the patriarchal tradition; but he
not only mentions heavenly spirits, the ministers of God, but he also
ordains the worship of these spirits by religious rites and sacrifices,
and concurs with the idolatry which was established in his time. St.
Francis Xavier had made the conversion of China the object of his
zealous wishes; but died, like another Moses, in sight of it. His
religious brethren long attempted in vain to gain admittance into that
country; but the jealousy of the inhabitants refused entrance to all
strangers. However, God was pleased, at the repeated prayers of his
servants, to crown them with success. The Portuguese made a settlement
at Macao. an island within sight of China, and obtained leave to go
thither {363} twice a year for to trade at the fairs of Canton. F.
Matthew Ricci, a Roman Jesuit, a good mathematician, and a disciple of
Clavius, being settled a missionary at Macao, went over with them
several times into China, and in 1593, obtained leave of the governor to
reside there with two other Jesuits. A little catechism which he
published, and a map of the world, in which he placed the first meridian
in China, to make it the middle of the world, according to the Chinese
notion, gained him many friends and admirers. In 1595, he established a
second residence of Jesuits, at Nanquin; and made himself admired them
by teaching the true figure of the earth, the cause of lunar eclipses,
&c. He also built an observatory, and converted many to the faith. In
1600, he went to Pekin, and carried with him a clock, a watch, and many
other presents to the emperor, who granted him a residence in that
capital. He converted many, and among these several officers of the
court, one of whom was Paul Siu, afterwards prime minister, under whose
protection a flourishing Church was established in his country, Xankai,
(in the province of Nanquin,) in which were forty thousand Christians
when the late persecution began. Francis Martinez, a Chinese Jesuit,
having converted a famous doctor, was beaten several times, and at
length expired under the torment. Ricci died in 1617, having lived in
favor with the emperor Vanlie.

F. Adam Schall, a Jesuit from Cologn, by his mathematics, became known
to the emperor Zonchi: but in 1636, that prince laid violent hands upon
himself, that he might not fall into the hands of two rebels who had
taken Pekin. The Chinese called in Xuute, king of a frontier nation of
the Tartars, to their assistance, who recovered Pekin, but demanded the
empire for the prize of his victory: and his son Chunchi obtained quiet
possession of it in 1650. From that time the Tartars have been emperors
of China, but they govern it by its own religion and laws. They
frequently visit their original territories, but rather treat them as
the conquered country. Chunchi esteemed F. Schall, called him father,
and wag favorable to the Christians. After his death the four regents
pat to death five Christian mandarins for their faith, and condemned F.
Schall, but granted him a reprieve; during which he died. The young
emperor Camhi coming of age, put a stop to the persecution, and employed
F. Verbiest, a Jesuit, to publish the yearly Chinese calendar, declared
him president of the mathematics in his palace, and consequently a
mandarin. The first year he opened the Christian churches, which was in
1671, above twenty thousand souls were baptized: and in the year
following, an uncle of the emperor, one of the eight perpetual generals
of the Tartar troops, and several other persons of distinction. The
succeeding emperors were no less favorable to the Christians, and
permitted them to build a most sumptuous church within the enclosures of
their own palace, which in many respects surpassed all the other
buildings of the empire. It was finished in 1702. The Dominican friars,
according to Touron, (Hommes Illustr. t. 6,) entered China in 1556,
converted many to the faith, and, in 1631, laid the foundation of the
most numerous church of Fokieu, great part of which province they
converted to the faith. Four priests of this order received the crown of
martyrdom in 1647, and a fifth, named Francis de Capillas, from the
convent of Valladolid, the apostle of the town of Fogau, was cruelly
beaten, and soon after beheaded, on the 15th of January, 1648;
"because," as his sentence imported, "he contemned the spirits and gods
of the country." Relations hereof were transmitted to the Congregation
de Propaganda Fide, under pope Urban VIII.

Upwards of a hundred thousand souls zealously professed the faith, and
they had above two hundred churches. But a debate arose whether certain
honors paid by the Chinese to Confucius and their deceased ancestors,
with certain oblations made, either solemnly, by the mandarins and
doctors at the equinoxes, and at the now and full moons, or privately,
in their own houses or temples, were superstitious and idolatrous. Pope
Clement XI., in 1704, condemned those rites as superstitious, _utpote
superstitione imbutos_, the execution of which decree he committed to
the patriarch of Antioch, afterwards cardinal Tournon, whom he sent as
his commissary into that kingdom. Benedict XIV. confirmed the same more
amply and severely by his constitution, _ex quo singulari_, in 1742, in
which he declares, that the faithful ought to express God, in the
Chinese language, by the name Thien Chu, _i.e._ the Lord of heaven: and
that the words Tien, the heaven, and Xang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, are not
to be used, because they signify the supreme god of the idolaters, a
kind of fifth essence, or intelligent nature, in the heaven itself: that
the inscription, King Tien, worship thou the heaven, cannot be allowed.
The obedience of those who had formerly defended these rites to be
merely political and civil honors, not sacred, was such, that from that
time they have taken every occasion of testifying it to the world. By a
like submission end victory over himself, Fenelon was truly greater than
by all his other illustrious virtues and actions.

The emperor Kang-hi protected the Christian religion in the most
favorable manner. Whereas his successor, Yongtching, banished the
missionaries out of the chief cities, but kept those religious in his
palace who were employed by him in painting, mathematics, and other
liberal arts, and who continued mandarins of the court. Kien-long, the
next emperor, carried the persecution to the greatest rigors of cruelty.
The tragedy was begun by the viceroy of Fokieu, who stirred up the
emperor himself. A great number of Christians of {364} all ages and
sexes were banished, beaten, and tortured divers ways, especially by
being buffeted on the face with a terrible kind of armed ferula, one
blow of which would knock the teeth out, and make the head swell
exceedingly. All which torments even the young converts bore with
incredible constancy, rather than discover where the priest lay hid, or
deliver up the crosses, relics, or sacred books, or do any thing
contrary to the law of God. Many priests and others died of their
torments, or of the hardships of their dungeons. One bishop and six
priests received the crown of martyrdom. Peter Martyr Sanz, a Spanish
Dominican friar, arrived in China in 1715, where he had labored fifteen
years, when he was named by the congregation bishop of Mauricastre, and
ordained by the bishop of Nanquin, assisted by the bishops of Pekin and
Macao, and appointed Apostolic Vicar for the province of Fokieu. In
1732, the emperor, by an edict, banished all the missionaries. Peter
Sauz retired to Macao, but returned to Fokieu, in 1738, and founded
several new churches for his numerous converts, and received the vows of
several virgins who consecrated themselves to God. The viceroy, provoked
at this, caused him to be apprehended, amidst the tears of his dear
flock, with four Dominican friars, his fellow-laborers. They were beaten
with clubs, buffeted on the face with gauntlets made of several pieces
of leather, and at length condemned to lose their heads. The bishop was
beheaded on the same day, the 26th of May, 1747. The Chinese
superstitiously imagine, that the soul of one that is put to death
seizes the first person it meets, and therefore all the spectators run
away as soon as they see the stroke of death given; but none of them did
so at the death of this blessed martyr. On the contrary, admiring the
joy with which he died, and esteeming his holy soul happy, they thought
it a blessing to come the nearest to him, and to touch his blood; which
they did as respectfully as Christians could have done, for whom a pagan
gathered the blood, because they durst not appear. The other four
Dominican friars, who were also Spaniards, suffered much during
twenty-eight months' cruel imprisonment, and were strangled privately in
their dungeons on the 28th of October, 1748. Pope Benedict XIV. made a
discourse to the cardinals on the precious death of this holy bishop,
September 16, 1748. See Touron, t. 6, p. 729.

These four fellow-martyrs of the Order of St. Dominic, were, Francis
Serranus, fifty-two years old, who had labored nineteen years in the
Chinese mission, and during his last imprisonment was nominated by pope
Benedict XIV., bishop of Tipasa: Joachim Roio, fifty-six years old, who
had preached in that empire thirty-three years: John Alcober, forty-two
years old, who had spent eighteen years in that mission: and Francis
Diaz, thirty-three years old, of which he had employed nine in the same
vineyard. During their imprisonment, a report that their lives would be
spared, filled them not with joy, but with grief, to the great
admiration of the infidels, as pope Benedict XIV. mentions in his
discourse to the consistory of cardinals, on their death, delivered in
1752: in which he qualifies them crowned, but not declared martyrs:
_martyres consummatos, nondum martyres vindicatos_. In the same
persecution, two Jesuits, F. Joseph of Attemis, an Italian, and F.
Antony Joseph Heuriquez, a Portuguese, were apprehended in December,
1747, and tortured several times, to compel them to renounce their
religion. They were at length condemned to death by the mandarins, and
the sentence, according to custom, being sent to the emperor, was
confirmed by him, and the two priests were strangled in prison on the
12th of September, 1748. On these martyrs see F. Touron, Hommes
Illustres de l'Ordre de S. Domin., t. 6, and the letters of the Jesuit
missionaries. On the history of China, F. Du Halde's Description of
China, in four vols. fol. Mullerus de Chataia, Navarrete, Tratados
Historicos de la China, an. 1676. Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses des
Missionaires, vols. 27, 28. Jackson's Chronology, &c.

In Tonquin, a kingdom southwest of China, in which the king and
mandarins follow the Chinese religion, though various sects of idolatry
and superstition reign among the people, a persecution was raised
against the Christians in 1713. In this storm one hundred and fifty
churches were demolished, many converts were beaten with a hammer on
their knees, and tortured various other ways; and two Spanish missionary
priests of the order of St. Dominick suffered martyrdom for the faith,
F. Francis Gil de Federich, and F. Matthew Alfonso Leziniana. F. Gil
arrived there in 1735, and found above twenty thousand Christians in the
west of the kingdom, who had been baptized by priests of his order. This
vineyard he began assiduously to cultivate; but was apprehended by a
neighboring Bonza, in 1737, and condemned to die the year following. The
Touquinese usually execute condemned persons only in the last moon of
the year, and a rejoicing or other accidents often cause much longer
delays. The confessor was often allowed the liberty of saying mass in
the prison: and was pressed to save his life, by saying that he came
into Tonquin as a merchant; but this would have been a lie, and he would
not suffer any other to give in such an answer for him. Father Matthew,
a priest of the same order, after having preached ten years in Tonquin,
was seized while he was saying mass; and because he refused to trample
on a crucifix, was condemned to die in 1743; and in May, 1744, was
brought into the same prison with F. Gil. The idolaters were so
astonished to see their ardor to die, and the sorrow of the latter upon
an offer of his life, that they cried out: "Others desire to live, but
{365} these men to die." They were both beheaded together on the 22d of
January, 1744. See Touron, t. 6, and Lettres Edif. of Curieuses des
Missionaires.

Many other vast countries, both in the eastern and western parts of the
world, received the light of the gospel in the sixteenth century; in
which great work several apostolic men were raised by God, and some were
honored with the crown of martyrdom. Among the zealous missionaries who
converted to the faith the savage inhabitants of Brazil, in America, of
which the Portuguese took possession in 1500, under king John II., F.
Joseph Anchieta is highly celebrated. He was a native of the Canary
islands, but took the Jesuit's habit at Coimbra; died in Brazil, on the
9th of June, 1597, of his age sixty-four; having labored in cultivating
that vineyard forty-seven years. He was a man of apostolic humility,
patience, meekness, prayer, zeal, and charity. The fruit of his labors
was not less wonderful than the example of his virtues. See his life by
F. Peter Roterigius, and by F. Sebastian Beretarius. The sanctity of the
venerable F. Peter Claver, who labored in the same vineyard, was so
heroic, that a process has been commenced for his canonization.

F. Peter Claver was nobly born in Catalonia, and entered himself in the
Society at Tarragon, in 1602, when about twenty years old. From his
infancy he looked upon nothing small in which the service of God was
concerned; for the least action or circumstance which is referred to his
honor is great and precious, and requires our utmost application: in
this spirit of fervor he considered God in every neighbor and superior;
and upon motives of religion was humble and meek towards all, and ever
ready to obey and serve every one. From the time of his religious
profession, he applied himself with the greatest ardor to seek nothing
in the world, but what Jesus Christ sought in his mortal life, that is,
the kingdom of his grace: for the only aim of this servant of God was,
the sanctification of his own soul, and the salvation of others. He was
thoroughly instructed that a man's spiritual progress depends very much
upon the fervor of his beginning; and he omitted nothing both to lay a
solid foundation, and continually to raise upon it the structure of all
virtues; and he sought and found God in all things. The progress which
he made was very great, because he set out by the most perfect exterior
and interior renunciation of the world and himself. Being sent to
Majorca, to study philosophy and divinity, he contracted a particular
friendship with a lay-brother, Alphonsus Rodriguez, then porter of the
college, an eminent contemplative, and perfect servant of God: nor is it
to be expressed how much the fervent disciple improved himself in the
school of this humble master, in the maxims of Christian perfection. His
first lessons were, to speak little with men, and much with God: to
direct every action in the beginning with great fervor, to the most
perfect glory of God, in union with the holy actions of Christ: to have
God always present in his heart; and to pray continually for the grace
never to offend God: never to speak of any thing that belongs to
clothing, lodging, and such conveniences, especially eating or drinking:
to meditate often on the sufferings of Christ, and on the virtues of his
calling. F. Claver, in 1610, was, at his earnest request, sent with
other missionaries to preach the faith to the infidels at Carthagena,
and the neighboring country in America. At the first sight of the poor
negro slaves, he was moved with the strongest sentiments of compassion,
tenderness, and zeal, which never forsook him; and it was his constant
study to afford them all the temporal comfort and assistance in his
power. In the first place he was indefatigable in instructing and
baptizing them, and in giving them every spiritual succor: the title in
which he gloried was that of the Slave of the Slaves, or of the Negroes;
and incredible were the fatigues which he underwent night and day with
them, and the many heroic acts of all virtues which he exercised in
serving them. The Mahometans, the Pagans, and the very Catholics, whose
scandalous lives were a reproach to their holy religion; the hospitals
and the prisons, were other theatres where he exercised his zeal. The
history of his life furnishes us with most edifying instances, and gives
all account of two persons raised to life by him, and of other miracles;
though his assiduous prayer, and his extraordinary humility,
mortification of his senses, and perfect self-denial, might be called
the greatest of his miracles. In the same rank we may place the
wonderful conversions of many obstinate sinners, and the heroic sanctity
of many great servants of God, who were by him formed to perfect virtue.
Among his maxims of humility, he used especially to inculcate, that he
who is sincerely humble desires to be contemned; he seeks not to appear
humble, but worthy to be humbled, is subject to all in his heart, and
ready to obey the whole world. By the holy hatred of ourselves, we must
secretly rejoice in our hearts when we meet with contempt end affronts;
but must take care, said this holy man, that no one think we rejoice at
them, but rather believe that we are confounded and grieved at the
ill-treatment which we receive. F. Claver died on the 8th of September,
1651, being about seventy-two years old; having spent in the Society
fifty-five years, in the same uniform crucified life, and in the
constant round of the same uninterrupted labors, which perhaps requires
a courage more heroic than martyrdom. In the process for his
canonization, the scrutiny relating to his life and virtues is happily
finished; and Benedict XIV. confirmed the decree of the Congregation of
Rites, in 1747, by which it is declared, that the proofs of the heroic
degree of the Christian virtues which he practised, are competent and
sufficient. See his life by F. Fleuriau.

{366}

MANY Martyrs in Pontus, under Dioclesian. Some were tortured with melted
lead poured upon them, others with sharp reeds thrust under their nails,
and such like inventions, several times repeated: at length they various
ways completed their martyrdom. See Eusebius, Hist. l. 8, c. 12, p. 306.

ST. AVITUS, ARCHBISHOP OF VIENNE, C.

ST. ALCIMUS ECDITIUS AVITUS was of a senatorian Roman family, but born
in Auvergne. His father, Isychius, was chosen archbishop of Vienne upon
the death of St. Mammertus, and was succeeded in that dignity by our
saint, in 490. Ennodius, in his life of St. Epiphanius of Pavia, says of
him, that he was a treasure of learning and piety; and adds, that when
the Burgundians had crossed the Alps, and carried home many captives out
of Liguria, this holy prelate ransomed a great number. Clovis, king of
France, while yet a pagan, and Gondebald, king of Burgundy, though an
Arian, held him in great veneration. This latter, for fear of giving
offence to his subjects, durst not embrace the Catholic faith, yet gave
sufficient proofs that he was convinced of the truth by our saint, who,
in a public conference, reduced the Arian bishops to silence in his
presence, at Lyons. Gondebald died in 516. His son and successor,
Sigismund, was brought over by St. Avitus to the Catholic faith. In 517,
our saint presided in the famous council of Epaone, (now called Yenne,)
upon the Rhone, in which forty canons of discipline were framed. When
king Sigismund had imbrued his hands in the blood of his son Sigeric,
upon a false charge brought against him by a stepmother, St. Avitus
inspired him with so great a horror of his crime, that he rebuilt the
abbey of Agaunum, or St. Maurice, became a monk, and died a saint. Most
of the works of St. Avitus are lost: we have yet his poem on the praises
of virginity, to his sister Fuscina, a nun, and some others; several
epistles; two homilies On the Rogation days; and a third on the same,
lately published by Dom Martenne;[1] fragments of eight other homilies;
his conference against the Arians is given us in the Spicilege.[2] St.
Avitus died in 525, and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the
5th of February; and in the collegiate church of our Lady at Vienne,
where he was buried, on the 20th of August. Ennodius, and other writers
of that age, extol his learning, his extensive charity to the poor, and
his other virtues. See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. l. 2. His works, and
his life in Henschenius;[3] and Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 242.

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