St. John de Brito - Martyr of India

February 4
John de Brito (João de Brito, 1647-1693) was one of the earliest Jesuit missionaries in India to adopt elements of the local culture in his evangelization. He was eventually martyred because of his success and his steadfast refusal to accept honors and safety. He was born of Portuguese aristocracy and became a member of the royal court at age nine and a companion to the young prince later to become King Peter II. When de Brito was young, he almost died of an illness and his mother vowed he would wear a Jesuit cassock for a year if he were spared. He regained his health and walked around court like a miniature Jesuit, but there was nothing small about his heart or the desire that grew to actually become a Jesuit. Despite pressure from the prince and the king, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Lisbon Dec. 17, 1662 when he was only 15 years-old.

He studied classics, with an interruption because of health problems, then philosophy. He wrote to the superior general in 1668 asking to be sent to the east as a missionary, but had to finish theology first. He was ordained in February 1673 and left Lisbon for Goa in mid-March, arriving the following September. He studied more theology in Goa and was asked to remain as a teacher but he desired to be a missionary and to seek the glory of martyrdom.

Father de Brito worked in Madura, in the regions of Kolei and Tattuvanchery. When he studied the India caste system, he discovered that most Christians belonged to the lowest and most despised caste. He thought that members of the higher caste would also have to be converted for Christianity to have a future. He became an Indian ascetic, a pandaraswami since they were permitted to approach individuals of all castes. He changed his life style, eating just a bit of rice each day and sleeping on a mat, dressing in a red cloak and turban. He established a small retreat in the wilderness and was in time accepted as a pandaraswami. As he became well-known, the number of conversions greatly increased.

He was made superior in Madura after 11 years on the mission, but he also became the object of hostility from Brahmans, members of the highest caste, who resented his work and wanted to kill him. He and some catechists were captured by soldiers in 1686 and bound in heavy chains. When the soldiers threatened to kill the Jesuit, he simply offered his neck, but they did not act. After spending a month in prison, the Jesuit captive was released. When he got back to Madura, he was appointed to return to Portugal to report on the status of the mission in India. When he reached Lisbon ten months later, he was received like a hero. He toured the universities and colleges describing the adventurous life of an Indian missionary. His boyhood friend and now-king, Peter II noticed how thin, worn and tired his friend looked; he asked him to remain at home to tutor his two sons, but de Brito placed the needs in India above the comfort of the Portuguese court.

De Brito sailed again to Goa and returned to the mission in Madura when he arrived in November 1690. He came back despite a death threat that the raja of Marava had made four years earlier. The Jesuit missionary travelled at night from station to station so he could celebrate Mass and baptize converts.

His success in converting Prince Tadaya Theva indirectly led to his death. The prince was interested in Christianity even before the prayers of a catechist helped him recover from a serious interest. De Brito insisted that the prince could keep only one of his several wives after his baptism; he agreed to this condition, but one of the rejected wives complained to her uncle, the raja of Marava who sent soldiers to arrest the missionary on January 28, 1690. Twenty days later the raja exiled de Brito to Oriyur, a neighboring province his brother governed. The raja instructed his brother to execute the troublesome Jesuit who was taken from prison on February 4 and led to a knoll overlooking a river where an executioner decapitated him with a schimitar.

St. Paul Miki - Martyr of Japan
February 6

Saints Paul Miki (Paulus Miki, 1564-1597), Soan John de Goto and James Kisai were the first of a long line of Jesuits who gave their lives in a literal imitation of their crucified Lord. Miki was also the first Japanese religious to be martyred.

The initial growth of Christianity after Francis Xavier's 1549 arrival in Japan led to opposition from Japanese leaders who feared that the introduction of Christianity was the first step in Spain's effort to conquer their country, just as the Spanish had already conquered the Philippines. Japan's ruler, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, banished all foreign ministers in 1587, but the decree was not rigidly implemented and Jesuits were able to continue their work under the threat of persecution.

Remarks made in 1596 by the captain of a shipwrecked Spanish ship led Hideyoshi to order the arrest of all Franciscans who had come to Japan from the Philippines three years earlier. Along with the Franciscans, police arrested the Jesuits Paul Miki, a scholastic, and James Kisai, a brother, and John de Goto, a catechist who was in the process of entering the Society.

Miki came from an affluent family near Osaka and became a Christian when his whole family converted. He entered the Jesuit-run seminary in Azuchi when he was 20 and then joined the Society two years later. He was an eloquent speaker who was very successful in drawing Buddhists to Christian faith. He was only a few months from being ordained when he was arrested. James Kisai just happened to be in the same community when the police arrived. Although a Buddhist bonze educated him, Kisai was later baptized and married a woman who had also converted. She subsequently returned to Buddhism, leaving him with a son. Kisai entrusted the child to a Christian family and then moved to Osaka where he worked for the Jesuits as porter and house servant. The Jesuits eventually made him a catechist when they recognized the strength of his faith. He joined the Jesuits as a brother, probably in 1596.

John de Goto, on the other hand, was born of Christian parents on one of the islands of the Goto archipelago, but moved to Nagasaki to have freedom to practice his religion after authorities on the island began persecuting Christians. He was living in the Jesuit community in Osaka and working as a catechist while attempting to join the Society. De Goto, Kisai and Miki were arrested on Dec. 9 and then taken to Miyako (today's Kyoto) where they were imprisoned along with six Franciscans and 15 tertiaries. The 24 prisoners were taken into the public square and condemned to be executed by crucifixion; as a mark of shame, the lobe of each man's left ear was cut off before they were led away. The prisoners left the following day for a month-long walk to Nagasaki where they would be killed. Along the way people insulted and mocked them, but Miki and a Franciscan priest preached to the crowds anyway. Just before they reached Nagasaki, two Jesuit priests were able to minister to the prisoners. One of them, Father Pasio, took the three young Jesuits into the chapel where Paul Miki renewed his vows and John de Goto and James Kisai pronounced their first vows.

That same morning the prisoners were taken to a hill outside the city where they saw crosses lying on the ground waiting for them. They sang a Te Deum, the traditional song of thanksgiving, when they saw how they were to die. Then they allowed the executioners to tie them onto the crosses and fasten metal bands around their necks so they would keep their heads erect. The crosses were lifted up and dropped into holes in the ground. De Goto's father was in the crowd and heard Paul Miki preach to the people inviting them to conversion. Finally soldiers pierced each prisoner's chest with a lance. The hill on which they died became known as "Martyrs' Hill."

St. Claude La Colombière - Spiritual director who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart

February 15

Claude La Colombière (1641-1682) enjoyed an intense, if brief, life, notable for the part he played as champion of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. He is remembered principally as the spiritual director who recognized the truth of the revelation that St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received; he also showed heroic virtue in enduring imprisonment that weakened his health and led to an early death.

Colombière was born in southern France and studied at a Jesuit school from an early age. He entered the Society of Jesus when he was 17 and followed a normal course of studies: grammar, literature, philosophy and theology.

After teaching for a few years in Avignon, he studied theology in Paris and was ordained April 6, 1669. He taught for another three years and then became preacher at the Jesuit church in that city before going on to tertianship. During that year of prayer and reflection, he felt moved to take a special private vow to obey all the rules of the Society in the most strict manner possible.

The French Jesuit's first assignment after tertianship was to be superior of a small community in Paray-le-Monial, where there was also a convent of cloistered Visitation sisters. One of them was Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque to whom God's presence in prayer was revealing a message of divine love. Some other members of her community thought her prayer was a delusion, and their skepticism caused her suffering. She received assurance from the Lord, however, that he was sending her his "faithful servant and perfect friend." Colombière became the confessor of the convent and Sr. Margaret's spiritual director. She opened her soul to him and told of the supernatural events taking place in her life. He had the insight to recognize this prayer as a real gift from God and a true revelation. In his own prayer, Colombière came to learn the Lord's wishes more clearly. In June 1675 the Lord made an explicit request regarding the devotion to his Sacred Heart, asking her to establish the Friday following the octave of Corpus Christi as a special feast and to tell Colombière to do all he could to spread this devotion.

Colombière's time in Paray-le-Monial lasted only until October 1676 when he was assigned to be the preacher to the duchess of York in London. Although England was officially non-Catholic, King Charles II allowed his brother the Duke of York to have a chapel in St. James Palace. The chaplain had to come from outside England; so the young French Jesuit left his own country to live in a foreign court. He continued to preach what was most dear to him the message of Christ's love for humankind, symbolized by his Sacred Heart. The sermons resonated with the duchess who years later became the first royal personage to petition Pope Innocent XII to establish a solemn feast in honor of the Sacred Heart.

Royal forbearance did not protect the Jesuit from betrayal by a Frenchman whom Colombière had befriended in London. In November 1678 the man falsely denounced the Jesuit to the government in order to win a reward. Colombière was arrested on charges of traitorous speech against the king and parliament and placed in a cold dungeon where his health rapidly deteriorated. He was released after a month in prison, but the damage was done. He returned to France and slowly headed south, stopping frequently when weakness overtook him. He arrived in Lyons on March 11, 1679 and stayed there as a spiritual father to the young Jesuits in the school where he himself once taught. He continued to preach about the Sacred Heart, but his own health did not improve so superiors sent him back to Paray-le-Monial in 1681. Although he loved the place dearly, he could not recover. In early February 1682, a fever took him; when he died on Feb. 15, he was only 41 years old

St. Robert Southwell - Martyr of England

February 21

Robert Southwell (1561-1595), one of England's many poets but one of its most illustrious martyrs, was killed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He came from a well-to-do family but had to move to the continent to study in a Catholic school. In May 1576 he enrolled in the English College at Douai, Flanders; he later studied in Paris where he met the Jesuit Thomas Darbyshire. Southwell asked to join the Jesuits but was turned down at first because he was too young and the novitiate itself was closed due to fighting in nearby areas. With great determination, the young Englishman walked to Rome where he was accepted into the novitiate at Sant'Andrea in 1578. He studied philosophy and theology at the Roman College and was ordained in 1584.

For the next two years he served as prefect of studies at the English College, also in Rome, preparing men to be priests for England. Finally, he was assigned to the mission in his homeland and left Rome on May 8, 1586 along with Father Henry Garnet.

The two Jesuits landed on a secluded coast to avoid capture in the ports of entry. Southwell was assigned to minister in and about London, living at first with the Vaux family and then in the household of the Countess of Arundel whose husband Sir Philip Howard was imprisoned in the tower for maintaining his allegiance as a Catholic. Southwell's ministry included visiting the dozen or so prisons in the city and helping priests who had just entered the country. When Fr. Garnet, his traveling companion, also came to London, Southwell started visiting Catholics in the outlying counties. He also helped direct the print of Catholic catechisms and devotional books published by a secret press that Garnet established; it was the sole source of religious literature for English Catholics. Southwell put together several letters he had written to Sir Philip to encourage him in prison; these letters were revised and published as An Epistle of Comfort.

For six productive years Southwell exercised his ministry until he was betrayed by a Catholic woman who had been pressured into setting a trap for the Jesuit. Anne Bellamy was imprisoned after she refused to attend Protestant services and was made pregnant by Richard Topcliffe, a priest-hunter noted for torturing his prisoners. Topcliffe promised to marry her and win pardon for her family if she would convince Southwell to go a designated spot where the trap would be set. When she was released from prison, she wrote the priest asking him to meet her at her parents' home. Southwell went there thinking she wanted to receive the sacraments. Instead Topcliffe and his men were waiting. Southwell managed to slip into a concealed room before they could catch him, but he eventually gave himself up rather than betray the family.

Topcliffe was overjoyed to have captured Southwell, whom he regarded as the biggest catch of his career. Bound in chains, the Jesuit was led to Topcliffe's residence next to Gatehouse Prison and put in the private torture chamber that Topcliffe had there. Several excruciating days of torture failed to force Southwell to reveal a single name of any Catholics or priests. He remained steadfast despite being tortured 13 different times; finally his captors threw him among the paupers to face cold, hunger and thirst. Southwell's father managed to visit him in the paupers' prison and was horrified at his son's condition. He petitioned the queen to treat him like the gentleman he was, either releasing him or condemning him to death. The queen allowed him to be moved to the Tower where he was better cared for but still could not receive visitors. He did continue, however, to write the poems that expressed his deepest feelings and were later collected and published as St. Peter's Complaint.

For two and a half years, Southwell endured the solitude of his imprisonment, and then finally petitioned Lord Burghley to be released, be allowed visitors, or be brought to trial. The latter was granted, and he was tried on Feb. 20, 1595 at Westminster Hall. Southwell readily admitted being a Catholic priest but denied any involvement in plots against the queen. He was found guilty of high treason and executed the very next day. For the three-hour journey to Tyburn, he was tied to a hurdle and dragged through the streets to the gallows. Because the noose was improperly placed on his neck, he did not immediately die when the cart moved away from him. The hangman took mercy and hung on his feet to end the agony. Then the 34-year-old Jesuit was beheaded and quartered.

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