Preface [written by Henry Edward Manning, vii –xviii]
[…] [xi] From the beginning, the annals of the Church are but one long history of warfare, ever renewing, ever advancing, – chronicles not of “peace, but a sword.” And [xii] so it must be to the end: for the Catholic Church is the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, who reigns personally through His Vicar upon earth, and the hierarchy of pastors deriving their jurisdiction from him, over the mystical body of the Son of God. And once more; though the Church has borne no weapons but the Cross and the Pastoral Staff, this conflict has not been without blood. In the hand of the world has been ever unsheathed the sword of martyrdom. The history of the Body is as the history of is Head, the King of Martyrs. The sacrifice of Himself on Calvary was not only the atonement for the sin of the world; it was also a Divine martyrdom. It was the great witness in attestation of the truth: […] Martyrdom is the closest conformity to our Divine Master; and to be like Him in life and death has ever been the thirst of His servants. What is the history of the Church but the prolonging and filling up of the history of His Passion? […] [xiii] […] Martyrdom was counted as the highest gift of grace. It was coveted and prayed for with tears of desire. To be permitted to sacrifice all things for Jesus was joy; to be called to sacrifice self for Him was greater joy than all. It was happiness to live for Him; but to be permitted also to die for His sake was the crown of all desires. And such has been the inextinguishable longing of the true Church of Jesus Christ. In every age, and in every land, this ardent love of martyrdom has burned, and the martyr’s crown has been perpetually won. Men are wont to speak of martyrs as they do of the apostles, as of a race long since passed away, – glorious, but extinct; seen through the long, dim haze of history; to be admired, but not followed. It sounds far-fetched and unreal to speak of martyrdoms as among things possible in these days, and of a martyr’s spirit as among the graces we ought to seek and to cherish. It is indeed too true, that the present days are soft, and that [xiv] the spirit of endurance is low among us. Men have been unnerved by tranquillity, and by a dangerous love of peace. Home affections, and the softness of a happy life, the fair and smooth things of the world, its honours, gifts, and comforts, have brought upon us a sickly and feeble tone, which makes men stand in awe of the world’s opinion, displeasure, and contempt. There is not a little of spiritual cowardice among us; and many are ready to compromise even principle to unite with those who contradict the faith; – to make separate peace for themselves with the adversaries of the Church; – to be silent when they should speak out; – to suffer our Divine Lord to be betrayed, and Truth to hang upon the Cross between contradictions, rather than to be unpopular, despised, shunned, disliked, or even ridiculed. In such a time as this, then, it is most opportune to be reminded, that the age of martyrs is not over yet; that it is continual; that the conflict is endless; that not peace, but a sword, is the perpetual portion of the Church. And for this the following pages will bear witness. The sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries have their martyrs as great and as glorious as the first, the second, and the third. Not Asia and Africa alone, but Europe; not remote lands only, but France and England have been steeped with blood sacred to Jesus. In these modern days of the nineteenth century, which seem so unheroic and so commonplace, while we have been treading the every-day path of life, martyrs have been continually ascending to their crown. Hardly a year has passed but in China some servant of our Lord has been conformed to his Master’s Passion. It is well that we [xv] should bear this in mind, and make it familiar to our thoughts. For it is most certain that, if we would be faithful, we must learn to be ready for the sword. In some form it will come to us. If we would be crowned with Him, we must also suffer with Him; and though not martyrs in deed, we must bear a martyr’s will; for if we be not martyrs, at least in will, we should not be even confessor in the hour of trial; and if not confessors, how Christians? […] It is good, then to have their realities of martyrdom brought home to us in our own land and day, and to see how it looks in the context of modern society, and to see how it looks in the context of modern society, and to put it to ourselves how we should endure in such an hour. In the following histories will be found all the sharpness of the sword and all the circumstances of suffering; and these so brought near to us in these later days, as to show us that we are never to believe, that our turn may not yet come. In these few prefatory words, it is not intended to write a review of the martyrdoms here recorded; but one or two may be specially pointed out, as coming home with a peculiar closeness to our own times and trials. And first in significance is the martyrdom of Margaret Clitherow. She suffered since the Protestant Reformation in modern England, in York Castle, by a hideous torture, for the Christian deed of sheltering the priests of God from those who sought their lives. And next, in the life-time of living men, a persecu[xvi]tion worthy of Rome drunk with the blood of saints, was directed against hundreds of helpless and innocent men, laymen, priests, and bishops, in the gay and refined city of Paris. The scene of this glorious confession was the quiet garden and silent sanctuary of the Carmelite Convent in the Rue Vaugirard. […] As we now kneel on that silent pavement, we can hardly believe that men among whom we live can remember that day. […] [xvii] […] A slight observation of the signs which are upon the face of modern society is enough to teach us that, while the Catholic Church is extending its circuit every year into new regions of the earth, the powers of evil are becoming more intense in the older races of Christendom. Nations still professedly Christian and Catholic contain within them elements of hostility both against the Catholic Church and against Christianity itself, which are kept under by the feeble pressure of authority. The great outbreak of license called the Reformation really began a divorce between the spiritual and civil powers; that is, between mere natural civilization and Christianity: the result of which is becoming more apparent in every successive generation. What begun in separation is ending in conflict. Nations are striving to gain supremacy over the Church; and failing, they oppose and denounce it as an usurper and invader. Meanwhile, the Church, as a pure spiritual kingdom, grows every year more wide-spread and conscious of its unity. But its very successes and advances are a provocation and a challenge. Unless the Divine Head of the Church avert it, an outbreak of this Antichristian spirit might come in any country of Europe at any moment. We saw in the year 1848 what elements lie seething and boiling under the thin surface of the deep upon which society is resting. The last times foretold by the Apostle are already upon us, and the persecutions of the latter days, for which the [xviii] Church has been preparing from the beginning, are yet to come. The professed indifference to all religions which for a time reigns among the adversaries of the Church, is but the prelude of assault: it is the lull before the storm. Let us not be deceived by thinking that the world will persecute no more. It is still the world; changed outwardly, by refinement of social customs, by the visible garb of Christianity, and by a smooth homage to truth, which it secretly disbelieves; but it is as averse as ever from the sovereignty of Christ, wielded by Him through the jurisdiction of His Church, one and undivided, Catholic and Roman. If the present bonds of society were broken, and its balance overturned, there is no kind of persecution which might not follow. Whether it come by laws or against laws, or by civil rulers or by the populace, would depend on the peculiarities of place and nation. It might differ in form and mode in different countries; but in all it would be real and unrelenting, demanding once more of those in whose days it shall befal [sic] the fidelity of confessors and the will of martyrs.
H. E. M.
Contents
I. Father Azevedo and his Companions; or, the Forty Jesuits 1II. Sister Honoria Magaen and her Companions 26
III. The Blessed Andrew Bobola, S.J. 30
IV. The Blessed John de Britto, S.J. 44
Chap. I. From the birth of the blessed John the Britto till his arrival in India.
Chap. II. The Indian Mission.
Chap. III. Father de Britto begins his missionary labours.
Chap. IV. The Flood of the Corolam – De Britto’s successes, miracles, and labours.
Chap. V. Father de Britto’s sufferings at Mangalam, and return to Portugal.
Chap. VI. Father de Britto’s stay in Europe, and return to India
Chap. VII. The martyrdom of Father de Britto.
V. The Nuns of Minsk 74
Chap. I. Expulsion of the Nuns from Minsk, and sufferings at Witebok.
Chap. II. Their sufferings at Polock and Spas.
Chap. III. Their sufferings at Madzioly, and escape of Mother Macrina.
VI. A Confessor of the Faith during the French Revolution, 1793-5 95
VII. The Martyrs of the Carmes 125
VIII. Gabriel de Naillac 155
IX. Margaret Clitherow, the Martyr of York 167
X. The Martryrdom of Geronimo at Algiers, 1596 181
XI. Missions and Martyrdoms in China 191
I. Martyrdom of M. Marchand in Cochin China
II. M. Cornay.
III. Pierre Dumoulin Borie.
IV. Jean-Baptiste Vachal.
V. Philip Mink.
XII. Father Thomas of Jesus 241