The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-09-05
The Dominicans ii Japan.


'sAS;:stle volume has recently been pub
iished In London containing Sketches of
the lives of the Doninican Missionaries in
Japan, az well as those of the martyrs
beatifed BY Plus TX. Tho works. written
by Father WiiberfSrce, and has been COM
Inended by the highest ecolesiastieai au
thorities. In ascalm, unpretending tone it
relates the most eart-stirring events
events which are considered unexampIed
in the history of the Church. What dis
tinguishes the Church In Japan from that
in all other countries is the unchangfng
firmness with which it has kept the fifth
for more than two centuries. at this very
moment the persecution has not ceased.
The last news from that land of martyrs
Is the report of q wholesale martyrdom,
which there is-every reason to believe may
be true. From review of the work we take
the following comments;
" One by one there pass in review the
European missioparies, men bred in all the
comforts and luxuries of the modern world,
but deliberately choosing to throw all
away, to give up father and mother, kin
dred, home, and native land, and their own
lives also for the love of Him. We cannot
imagine any Christian reading these nara
tiyes without feeling his very flesh thrill
with emotion; and it is brought home to
him what men as weak as himself have
been nerved to do and suffer by the power
of Almighty grace. And yet there is
something behind far more amazing than
this. For the most glorious of these chosen
martyrs themselves, the noblest trophies of
the grace of God, were not one whit
beyond numbers of their converts, men,
women, and even children trained as
heathens, and very many of them in all
the luxury and softness which attend great
wealth and high position in any country,
and more especially in an Oriental country,
but who, like the great apostle, accounted
all these things but loss, that they might
be found in the Lord Jesus, and might
share with Him His cross and His Crown.
Such as this, for instance, was Andrew
Tocvane, who was burnt alive on November
10, 1919, in the reign of our James l.,
receiving into his home the missionary,
Father Francis de Morales; and who wrote
to him Immediately before his execution
"I' am thankful to yon, dearly beloved
Father, because you have been the occasion
of my giving my life for God. commend
to You Mary, my wife, and Paul, my son.
When, by the mercy of God, l am in
heaven, win pray to Jesus, my Master,
for your reverence" The same man, when
the judge before whom he was brought ex-
pressed his pain at being obliged to pro-
nounce sentence upon him, replied, ''You
are obeying your master and am obeying
mine; but remember that outside the
Christian Church. there is no salvation
The great desire OF his widow was that
she might follow him to martyrdom, and
this desire was granted to her; their little
son died before her, as she says sc for my
sins.n
We have often felt it difficult to explain
why it is that the interest of the Church
in Japan is not greater than it actually is
even among Catholics. We can account
for it only by the fact that the very names
of the places in which these heart stirring
events took place, and the names alike of
the prosecutors and the martyrs, are SO
strange to us. Japan, two centuries ago,
is really much nearer to us Engiishmen of
the nineteenth century than Rome eighteen
hundred years ago. But the names of
Rome and of the Emperor Nero are house
hold words; while Nagazaki and the Cubo
Taico Sauna are not inviting to pronounce,
and almost impossihlG- to remember. Yet,
to Christians, this ought to cause no real
separation from our brethren of Japan, for
it is the very characteristic of the Church
that sin Christ Jesus there is neither Jew
nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
Free" and assuredly, however strange it
Laay sound to our ears, many of the names
In those lists of martyrs with which Father
Wilberforce concludes his narrative, there
is One to whom they are for ever dear and
IaInlllaf, even 10 Jna5 CJOOu shepherd who
calleth His own sheep by name, and ''goeth
before them and they follow Him." even to
Him who made mention by name of the
Church of Pergamus of EAntipas, NV
faithful martyr, who was slain among YOU
where Satan dwelleth." Neither should it
be forgotten that there was a time when
our island seemed to the dwellers round
the shore of the Mediterranean as much
divided from the world as Japan appears
to us:[HVe cannot but believe that He who
has made it 50 rich in martyrs designs
Japan also to be, in His own good time,
Christian empire 1t is miserable to feel
it, and yet we are obliged TO agree with
Father WAberfoTee that the instrument
with which Satan has hitherto been able to
delay that happy consummation has been
Professionalism, and especially the Protest
antism of England and Holland Had the
SO, called Blessed Reformation" never,
taken place, there is every reason to believe
that both Japan and China wonld ere this
have been Christian.
WHOLESALE CHR1sTENrxG.-A Dissenter
thus describes a wholesale christening in
1916 -" September Ist.--Strolling into