Wichita eagle., 1890-02-28
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:. ally e eagle
RISKING THEIR LIVES,
A PARIS LETTER WHICH TELLS OF
THE APOSTLES TO THE LEPERS.

Jesuit Priests Who Work Among the Vic
Tins Of the Awful Disease-Christ the
Ideal of the knights of st. Lazarus-The
Hospital in Madagascar.
Heroic as was the devotion of that apostle
OF the lepers, Father Damien de Veuster. and
most deserved as were the praises bestowed
on the self sacrificing priest by the world,
this voluntary martyr to duty was only one
among multitude of men and women who,
ever since the Christian religion began its
career. claimed as their dearest privilege to
care for the victims of ieprosy.
Without going back to the early ages,
where we meet 50 many examples of this
same self sacrificing spirit, the history of me-
diseval and modern Europe furnishes us at
every page with the names of institutions
especially established for the victims of this
awful disease. In Jerusalem, when it fell
into the possession Of the Crusaders, while
the Knights HOspitalerS Of st. John devoted
their lives to the care OF the sick and plague
stricken in general, the Knights of st. Laza-
rus, an association Of German noblemen,
cousecrated their existence to the victims of
leprcsy, so numerous in the east.
This institution had for members only per-
sons of the highest nobility. In these cid
feudal times it was thought that generosity
of disposition always accompanied gentle
blood. 1NobleSse oblige was the motto Of the
true representatives of ancient houses. The
risks to which they were exposed who under
took to bring light and hope into the dark
and deSpairing life of the leper were beyond
comparison. 1t needed, therefore, the high
est degree Of natural and religious heroism TO
dedicate ones self by VOW to the service of
these outcasts of the human race, and the
Hottest honor and conscientiousness to perse-
we're in a calling which was a life long cruel
tixion.
Christ, who was so tender TO the poor lep-
ers wherever he met them, and in his passion
is likened by the Prophet Isaiah to a leper,
was the ideal whom these Knights of st.
Lazarus set before themselves. Indeed, it
was Christ whom they loved to behold in
every one of these hideous sufferers, which
ancient society, both Jews and Gentiles, cast
forth from It's midst.
All Americans VINO come to Paris viii re-
member the st. LaZare railway station 1t
Is so called from a leprosy hospital of the
Middle Ages with its adjoining monastery,
which existed down TO the last century. 1t
ments founded here and there IN France by
kings, mobiles or prel2teS, in which none but
persons of royal or NOBLE blood were allowed
to take mcnastic VOWS. What was done in
France, after the example set in Palestine by
the German knights, was done in every coun-
try Of Christendom exposed to the ravages of
leprosy. This general spirit of self sacrifice,
prompted 10y the Christian religion. and the
-. /. -.
from the outside world were one principal
cause of drying up this fearful disease in
Christian and continental Europe In Asia,
Africa and Oceanica leprosy under a hun
dred forms continued its raveges.
Certain it is that wherever our missionaries
have labored outside of Europe in the east,
and over the adjoining continents, either be-
fore the discoveries Of Vasco de Cana or Co
lumbus or after them, they invariably met
with the plague Of leprosy, and had in their
charity TO care for the souls and bodies of
these wretched outcasts, treated as criminals |
by both pagans and Mohammedans.
In the well known publication, Les Missions |
Catalogues, which relates only a very linn |
tied portion of the labors performed under |
the direction of the propaganda, it is author |
itatively stated that the terrible and incura-
bic iniirnity of Ieprosy is devotedly and ten
derly cared for by our missionaries at Trini- |
dad, in Japan, in China, in India and else |
where. The heroism which has so startled |
Dur pleasure loving world at Molokai is only |
one manifestation Of the same apostolic spirit /
which finds the subjects of its devotion on |
every island group in the vast Pacific as well |
Rs on the neighboring mainlands.
Here is one great leprosy hospital, in the |
service of which several missionaries have |
sacrificed health and life, that would not now |
be heard of were IL not that the sad state of |
affairs ia France compels the missionaries to |
call for pecuniary help TO meet the needs OF |
an ever increasing number of lepers
The hospital is in madagascar, that Won
derful island so near the coast of Africa and,
as science proves, the sole remaining frag-
nent of a continent long ago submerged by |
the surrounding ocean. The missionaries
ali French JeSuits appealed, in their dis
tress, TO the great Society for the Propaga-
ton of the Faith, established long ago in
Lyons; hence the appearance in Les Missions
Catalogues of the name OF a great and good
work, which deserves to be made known TO
the American public.
In Madagascar, as everywhere in heathen-
dom, every man. woman and child tainted
with leproSy was ptilessly driven from every
human habltation, and obliged TO live or per
Ish in the wilderness. remember during my
first stay in France, from 1855 10 1859, listen
Ing to more than one marvellous narrative of
devotion, of devotion especially
to the victims OF leprosy. The French Jesuts
had long and hard battle TO fight in the
island, not only against the savage jealousy
Of the idoatrous Bovas, but also against the
emissarieS of the Protestant societies and the
which painted these priests
as the forerunners Of French conquest and
domination.
Banished again and again from the island.
they managed to return. OF course, from the
they had no thought OF Sinking the
labor OF evapgelizing the lepers, Of whom
large numbers wandered about In the mag
ni1icerr forests, Stunned by all. and more
irer ed than were the wild beasts and -
D--Js.
AL myth the missionaries founded hos
it'll asylum fer these wreJched wanderers at
It was soon afterward trans
red - Ar0h-livcra '-..- ~