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9 September, Confessor

On the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, 1888, the year of the Sacerdotal Jubilee of Pope Leo XIII, that Pontiff canonized the three Jesuit saints, John Berchmans, Alphonsus Rodriguez, and Peter Claver. A great lesson is taught our generation in the canonization of each of these servants of God. Saint John Berchmans teaches that we need not go back to the ways of the middle ages to serve God; that His perfect service consists in the faithful accomplishment of the duties of our state of life with loving hearts, that by doing this we may become real saints. Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez teaches the same lesson in another form. He teaches that a man may belong to the people, that he may have engaged in business, that he may begin late in life, and that he too, with the help of that God Who is no respecter of persons, before Whom high and low are equally little, and Who wills to be served as well in this age of democracy and trade as in the days of absolute or feudal power, that he too may carry off a prize in the glorious rivalry of Christian heroism. Saint Peter Claver preaches his lesson also to this age which professes so great a love for all humanity and a desire to level up all classes to as much equality as the social condition of mankind in this life will permit. These aspirations are good. Only Our Lord taught them two millenniums ago. They were planted in us by nature’s God; they are inculcated more explicitly by the law of charity, a much better word than altruism.

“The slave of the slaves” – that was what Saint Peter Claver signed himself. What Las Casas was to the Indian, that, and more, was Claver to the negro. Was there ever greater brotherly love than his?

Saint Peter was born in Catalonia, in Spain. While still a young religious he was sent to the college where Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez was porter. Their hearts were drawn together immediately. God revealed the future sanctity of this young professor to the venerable Brother, who encouraged him in every way to cooperate with the extraordinary graces he received. In 1620 Claver was sent to Carthagena, in what are now the States of Colombia. This was a great port for the reception of slaves. To these, the most miserable of the miserable, he devoted the rest of his lifetime. He lived only for them; in the holds of the ships, on the plantations, he hunted them up, the physician of both their bodies and their souls. Once a ship came which, in addition to all the usual horrors, was infected with smallpox. Claver plunged into it and remained there for hours. A favorite resort of his was the hospital for lepers, a race of outcasts that has always had a great attraction for Catholic charity. We are not surprised to know that this man, who made himself love all that is most offensive to the fastidiousness of our cultivated nature, was in every other respect a man of great mortification also. For let us not be mistaken: the saints were not saints by nature; they became saints by mortifying themselves, their flesh, and their spirit. So it was that they grew to love their neighbor as themselves, indeed their neighbor’s soul more than their own flesh.

Worn out by his labors and austerities, Saint Peter Claver died in the year 1654, the blacks vyeing with the whites, at his obsequies, which should show the most veneration for his memory. He was beatified by Pius IX. and canonized by Leo XIII., the necessary two additional miracles, which were approved by the Sacred Congregation, having been wrought through his intercession in the United States of America.

3 September, Martyr

Sometimes the missionaries were beaten till their bones were laid bare, or else they were roasted on gridirons, or thrown into pits filled with venomous serpents. Sometimes their arms and legs were pierced with spears or their limbs amputated one by one. In certain parts of Japan, on the mountains of Oungen, not far from Nagasaki, existed a species of craters, out of which arose putrid vapors, flames or pestilential miasmas; over these volcanic “cavities the missionaries were suspended by their feet; their heads, tightened between planks of wood, were placed at the opening of the crater, and under their right hand was a bell so arranged that the slightest movement sufficed to make it ring. They were told that its sound would be regarded as a sign of apostasy; and to physical torture was thus added the torture of intense mental strain, as they endeavored to suppress even the least involuntary movement of pain. Many Christians, and among them women and young girls, were likewise subjected to the fearful torments of Oungen; some, indeed, were vanquished by pain, but the greater portion endured their tortures with superhuman courage. One of the most remarkable of these was a youth of nineteen named Simeon, who, on being questioned by the judge concerning his studies, replied: ‘As for knowledge, I only know how to die.’ He remained on the mountain for sixteen days, during which the pestilential waters that issued from the crater were repeatedly poured over him; at length his body became one vast ulcer, and his flesh so corrupt that it fell to pieces. Seeing him in this state, the magistrates had him carried to his father’s house, in order to deprive him of the glory of dying on the scene of his martyrdom. He lingered for two days, during which he continually repeated: ‘O my Saviour, Your wounds are so great, mine are nothing.’ His father, a fervent Christian, considered it the height of happiness to have a martyr for his child. In 1631 Father Anthony Ixida, a Japanese Jesuit, was subjected to the torments of Oungen, together with several other religious, among whom was Father Francis of Jesus, an Augustinian monk, and two Portuguese ladies, one of whom was a girl of eighteen. Father Francis of Jesus describes in graphic terms the aspect of the horrible mount, which at that season was covered with snow, and the effect of the burning waters, which, when poured on the naked flesh, laid the bones bare in a few minutes. During one month Father Ixida endured the torture six times a day, but never a word of complaint escaped his lips. He was taken back to prison covered with wounds, which were purposely left to corrupt and fester, and eight months later he was burnt to death at Nagasaki.” Father Ixida had labored in the Society forty-five years.

31 July; Founder of the Society of Jesus.

Saint Ignatius was born in the year 1491, in Biscay, in the north of Spain. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His parents being noble, he devoted himself to the career of a soldier. Up to the age of thirty he led a worldly and ambitious life. But having been wounded while gallantly defending the city of Pampeluna, he was obliged to take to the Lives of the Saints in the absence of lighter reading to while away his time. O admirable providence of God! And how often a good book has changed a whole life! But who cares for the Lives of the Saints now? Yet who are worthy of our attention in this world? I answer, the saints alone; for the saints alone were great, good, perfect, admirable, and to be imitated.

The eyes of Ignatius were opened. He saw the truth; he knew what was really noble and really precious. “Oh, how the earth appears to me sordid,” he was wont to exclaim in his old days, “when I look up to heaven!” As soon as he could leave his home, he hung up his sword at the altar of Our Lady at Montserrat. Then he betook himself to a cave near Manresa, where he began to lead a life of great austerity and contemplation. Here it was that this novice in the spiritual life composed the wonderful book of the Spiritual Exercises, a fact which makes it incredible that he should not have received supernatural assistance in its composition. Here, too, he conceived the plan of his religious Order. After a visit to the Holy Land, he set to work to improve his knowledge of Latin by going to school, at the age of thirty-three, with the little children. After meeting with much vexation on account of his preaching and giving the Exercises, he went to Paris to complete his studies. Here he joined to himself as companion, first the Blessed Peter Favre, then Saint Francis Xavier, then James Laynez, the second General of the Society, Alphonsus Salmeron, Simon Rodriguez, and Nicholas Bobadilla – all Spaniards like himself, except Favre, who was from Savoy, and Rodriguez, a Portuguese. These first seven Jesuits bound themselves by vows, on the Feast of the Assumption, 1534, in a little chapel on the hill of Montmartre in Paris. Three others had joined them before the first anniversary of the birth of the Society – Claude Lejay, John Codure, and Paschase Brouet. Favre was the only one as yet ordained priest; it was he who celebrated the Mass. The year 1536 found Ignatius and his companions in Italy. Not being able to leave Venice for the Holy Land, they proceeded to Rome to place themselves at the disposal of the supreme head of the Catholic Church. When Ignatius was approaching the Holy City, Our Lord appeared to him and promised that He would be favorable to him in Rome. On Christmas night in 1538 Saint Ignatius said his first Mass in the church of Saint Mary Major. On the 27th of September, 1540, Pope Paul III, exclaiming, after he had read over the plan of the Institute Ignatius had drawn up, “The finger of God is here,” gave his solemn approval to the Bull erecting the Society of Jesus into a religious Order. Ignatius was unanimously elected General. There remained now to complete his work the great task of writing the Constitution of the Society.

When, this done, the young Ribadeneira, who may be called Saint Ignatius’ spoilt child, ventured to ask the saint why he seemed to be so happy. “Because, Peter,” answered Ignatius, “Our Lord has deigned to appear to me, and to promise that, in answer to my prayers, the Society shall never cease, so long as it exists, to enjoy the precious heritage of His Passion, in the midst of contradictions and persecutions.” The rest of the life of Saint Ignatius is the history of the Society of Jesus, one may say of the Catholic Church. While he was establishing good works at Rome, his sons were combating error and spreading the light of faith all over the world. Saint Ignatius did not live to be a very old man. Some time before his death he resigned his office of General, reserving only to himself the care of the sick. His death itself was rather sudden; he was sixty-five years of age. Though slight in person and low of stature, he was of a naturally vigorous constitution and noble appearance. The nobility of his character is what shines most in all his life, in his works, and in his writings. What shall we think of that man whose every breath seemed to be “For the greater glory of God”?