Reflection on Today’s Feast

By Fr. George Bur, SJ

In my first years as a Jesuit, I lived with a number of men from the then-Maryland Province who went on to serve in India at our mission in the State of Jharkhand. For example, Fr. Larry Hunt, SJ, founded hostels for the shunned children of lepers. At least a score of other Maryland Jesuits served for many years in this part of India. Fathers Joe Lacey, SJ, and Rob Currie, SJ, are among those still able to share with us the stories of their work there. On one or two occasions later, I encountered missionary Jesuits like Philadelphian Fr. John Deeney, SJ, while I was visiting my family. John became a saint among the Ho tribal group.

The martyred Jesuits whose feast we celebrate on February 4 provided inspiration for these and many other 20th Century American Jesuits who labored in India. The feast celebrates four Jesuit priests and one Jesuit brother, all natives of Europe, whose mission to the southern regions of India in the 16th and 17th centuries met angry opposition. All of them died violently.    

Four were martyred with a number of native Christians in 1583 by a mob gathered in an Indian village named Cuncolim. A fifth Jesuit, John de Brito, was executed about a hundred years later in another part of southeastern India, in a town now named Orur. It is his name that leads this February 4th list of martyrs.

John was born in a Portuguese family with close ties to the royal court. His path to sainthood began when he joined the Jesuits in 1662 at age fifteen. Shortly after ordination in 1686 he arrived at the Jesuit mission in Goa, where Francis Xavier had first landed. There, he spent some time learning the Tamil language before beginning his work in Madura. After a short time preaching the Gospel, he realized that living like a native padaraswami, a respected ascetic, would gain him access to people from all castes of society. So, he dressed in their saffron robe and turban and adopted their simple diet. This way of life gained converts and built relationships, but at the same earned him the suspicion of the leaders of the region.  

His success led his Jesuit superiors to send him back to Lisbon to report on his work.   The royal court there gave him an enthusiastic welcome and wanted him to stay safely in Lisbon, but John insisted on returning to Madura. Upon returning, the conversion of a certain local prince to Christianity caused great tension because he would now be required to practice monogamy. The prince dismissed one of his wives who was related to the regional raja. The raja, who had threatened John previously, arrested him because of the shame visited on his relative. John calmly conversed with the raja about matters of religion but to no avail. Within weeks, on February 4, 1693, he was executed.

On the day before the execution John wrote this message to his Jesuit superior:

“I was brought back to prison where I find myself still in constant expectation of death, which I shall endure for God. The hope of obtaining this happiness led me twice to India. It is true that to seek after and secure such happiness has cost me dear, but the rewards I hope from God are worth all these and still greater sufferings…What an honor to suffer death for (the crime of preaching the gospel).”

The site of his execution immediately became a sacred place and is now a bustling pilgrimage shrine. At this site, Jesuits of the Madurai Province also staff a primary and secondary school educating over 2,500 students. 

From the website of the shrine:

“February 4, 1993 was a red letter day in the annals of the Oriyur (Orur) Shrine for it was the three hundredth anniversary of John de Britto’s martyrdom. Hence the day was celebrated with extraordinary grandeur. More than twenty thousand people from all walks of life…took part in it.”   

As the great Christian writer, Tertullian, famously noted, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

St. John de Britto and Companions, pray for us!

Fr. Bur is missioned to serve as Chaplain at St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia, PA.