{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 32,
  "chapterName": "1543. Francis Xavier’s Letter to the Society of Jesus",
  "pageFrom": 27,
  "pageTo": 31,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 27,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n27\n32. FRANCIS XAVIER'S LETTER TO THE SOCIETY\nOF JESUS (1543 A.D.)\nFrancis Xavier (1506-1552), one of the founders of the Society of\nJesus, carried on extensive activities in India and East Asia. This\nletter, describing his work on the Fishery Coast, was written the\nyear after his arrival in India and was written from Cochin. The\ncomplete text of the letter is found in 'The Hand of Xavier in the\nPearl Fishery Coast', Pro Deo et Patria, Series No. XXV, pp. 7-16\nMay the grace and charity of Christ our Lord always help and\nfavour us! Amen.\nIt is now the third year since I left Portugal. I am writing to\nyou for the third time, having as yet received only one letter from\nyou, dated February 1542. God is my witnes what joy it caused\nme. I only received it two months ago-later than is usual for\nletters to reach India, because the vessel which brought it had\npassed the winter at Mozambique.\nI and Francis Mancias are now living amongst the Christians of\nComorin. They are very numerous, and increase largely every\nday. When I first came I asked them, if they knew any thing about\nour Lord Jesus Christ? But when I came to the points of faith in\ndetail and asked them what they thought of them, and what more\nthey believed now than when they were infidels, they only replied\nthat they were Christians, but that as they are ignorant of Portu-\nguese, they know nothing of the precepts and mysteries of our\nholy religion. We could not understand one another, as I spoke\nCastilian and they Malabar; so I picked out the most intelligent\nand well read of them, and then sought out with the greatest dili-\ngence men who knew both languages. We held meetings for\nseveral days, and by our joint efforts and with infinite difficulty\nwe translated the Catechism into Malabar tongue. This .I learned\nby heart, and then I began to go through all the villages of the\ncoast, calling around me by the sound of a bell as many as I could,\nchildren and men. I assembled them twice a day and taught them\nthe Christian doctrine and thus, in the space of a month, the\nchildren had it well by heart. And all the time I kept telling them\nto go on teaching in their turn whatever they had learnt to their\nparents, family and neighbours.\nEvery Sunday I collected them all, men and women, boys and\ngirls, in the church. They came with great readiness and with a\ngreat desire for instruction. Then, in the hearing of all, I began\nby calling on the name of the most holy Trinity, Father, Son and\nHoly Ghost, and I recited aloud the Lord's Prayer, the Hail",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 28,
      "ocrText": "28\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nMary, and the Creed in the language of the country: they all\nfollowed me in the same words, and delighted in it wonderfully.\nThen I repeated the Creed by myself, dwelling upon each article\nsingly. Then I asked them as to each article, whether they believed\nit unhesitatingly; and all, with a loud voice and their hands.\ncrossed over their breasts, professed aloud that they truly believed\nit. I take care to make them repeat the Creed oftener than the\nother prayers; and I tell them that those who believe all that is.\ncontained therein are called Christians. After explaining the\nCreed I go on to the Commandments, teaching them that the Chris--\ntian law is contained in those ten precepts, and that every one who\nobserves them all faithfully is a good and true Christian and is.\ncertain of eternal salvation, and that, on the other hand, whoever\nneglects a single one of them is a bad Christian, and will be cast\ninto hell unless he is truly penitent for his sin. Converts and\nheathen alike are astonished at all this, which shows them the\nholiness of the Christian law, its perfect consistency with itself,\nand its agreement with reason. After this I recite our principal\nprayers, as the Our Father and the Hail Mary and they say them\nafter me. Then we go back to the Creed, adding Our Father\nand the Hail Mary after each article, with a short hymn; for, as soon\nas I have recited the first article, I sing in their language, Jesus, Son\nof the Living God, grant us the grace to believe firmly this first\narticle of your faith and that we may obtain this from you, we\noffer you this prayer taught us by yourself. Then we add this\nsecond invocation: 'Holy Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, obtain for us from your most sweet Son that we may believe\nwithout hesitation this article of the Christian faith. We do\nthe same after all the other eleven articles.\nWe teach them the Commandments in the following way.\nAfter we have sung the first, which enjoins the love of God, we pray\nthus: Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, grant us the grace to\nlove thee above all things;' and then we say for this intention the\nLord's Prayer. Then we all sing together, Holy Mary, Mother\nof Jesus Christ, obtain for us from your Son the grace to observe\nperfectly the first of His Commandments:' and then we say the\nHail Mary. So we go on through the other nine, changing the\nwords of our little invocation as occasion requires. Thus I accus-\ntomed them to ask for these graces with ordinary prayers of the\nChurch, and I tell them at the same time that if they obtain them,\nthey will have all other things that they can wish for more abundantly\nthan they would be able to ask for them. I make them all, and\nparticularly those who are to be baptized, repeat the form of general\nconfession. These last I question after each article of the Creed\nas it is recited, whether they believe it firmly; and after they have\nanswered yes, I give them an instruction in their own language\nexplaining the chief heads of the Christian religion, and the duties:",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 29,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n29\nnecessary to salvation. Last of all, I admit them thus prepared to\nbaptism. The instruction is ended by the Salve Regina begging\nthe aid and help of our blessed Lady.\nAs to the numbers who become Christians, you may under-\nstand from this, that it often happens to me to be hardly able to\nuse my hands from the fatigue of baptizing; often in a single day\nI have baptized whole villages. Some times I lost my voice and\nstrength altogether with repeating again and again the Credo and\nthe other forms.\nThe fruit that is reaped by the baptism of infants, as well as by\nthe instruction of children and others, is quite incredible. These\nchildren, I trust heartily, by the grace of God will be much better\nthan their fathers. They show an ardent love for the Divine\nLaw and an extraordinary zeal for learning our holy religion and\nimparting it to others. Their hatred for idolatry is marvellous. They\nget into feuds with the heathen about it, and whenever their own\nparents practice it, they reproach, and come off to tell me at once.\nWhenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place\nwith a large band of these children, who very soon load the devil\nwith a great amount of insult and abuse than he has lately received\nof honour and worship from their parents, relations and aquain-\ntances. The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them\ndown, break them to pieces, spit on them, trample on them, kick\nthem about, and in short heap on them every possible outrage.\nI had been living for nearly four months in a Christian village,\noccupied in translating the Catechism. A great number of natives\ncame from all parts to entreat me to take the trouble to go to their\nhouses and call on God by the bedsides of their sick relatives.\nSuch numbers also of sick made their own way to us, that I had\nenough to do to read a gospel over each of them. At the same\ntime we kept on with our daily work instructing the children, bap-\ntizing converts, translating the Catechism, answering difficulties\nand burying the dead. For my part I desired to satisfy all, both\nthe sick who came to me themselves, and those who came to beg\non the part of others, lest if I did not, their confidence in, and zeal\nfor, our holy religion should relax, and I thought it wrong not to do\nwhat I could in answer to their prayers. But the thing grew to\nsuch a pitch that it was impossible for me myself to satisfy all,\nand at the same time to avoid their quarrelling among themselves,\neveryone striving to be the first to get me to his own house; so\nI hit on a way of serving all at once. As I could not go myself,\nI sent round children whom I could trust in my place. They\nwent to the sick persons, assembled their families and neighbours,\nrecited the Creed with them, and encouraged the sufferers to con-\nceive a certain and well founded confidence of their restoration.\nThen after all this, they recited the prayers of the Church. To make",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 30,
      "ocrText": "30\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nthe tale short, God was moved by the faith and piety of these\nchildren and of the others, and restored to a great number of sick\npersons health both of body and soul. How good He was to them!\nHe made the very disease of their bodies the occasion of calling\nthem to salvation, and drew them to the Christian faith almost\nby force !\nI have also charged these children to teach the rudiments of\nChristian doctrine to the ignorant in private houses, in the streets,\nand the crossways. As soon as I see that this has been well started.\nin one village, I go on to another and give the same instructions\nand the same commission to the children, and so I go through in\norder, the whole number of their villages. When I have done\nthis and am going away, I leave in each place a copy of the Chris-\ntian doctrine, and tell all those who know how to write, to copy it\nout, and all the others are to learn it by heart and to recite it from\nmemory every day. Every feast east day I bid them meet in one place\nand sing all together the elements of faith. For this purpose I have\nappointed in each of the thirty Christian villages men of intelligence\nand character who are to preside over these meetings, and the\nGovernor, Don Martin Alfonso, who is so full of love for our\nsociety and of zeal for religion, has been good enough at our request\nto alłot a yearly revenue of 4,000 gold fanams for the salary of\nthese catechists. He has an immense friendship for ours and\ndesires with all his heart that some of them should be sent hither,\nfor which he is always asking in his letters to the king\nWe have in these parts a class of men among the pagans who\nare called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the\nsuperstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking\ncare of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can\nanywhere be found and I always apply to them the words of holy\nDavid, From an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver\nme, O Lord. They are liars and cheats to the very backbone.\nTheir whole study is how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity\nand ignorance of the people. They give out publicly that the gods\ncommand certain offerings to be made to their temples, which\nofferings are simply the things that the Brahmins themselves wish\nfor, for their own maintenance and that of their wives, children\nand servants. Thus they made the poor folk believe that the images\nof their gods eat and drink, dine and sup like men, and some devout\npersons are found who really offer to the idol twice a day, before\ndinner and supper, a certain sum of money. The Brahmins eat\nsumptuous meals to the sound of drums, and make the ignorant\nbelieve that the gods are banqueting\nThe heathen inhabitants of the country are commonly ignorant\nof letters, but no means ignorant of wickedness. All the time\nI have been here in this country I have only converted one Brah-",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 31,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n31\nmin, a virtuous young man, who has now undertaken to teach\nthe Catechism to children. As I go through the Christian villages,.\nI often pass by the temples of the Brahmins, which they call pago-\ndas. One day lately, I happened to enter a pagoda where there.\nwere about two hundred of them, and most of them came to meet.\nme. We had a long conversation, after which I asked them what\ntheir gods enjoined them in order to obtain the life of the blessed..\nThere was a long discussion amongst them as to who should answer\nme. At last, by common consent, the commission was given\nto one of them, of greater age and experience than the rest, an\nold man, of more than eighty years. He asked me in return, what\ncommands the God of the Christians laid on them. I saw the\nold man's perversity and I refused to speak a word till he had first\nanswered my question. So he was obliged to expose his ignorance,\nand replied that their gods required two duties of those who desired\nto go to them hereafter, one of which was to abstain from killing\ncows, because under that form the gods were adored; the other\nwas to show kindness to the Brahmins, who were the worshippers\nof the gods. This answer moved my indignation, for I could not\nbut grieve intensely at the thought of the devils being worshipped\ninstead of God by these blind heathen, and I asked them to listen\nto me in turn. Then I, in a loud voice, repeated the Apostles'\nCreed and the Ten Commandments. After this I gave in their\nown language a short explanation, and told them what Paradise\nis, and what Hell is, and also who they are who go to Heaven to\njoin the company of the blessed, and who are to be sent to the eternal\npunishments of Hell. Upon hearing these things they all rose\nup and vied with one another in embracing me, and in confessing\nthat the God of the Christians is the true God, as His laws are so\nagreeable to reason. Then they asked me if the souls of men like\nthose of other animals perished together with the body.\nput into my mouth arguments of such a sort, and so suited, to\ntheir great joy I was able to prove to them the immortality of the\nsoul. I find, by the way, that the arguments which are to convince\nthese ignorant people must by no means be subtle, such as those\nwhich are found in the books of learned schoolmen, but must be\nsuch as their mind can understand. They asked me again how the\nsoul of a dying person goes out of the body, how it was, whether\nit was as happens to us in dreams, when we seem to be conversing\nwith our friends and aquaintances? (Ah, how often this happens\nto me, dearest brothers, when I am dreaming of you!) Was this\nbecause the soul then leaves the body? And again, whether God\nwas black or white? For as there is so great a variety of colour\namong men, and the Indians being black themselves, consider\ntheir own colour the best, they believe that their gods are black.\nOn this account the great majority of their idols are as black as\nblack can be, and moreover are generally so scrubbed over with\noil as to smell detestably, and seem to be as dirty as they are ugly\nGod",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}