SAINT OF THE DAY
SUNDAY, 4 FEBRUARY, 2024
SAINT JOHN DE BRITTO
PRIEST AND MARTYR
(1 March 1647 - 4 February 1693)
John de Britto, was born in Lisbon on March 1, 1647 to a noble Portuguese family. His father died while serving as Viceroy of Brazil. Growing up, John was a playmate to the future King of Portugal, Pedro II. A terrible illness made him turn for aid to St. Francis Xavier, a Saint so well loved by the Portuguese; and when, in answer to his prayers, he recovered, his mother vested him for a year in the dress worn in those days by the Jesuit Fathers.
On December 17, 1662, he entered the novitiate of the Society at Lisbon. Hand in hand with his studies, he felt the growing desire to work in the footsteps of St. Francis Xavier. He had the courage to write twice, without the knowledge of his immediate superior, pleading insistently to grant him the grace to go to missions in India. He dedicated himself to the study of theology and received priestly ordination in early 1673.
In 1673, in spite of the most determined opposition of his family and of the court, he left all to go to preach the faith in Madura. When John's mother knew that her son was going to India, she used all her influence to prevent him leaving his own country, and persuaded the Papal Nuncio to interfere. "God, who called me from the world into religious life, now calls me from Portugal to India," was the reply of the future martyr. "Not to answer the vocation as I ought, would be to provoke the justice of God. As long as I live, I shall never cease striving to gain a passage to India."
After an adventurous journey, John arrived in Goa in 1673. Visiting the tomb of St. Francis Xavier, at the Jesuit church, he repeated his vow to work for the propagation of the Catholic Faith in the College of the Society of Jesus, where he completed his studies in theology.
The Madurai Mission was a bold attempt to establish an Indian Catholic Church that was relatively free of European cultural domination. As such, Britto learned the native languages, went about dressed in yellow cotton, and lived like a Thuravi/Sanyaasi, abstaining from every kind of animal food and from wine. St. John de Britto tried to teach the Catholic faith in categories and concepts that would make sense to the people he taught. This method, proposed and practiced by Roberto de Nobili, met with remarkable success. Britto remained a strict vegan until the end of his life, rejecting meat, fish, eggs and alcohol, and living only on legumes, fruits and herbs.
In 1682, struck by his success and his sanctity, his Jesuit Superiors entrusted to him the government of the entire province. To the wars of the local kings, which created ravages, disorder, pillage and death for the people, famine, pestilence, and floods came to add to the devastation of the unhappy land. Both the days and the nights of Saint John were dedicated to bringing aid to the poor Christians and pagans afflicted by so many disasters. At times he took charge of the entire populations which the wars had caused to migrate. All the Christians were pursued by bands of robbers, paid by the ruling elements to prevent any increase in the influence of the Disciples of Christ. Saint John's miracles helped him, and God preserved him from the snares of his many enemies.
John learned that in eighteen years no missionary had reached the kingdom of Maravá, east of Madura. He decided to take on the dangerous business, having sent some talented catechists. On May 5, 1686 he crossed the border; by July 17 of that year he had baptized more than two thousand Indians. He stayed awake throughout the night to hear confessions and baptize. Soon, however, the King of Maravá had his prime minister order the arrest of the missionary and his companions; no arrest was unrelated to the imprudence of a missionary of another religious order. Later, John endured, for about a month, a real cruel martyrdom, without the execution of his death sentence. Among other torments, he was scourged with a shield, slapped, loaded with chains. Then he was made to lie naked on a boulderof pumice stone, red-hot from the sun and fraught with acute tips, where they forced him to stay for more torment, while seven or eight people jump on his body. John spent twenty-two days in that prison before he managed to speak with the king, who seemed subdued by the truth. He was released in August 1686.
His Superiors sent him back to Europe to concern himself with the affairs of the missions of India. They wrote of him: He has affronted every peril to save souls and extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ, for whose love he has been captured several times and condemned to frightful torments. He preached in Portugal at the court and in the various dioceses and universities, without ever forgetting that he was a missionary of Madura, for which he recruited many generous workers for the Gospel vineyard.
He finally went back to the land of his choice in 1690 with twenty-five Jesuits, of whom several died during the voyage. The king of Portugal took every means to obtain his return to Portugal, if not as tutor to his son, which post he had declined, then as bishop of one of the Portuguese sees, but the Saint was occupied in baptizing thousands of catechumens and instructing the pagans whom grace had touched.
MARTYRDOM
John de Britto's preaching led to the conversion of Thadiyathevan, a Marava prince who had several wives. When Thadiyathevan was required to dismiss all his wives but one, a serious problem arose. One of the wives was a niece of the neighboring king, the Sethupathi, the King of Ramnad, who took up her quarrel and he began a general persecution of Christians. Britto and the catechists were captured and carried to the capital, Ramnad . There he was led to Oriyur, some thirty miles northward along the coast, where he was executed on 4 February 1693.
John de Britto was beatified by Pius IX on August 21, 1853. He was canonized by Pius XII, June 22, 1947.
PATRON: Portugal, Roman Catholic Diocese of Sivagangai.
REFLECTION: My friend, I have done what I should do, I have prayed to God. Now do your part. Carry out the order you have received. – St John, to his executioner.
PRAYER: Lord God, you sent out your martyrs to preach the Gospel by word and example. Grant a rich harvest of grace to those who are fearless in proclaiming the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who loves and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.