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          Revised and republished on: December 3, 2012

Without Regard for Results

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Catholic missionary work began on the first Pentecost Sunday as the first Pope, Saint Peter, inflamed with the gifts and fruits of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, Who had descended upon him and the other Apostles and our dear Most Blessed Mother, preached to the Jews assembled in Jerusalem that day, exhorting them to convert to the true Faith. Three thousand Jews from all over the Mediterranean region converted. Such open "proselytizing," of course, of the Jews is strictly prohibited today by the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

Saint Peter went on to become the Bishop of Antioch in Syria before establishing his See in Rome, the seat of the empire of the Caesars that controlled large parts of the known world that time. Saint Peter, along with Saint Paul the Apostle, a convert to the Faith as a result of the prayers offered at his death and from eternity by Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, planted the seeds that would result in the rise of the Empire of Christ the King that made its headquarters in Rome. Neither Saint Peter or Saint Paul, however, lived to see the glories of Christendom with the eyes of their bodies. They saw these glories from Heaven. They did the work of Apostles without regard for results.

According to Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, thirteen million Catholics were put to death by the brute force of the civil authorities of the pagan Roman Empire between the time of the Emperor Nero's persecution in the year 67 A.D. and the Edict of Milan issued by the Emperor Constantine in the year 313 A.D. These Catholics did not look for results. They simply wanted to be faithful to the Deposit of Faith that had been entrusted by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ exclusively to the infallible teaching authority of the true Church that He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope. These martyrs, among whose ranks are to be found Saint Bibiana, whose feast we commemorated yesterday, Sunday, December 2, 2012, the First Sunday of Advent, Saint Barbara, whose feast is commemorated tomorrow, Tuesday, December 4, 2012, and our dear Saint Lucy, whose feast is celebrated on Thursday, December 13, 2012, would not burn even one grain of incense to the false gods. Not one single grain of incense.

None of the Catholic missionaries who sought to convert various barbaric tribes an pagan peoples in Europe and North Africa and the Near East in Asia Minor and India compromised the Faith even a little bit. They were faithful to Christ the King without looking for results.

Saint Patrick did not engage the Druids in "inter-religious dialogue" on the Emerald Isle, Ireland.

Saint Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western monasticism, made no compromises with the false idols still being venerated near Monte Cassino:

 

But while things started very favorably, as We said, and yielded rich and salutary results, promising still greater in the future, Our saint with the greatest grief of soul, saw a storm breaking over the growing harvest, which an envious spirit had provoked and desires of earthly gain had stirred up. Since Benedict was prompted by divine and not human counsel, and feared lest the envy which had been aroused mainly against himself should wrongfully recoil on his followers, "he let envy take its course, and after he had disposed of the oratories and other buildings -- leaving in them a competent number of brethren with superiors -- he took with him a few monks and went to another place". Trusting in God and relying on His ever present help, he went south and arrived at a fort "called Cassino situated on the side of a high mountain . . .; on this stood an old temple where Apollo was worshipped by the foolish country people, according to the custom of the ancient heathens. Around it likewise grew groves, in which even till that time the mad multitude of infidels used to offer their idolatrous sacrifices. The man of God coming to that place broke the idol, overthrew the altar, burned the groves, and of the temple of Apollo made a chapel of St. Martin. Where the profane altar had stood he built a chapel of St. John; and by continual preaching he converted many of the people thereabout".  (Pope Pius XII, Fulgens Radiatur, March 21, 1947 .)

Saint Boniface (Winifred) did not esteem the tree that was considered "sacred" by the pagans in Germany. He chopped it down and mocked it:

A bold deed which he [Saint Benedict] performed at this time greatly increased his prestige and led to numerous conversions. At Geismar, near Fritzlar, there was a gigantic oak, called the "Tree of Thor," which the pagans of the whole country regarded with the deepest veneration. Mighty as the God of the Christians was, over the oak of Geismar, so they boasted, He had no power, and none of His followers would are destroy it. This tree the Christians advised Boniface to cut down, assuring him that its fall would shake the faith of the pagans in the power of their gods. Boniface consented, and on the appointed day undertook to lay the ax to the tree with his own hands. A vast crowd of pagans stood around, intently watching to see some dire misfortune overwhelm the desecrator of their shrine. But when the mighty tree fell to the ground under the strokes of the Bishop's ax, they with one accord praised the God of the Christians and asked to be received among the number of His followers. Boniface baptized them, and out of the wood of the tree built a little oratory, which he dedicated to St. Peter. (Father John Laux, Church History, published originally by Benziger Brothers, in 1930, republished by TAN Books and Publishers, 1980, p. 149.)

 

Saint Hyacinth, the Apostle of the Northland, was not infected with conciliarism's desire to "coexist peacefully" with demon worship:

For a moment all was silence as Hyacinth fixed his eyes in careful scrutiny upon the island. Then suddenly his hands clenched. Drawn up at one side of the island were several small boats. And toward the center, from amidst the thick trees, rose a slender column of smoke!

"The pagans!" he whispered. "They're offering sacrifice!"

Yes, the hour of sunrise was a favorite time for idol worship and gratefully Hyacinth realized that his plans were working out well More than a hundred men and women must be on the island, kneeling in a secret grove before the ugly statue they believed to be a god. Already there must have been prayers and hymns, then the burning of a lamb or calf before the idol. Soon the service would be over and the pagans would stream down to their boats to return to their homes in Kiev.

"I've no time to lose," he said firmly. "Kneel down, Brother Martin, and pray that I do something really worthwhile to help these poor people!"

Before the young religious could realize what was happening, Hyacinth had turned and started down the grassy slope to the river's edge. His black cloak floated before him like a sail, and for a moment Martin knelt as one in a dream--forgetful of the command to pray. With what speed his beloved superior moved! Why, he was all but flying down the hill! Then the young friar grew really weak, for suddenly he understood that he was witnessing a genuine wonder. By now Father Hyacinth had reached the Dnieper and was starting to cross over to the island. But not in a boat. Ah, no! Father Hyacinth was walking on the river as thought it were dry land!

"Mother of God! cried Martin. "I heard that he did such a thing at Vishogrod . . . on the Vistula! But here? Before me? Oh, no! It's too much!

Presently Hyacinth landed safely on the island, then disappeared into the thick woods. And, though Martin strained his eyes for several minutes, he could see him no longer. Nor was any sound to be heard save the harsh cries of water birds as they circled over the river in search of food.

As he looked and listened in an agony of suspense, the young religious tried to clasp his trembling hands in prayer. Oh, what was going to happen? Would Father Hyacinth really seek out the pagans? Would he put a stop to their heathen sacrifice?

It can mean death," he [Martin] thought. "Even I know that the Russian pagans are little more than crude barbarians."

Suddenly there was a clamor in the distance, muted at first, then growing louder, and with a sinking heart, the young man realized that the pagans were aroused. They were pouring out of the woods with screams and shouts. But soon he could see that they were not attacking Father Hyacinth. They were not even making for their boats. Rather, they were throwing themselves on their knees in a very frenzy of terror. And why? Because a black-and-white-clad friar was striding out of the woods and driving before him a horrible creature--half man, half beat---with flames shooting from its mouth and eyes!

Martin's blood ran cold as he looked at the terrible sight. Could it be that this was the Devil? that Father Hyacinth's prayers had forced him to leave the idol and appear before the pagans in one of his hellish shapes?

"Oh, if one some of the Russian priests could be here!" whispered the young friar, his teeth clattering. "Maybe this would teach them not to speak ill of a true servant of God!"

Martin was wrong. When word of the miracle was noised about in Kiev, the jealousy of the heretical priests reached alarming proportions. So Father Hyacinth had gone to the island and found the pagans worshiping before an old oak tree? With one blow he had sent the great tree crumbling into dust? As the Evil One emerged from the tree, he had fought with him hand to hand, then thrown him into the Dnieper? (Mary Fabyan Windeatt, Saint Hyacinth: Apostle of the Northland.)

 

Countless are the number of times in which the demon worship that these great Catholic missionaries sought to eradicate from the face of this earth have been incorporated into "offerings" of the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service, sometimes with the full participation of the conciliar "pontiffs," especially Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. The demon worship known as Hinduism has been offered the Chapel of the Apparitions in the Shrine of the Most Holy Trinity in Fatima, Portugal (May 5, 2004).

Various Catholic churches in conciliar captivity have been desecrated by "worship" rendered to the demons of false religions. Countless are the blasphemies and sacrileges and abominations committed in the name of the Catholic Church by the conciliar revolutionaries that make a mockery of the courage of the millions of Catholic martyrs who gave up their lives rather than even to give the appearance of committing such acts against the honor and majesty and glory of God. Indeed, the conciliar blasphemies and sacrileges and abominations, some of them committed most openly by the conciliar "pontiffs" themselves, have been so commonplace that many ordinary Catholics in the conciliar structures, assaulted on a daily basis by the abomination that is the Novus Ordo service, have lost all sense of outrage for the honor and majesty and glory of God while some of those who do indeed know better, especially in the Motu "clergy," keep their mouths shut out of fear of offending the apostates who commit these actions against God.

As has been noted on this site frequently (see Hunkered Down on Mindanao), efforts of some very well-intentioned "conservative" Catholics yet attached to the conciliar structures to oppose the garden-variety blasphemies and sacrileges at the parish and diocesan levels are in vain as the conciliar "pontiffs" themselves have provided all of the precedents necessary to make acts that any sensible Catholic knows is offensive to God to become an institutionalized part of life in the conciliar structures.

What I wrote in What Lines Are You Reading Between, Bishop Fellay? six months ago now bears summarizing, at least in part, once again:

Putting aside, without minimizing for a nanosecond, the many ways in which Ratzinger/Benedict offends God by his lifelong warfare against the nature of dogmatic truth as defined solemnly by the teaching authority of the Catholic Church and by his other defections from the Catholic Faith, all one needs to do is to review the following few actions that have occurred under his false "pontificate" to understand how the Ratzinger/Benedict has offended God greatly and without even seeming to know that he has done so, which is in and of itself a clear sign that he has lost the Catholic Faith:

  1. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI rejected the "ecumenism of the return" in an address to Protestant and Orthodox representatives at an ecumenical gathering in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005. This offends God greatly as He desires the unconditional conversion of every non-Catholic on the face of the earth to the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
  2. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI visited a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005, in full violation of the authentic Canon Law of the Catholic Church and without exhorting his listeners to convert from their false religion to the true Faith
  3. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI personally approved the use of the "Paul VI" Audience Hall for the "world premiere" of The Nativity Story on Sunday, November 26, 2006, although the movie, produced by a Protestant, blaspheme the ever-sinless Mother of God by portraying her as a sulky, mood, rebellious teenager, thereby denying the doctrinal effects of her Immaculate Conception and also denigrating the doctrine of her Divine Maternity as declared by the Council of Ephesus in in the year 431 A.D. and the miraculous Nativity of her Divine Son. God is not pleased as a motion picture blaspheming his Most Blessed Mother and his foster-father, Saint Joseph, is promoted by putative "Catholics" inside the walls of the Vatican itself. (See Easy for Blasphemers to Endorse Blasphemy, Preserved from All Sin, Filled with All Grace, Conciliarism's Blindness Inducing Acid.)
  4. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI entered into the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 30, 2006, taking off his shoes so as to symbolize that he was in a "holy place" and then turned in the direction of Mecca at the behest of his Mohammedan "host," who instructed him to assume the Mohammedan prayer position as they "prayed" together. God is offended by honor being given to such a false religion as the souls of His faithful Catholics are scandalized and bewildered and confused as a consequence.
  5. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI appeared as an equal with "Patriarch" Bartholomew I in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 30, 2006, issuing a joint statement which included the following statement, "This commitment comes from the Lord’s will and from our responsibility as Pastors in the Church of Christ" (Common Declaration by Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew I). Bartholomew I, who "prayed" with Ratzinger/Benedict in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, October 18, 2008, for an end to "fundamentalism" and for "religious tolerance, is not a "pastor" in the Church of Christ. The only Church of Christ is the Catholic Church, from which the heretic Bartholomew I is in schism. He is not a "pastor" in the Church of Christ. Of course, neither is Ratzinger/Benedict.
  6. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI sent a letter on August 4, 2007, to an interreligious conference being held on Mount Hiei in Japan, terming Mount Hiei, upon which the Tendei sect of the false religion of Buddhism established its first "stronghold," as "sacred," thereby blaspheming God and reaffirming devil worshipers in their false religion. (See No Such Thing as a Small Sacrilege)
  7. As has been noted on this site many times in the fifty-nine months, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI personally esteemed the symbols of five false religions at the John Paul Cultural Center on Thursday, April 17, 2008, offending God grievously as he violated the First Commandment's absolute and unwavering injunction to have no strange gods before me. How many people rose to defend the honor and majesty and glory of God? Not many. Not many at all.
  8. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI walked into a Jewish synagogue in the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York, New York, on Friday, April 18, 2008, to be treated as an inferior and as the choir sang a "hymn" about how they were "awaiting" the Messiah.
  9. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI participated in several travesties during "World Youth Day" in Sydney, Australia, including a horrific display of pagan rituals during a Novus Ordo service at Randwick Racecourse on Sunday, July 20, 2008.
  10. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI permitted the non-"archbishop" of Canterbury to deliver the "homily" at a Novus Ordo service in Lourdes, France, on Sunday, September 14, 2008, treating the non-cleric as a validly ordained clergyman, which he is not.
  11. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI called a Mohammedan mosque in Amman, Jordan as "sacred" and took off his shoes while visiting the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem and placed a nondenominational "prayer" in the Western Wall there during a visit to the Middle East between May 8-15, 2009.
  12. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI expressed his admiration once again for at least part of the work of the late Jesuit evolutionist, Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (see Revealing His Inner Teilhard Yet Again and the recently published Progressivist Document of the Week  at the anti-sedevacantist Tradition in Action website for more information about the Modernists in Rome and Teilhard de Chardin.)
  13. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI once again entered a Talmudic synagogue on Sunday, January 17, 2010, in Rome, Italy, listening yet again to a blasphemous hymn sung by those who deny the Sacred Divinity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (See Saint Peter and Anti-Peter.)
  14. On January 20, 2010, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI praised the "World Missionary Conference" that gave birth to false ecumenism, propagating falsehoods that were denounced by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928. (See (Getting Bolder In His Apostasy.)
  15. On March 14, 2010, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI entered a Lutheran "church" in Rome, listening to the "sermon" given by the Lutheran minister, saying when it was his turn to speak that "I think we should first be thankful that there is so much unity. It's nice that we can pray together today, sing the same hymns together, hear the same word of God together, that we can interpret and try to understand it together." Unity? Yes, he is one with his fellow Lutherans on many points. (See Unity Among Lutherans.)
  16. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI continued to deconstruct, distort and misrepresent Our Lady's Fatima Message during a visit to Portugal from May 11-14, 2010 (see On Full Display: The Modernist Mind).
  18. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI announced in his "World Day of Peace Message" on January 1, 2011 that he was dedicating the year to "religious liberty" (see Another Year of the Same Conciliar Apostasy, Part One, Another Year of the Same Conciliar Apostasy, Part Two, Another Year of the Same Conciliar Apostasy, Part Three, Not Interested in Assisi III, Night and Day and in Processing Along The Path To Antichrist.)
  19. On March 2, 2011, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's released Jesus of Narazreth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, creating yet another controversy by departing from the teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the guilt of the Jews for the death of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and going so far as to deny the simple truth that it was Saint Peter himself who uttered the words that resulted in the conversion of over three thousand Jews on the first Pentecost Sunday. (Impressed With His Own Originality, Accepting "Popes" As Unreliable Teachers, Coloring Everything He Says and Does, part one, Coloring Everything He Says and Does, part two, Atila Sinka Guimaraes's Benedict XVI's Different Religion, Mr. Mark Stabinski's Benedict's book Jesus of Nazareth contradicts Church Teaching on the Jews, and Mr. John Vennari's The Glory of the Olive? Benedict XVI and the Jews, which must be qualified by the excellent commentary at Novus Ordo Watch, Refinishing the Great Facade.)
  21. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI praised Martin Luther during his visit to Germany between September 22-25, 2011 (see Modernist At Work, part one and Modernist At Work, part two).
  23. For the sake of time, readers can review the two most recent articles on this: Does This Man Give Any Thought To His Particular Judgment? and All Together Now: Go Right Ahead, Gerhard, Make Our Day for commentary on the methodology underlining how he dropped bits of poison in various parts of his new book, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives.

 

This list is hardly exhaustive. It does not include many of the matters covered. It is after Midnight again and I wanted to be in bed by now!

 

The saint whose feast we celebrate today, Saint Francis Xavier, had great zeal to seek the unconditional conversion of the souls of non-Catholics to the maternal bosom of the true Church, outside of which there is no salvation, no matter the obstacles he faced and no matter the results. Although he won many converts in Goa, India, this early companion and one of the original priests of the Society of Jesus walked barefoot in the snow in Japan to plant the seeds for the conversion of at least a few souls. Saint Francis Xavier wanted to be faithful without looking for the same results in Japan as he had realized in India by the graces won for us on Calvary by the shedding of every single drop of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Most Precious Blood and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces. He would only see the results of his wonderful labors in Japan from eternity.

Saint Francis Xavier sought only the conversion of the Japanese people, knowing that Our Lord had died for them as He had died for all other men. He had true love for souls, a love that was not a mere expression of human sentimentality but an act of his will in perfect conformity with the very Will of God, Who loves all men in that He wills their good, the ultimate expression of which is the salvation of their immortal souls as members of the Catholic Church.

Consider the scene as described by the late Father Albert J. Nevins, M.M., in Saint Francis of the Seven Seas:

There is in the city of Kyoto today a painting which shows Francis Xavier arriving in the capital of Japan. It pictures him running barefoot in the snow behind the sedan chair of a nobleman. Behind him in the snow he has left footprints colored red with his blood. His clothes are tattered and he appears starving, but on his face is a look of peace and great joy. The painting sums up what Francis went through to reach Kyoto, and the great hopes he brought there with him.

The first part of the journey from Yamaguchi to Kyoto had to be made over rough roads. Francis and his friends covered forty miles to reach the port of Iwakuni. Snow drifts came up to their knees. They had to cross freezing mountain torrents that were waist deep. The region was full of unfriendly samurai who at any moment might wish to test their swords on the missioners.

Children chased them, throwing stones. Their clothes became so tattered that innkeepers refused them shelter. Often they could obtain no food and had to munch a bit of dry rice which they carried with them. At Sakai, no inn would accept them, and they had to build a crude hut on a mountainside to escape the cold driving rain and snow.

The travelers had to remain some time at Sakai, because a small war was being fought between there and Kyoto. While at Sakai children tormented them, and they were unable to preach. Adults too poked fun at the ragged strangers. One young man called Francis a fool and a stupid beast.

"Why do you speak to me in this way?" Francis asked. "I love you very much and I would greatly like to teach you the way of salvation."

But the young man laughed at Francis' kindness, and kept on mocking him.

Finally the travelers were permitted to join a nobleman who was going to the capital. This man allowed them to follow his part as his servants did. He also insisted that Francis, Brother Fernandez and Bernard carry some of his baggage on their backs. It was a hard journey because the servants who carried the sedan chair in which the nobleman rode moved at a brisk trot. Francis and his friends had to run to keep up with the nobleman. The painting in Kyoto shows the end of this part of the journey.

It was with a happy heart that Francis entered Kyoto. Here was the end of his trail. Here he would see the emperor of all Japan and get permission to preach over the whole country. Then came the great disappointment.

Once in the city, Francis saw that great areas had been burnt out and destroyed in the war that was going on. The temples were badly in need of repair. Every attempt to see the emperor failed, and after Francis learned that even the Emperor's own people did not obey him, he stopped trying to see the man.

Because of the war, the people were not interested in listening to the teachings of Christ. There were a few attempts at preaching, but they were not successful. Only a handful of converts were made.

Francis remained only eleven days in Kyoto--eleven days of bitter disappointment. Then realizing that because of the war nothing could be done in the city, he decided to return to Yamaguchi. On the face of things, it would appear that Francis Xavier had failed. But he had not. The seed of religion which he had planted in Kyoto in his brief visit there would blossom into a rich harvest. Only a dozen years later, Kyoto would boast many, many Christians. From this city came some of the greatest martyrs the Church has ever produced.

In order not to travel overland and risk the many dangers, the part left Kyoto by boat. The journey in a small boat in freezing weather was from from pleasant. When they reached Osaka, they took passage on another boat to Sakai. Finally they were back to Hirado, their starting point four or five months later.

Their hardships were greatest on their return journey. It was February, the time of snow, sleet, and wind. The missioners had neither rest nor shelter. Francis would buy dry fruits at the inns and carry them in his sleeves. Then when he came across children by the roadside, he would give them some of the fruit and his blessing.

Once safe in Hirado, Francis thought over the whole unhappy journey he had just finished. He felt that it had been a failure. He had been hooted at and stoned. He had not been well received by the daimyos or the emperor. No one had been impressed with the missioners. Perhaps it was because they looked so shabby. Perhaps if they were dressed as ambassadors--ambassadors of God--they would be better received.

Once again Francis' high spirits came back to him. At once he began making plans to return to Yamaguchi and visit the powerful daimyo there. This time he would impress the ruler.

Francis ordered a new kimono for himself and one for Brother Fernandez. He had them made of the best silk. He and Brother Fernandez had once been dandies, dressing in the best style. He would show the daimyo that he knew how to dress! Kimonos were also ordered for Bernard and another Japanese Christian. They were given swords and daggers to wear, as was the custom among the rich people. The Indian boy, Amador, was dressed in the finest silks, which made his dark skin shine even brighter.

Even then Francis was not finished. Opening the many presents he had brought from India and which had rested all this time in the care of Father Torres, he chose the ones he thought would make the best impression. Then he finally wrapped up in silk two letters he had never used--one from the governor of India; the other from the Bishop of Goa.

This time Francis traveled in the style that befit an ambassador. He hired horses for his friends, and for himself a sedan chair. He entered Yamaguchi with great pomp. The daimyo, who heard of his impressive approach, at once invited him to his palace.

Francis greeted the daimyo, never mentioning the reprimand he had Brother Fernandez deliver on his last visit. He presented his friends to the Japanese ruler. Then he gave the daimyo his gifts. They included a music box, a glass mirror, a three-barreled rifle, yards of the best cloth, books, vases, paintings, barrels of port wine, and a grandfather clock. The daimyo was thrilled by the gifts, particularly by the lock which sounded chimes whenever it reached the hour.

The daimyo wanted to give Francis a large gift of money in return, but the missioner wisely refused the present. He asked only that he and his friends be allowed to preach and baptize. The daimyo agreed at once. He ordered his assistants to prepare a large empty monastery which he turned over to Francis to use as long as he remained in Yamaguchi. He also ordered a notice to be written and put up around the city.

It said: "I am pleased to allow that the Law of God may be taught and preached throughout my lands and that those who wish to convert may do so freely. My servants are all forbidden to hinder any of the Fathers who preach this Law."

Francis' plan had proved a great success. If Japan was not to be won one way, another would do!

At first the work in Yamaguchi went slowly. One day when Brother Fernandez was preaching in the street, surrounded by a large crowd, a rough looking fellow began to make fun of him. When Brother Fernandez did not notice him, the man spat in Brother's face, the worse insult that could be offered to a Spanish gentleman.

Brother Fernandez did not pause in his sermon, nor did he show any anger. He simply wiped the spittle off as he went on talking. A man in the crowd, hostile to the Christians, watched what had happened. When he saw how Brother Fernandez acted, he suddenly realized that here was a man who practiced what he preached. As soon as the sermon ended, he followed Francis and Brother to their monastery and asked to be prepared for baptism. He was the first convert in Yamaguchi.

From that time on converts came in dozens. In the first two months after the incident five hundred people were taught and baptized. All of the missioners were busy every day teaching. Twice a day large crowds came to the monastery to hear Brother Fernandez explain the Law of God,  and among the visitors were many Buddhist monks and nuns, some of whom became converts.

On another day, when the missioners were preaching in the street, a minstrel, who went from house to house among the rich, entertaining with song and story, was in the crowd. Impressed with what he heard, he approached Francis and said that he wanted to leave behind his stories and songs and violin, and work only to serve God. Francis taught this minstrel, who was blind in one eye and nearly so in the other, and baptized him with the name Lawrence.

Lawrence became the first Brother in Japan of the Society of Jesus. This poor, misshapen man was the greatest convert Francis Xavier ever made. Lawrence debated with the most learned Buddhist monks, and he always defeated them. The power of his teaching was so great that even the most learned men in Japan humbled themselves at his feet. He made thousands of converts, and he was the missioner who went to Kyoto and began the movement there towards the Church.

Once when Brother Lawrence was preaching in a Buddhist monastery to three hundred samurai, he badly defeated a monk who tried to debate with him. The man grabbed a sword, and rushed at Brother shouting, "I'll show you how immortal your soul is!" The maddened monk was held back by others. Brother Lawrence faced many such dangers, but he never weakened in his work. He lived a very holy life, and died at an old age in Nagasaki.

The Christian Faith was growing well in Yamaguchi, when one day a letter reached Francis from the daimyo of Bungo, inviting the missioner to come there to preach Christianity. It was a wonderful chance to win more souls. Francis took with him three of his Japanese converts--Bernard, John and Matthew--and left at once for Bungo. Father Torres was placed in charge of the work at Yamaguchi, and Brother Fernandez was left behind to help him.

When Francis reached a port on the seacoast, he found a Portuguese ship riding at anchor. It was a pleasure for him to see and talk with men from Europe. He was soon busy hearing confessions and saying Mass for the Portuguese sailors. The captain of the ship, Duarte de Gama, was an old friend of Francis, and this man offered to take Francis to the city where the daimyo of Bungo lived.

Francis arrived in Bungo in great style. He saw the daimyo and was received kindly. The daimyo told him that he cold preach Christianity to the people. Francis was happy at this permission, but he was worried because the Portuguese ship had brought no mail or news of the Jesuits in Europe. Francis had written shortly after arriving in Japan, asking for more helpers, and so far not a single word had come about them.

Francis decided that he must travel back to India and learn what had happened. The presence of the Portuguese boat was heaven-sent, because the boat could take him part way back to India. Once he he had settled he is business there, he would return to Japan. The whole trip should take less than a year. He sent Father Torres money to carry on the work in Yamaguchi. Then he boarded the Portuguese vessel.

It was November, 1551, when Francis saw the islands of Japan disappear over the horizon behind his ship. (Father Albert J. Nevins, M.M., Saint Francis of the Seven Seas, Vision Books, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1955, pp. 143-155.)

 

Saint Francis Xavier, who had been born to a noble family in Navarre, Spain, on April 7, 1506, was not to return to Japan again after he left in 1551. He was welcomed back in Goa, India, with great enthusiasm by the Catholic converts he had made there before his journey to Japan. Saint Francis, who meet Saint Ignatius of Loyola when they were students at the University of Paris and was convinced by his future Father-General to give up his life of partying and pretense, had distinguished himself in Goa for seeking the unconditional conversion of souls there--and for his unstinting zeal for the honor and glory and majesty of God in smashing to smithereens the symbols of false religions that have been esteemed by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and his predecessor, Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II.

Saint Francis described his work in Goa--and the effects of paganism on the people there--in letters he sent to his superiors in Rome:

As to the numbers who become Christians, you may understand them from this, that it often happens to me to be hardly able to use my hands from the fatigue of baptizing: often in a single day I have baptized whole villages. Sometimes I have lost my voice and strength altogether with repeating again and again the Credo and the other forms. The fruit that is reaped by the baptism of infants, as well as by the instruction of children and others, is quite incredible. These children, I trust heartily, by the grace of God, will be much better than their fathers. They show an ardent love for the Divine law, and an extraordinary zeal for learning our holy religion and imparting it to others. Their hatred for idolatry is marvellous. They get into feuds with the heathen about it, and whenever their own parents practise it, they reproach them and come off to tell me at once. Whenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place with a large band of these children, who very soon load the devil with a greater amount of insult and abuse than he has lately received of honor and worship from their parents, relations, and acquaintances. The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them down, break them to pieces, spit on them, trample on them, kick them about, and in short heap on them every possible outrage. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543.)

We have in these parts a class of men among the pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of holy David, "from an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O Lord." They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their whole study is, how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity and ignorance of the people. They give out publicly that the gods command certain offerings to be made to their temples, which offerings are simply the things that the Brahmins themselves wish for, for their own maintenance and that of their wives, children, and servants. Thus they make the poor folk believe that the images of their gods eat and drink, dine and sup like men, and some devout persons are found who really offer to the idol twice a day, before dinner and supper, a certain sum of money. The Brahmins eat sumptuous meals to the sound of drums, and make the ignorant believe that the gods are banqueting. When they are in need of any supplies, and even before, they give out to the people that the gods are angry because the things they have asked for have not been sent, and that if the people do not take care, the gods will punish them by slaughter, disease, and the assaults of the devils. And the poor ignorant creatures, with the fear of the gods before them, obey them implicitly. These Brahmins have barely a tincture of literature, but they make up for their poverty in learning by cunning and malice. Those who belong to these parts are very indignant with me for exposing their tricks. Whenever they talk to me with no one by to hear them they acknowledge that they have no other patrimony but the idols, by their lies about which they procure their support from the people. They say that I, poor creature as I am, know more than all of them put together.

They often send me a civil message and presents, and make a great complaint when I send them all back again. Their object is to bribe me to connive at their evil deeds. So they declare that they are convinced that there is only one God, and that they will pray to Him for me. And I, to return the favor, answer whatever occurs to me, and then lay bare, as far as I can, to the ignorant people whose blind superstitions have made them their slaves, their imposture and tricks, and this has induced many to leave the worship of the false gods, and eagerly become Christians. If it were not for the opposition of the Brahmins, we should have them all embracing the religion of Jesus Christ. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543.)

My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God. But there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to these parts of the world which are so distant from Rome. In the first place, the whole race of the Indians, as far as I have been able to see, is very barbarous; and it does not like to listen to anything that is not agreeable to its own manners and customs, which, as I say, are barbarous. It troubles itself very little to learn anything about divine things and things which concern salvation. Most of the Indians are of vicious disposition, and are adverse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard work here, both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you should take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God. You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have now gained all the force of nature by long possession. Saint Francis Xavier, Letter on the Missions,  to St. Ignatius de Loyola, 1549.)

 

Saint Francis worked as a Catholic, not as a conciliar revolutionary who believes that the Catholic Church and false religions that worship the devil must "peacefully coexist."

Although Saint Francis Xavier died on December 3, 1552, during his sea journey to reach China to start his missionary work there, the mourning in Goa, India, was profound upon the return of his incorrupt body there over a year after his death:

Not until December [of 1553] did a ship sail for India, so Saint Francis was well over a year dead when his perfectly preserved body reached Goa.

Once again an entire city turned out to honor the memory of the missioner. Never before or since was there anything like the sadness which swept over Goa. The Dominican priest who preached at the funeral could not be heard for the sobbing in the huge cathedral. Finally, his own tears forced him to leave the pulpit.

A Jesuit who had known Saint Francis Xavier has left us a description of the body as it appeared a year and half after death. This is what he wrote: "He looked exactly as we remembered him, lying there in his priestly robes as if he had died only a half hour ago. Under the vestments, next to the skin, the body was clothed in a rich robe which the Father had taken with him to Goa to wear for his meeting with the emperor of China. Though it had been more than a year under the earth, it was so clean and fresh that Father Nunes was able to wear it later when he paid visits to the kings of Japan."

Doctors were called to examine the body of the saint and to find out whether or not it had been embalmed. The doctors examined the body very carefully and declared that it had not been preserved by "any natural or artificial means." There was no other conclusion but that God had worked a great miracle in behalf of Saint Francis Xavier.

For four days, from dawn until midnight, crowds passed through the cathedral to see the body and kiss the feet of the saint who had journeyed so far for God. Then the body was placed in a special shrine especially built for it. From time to time the shrine was opened, and the body shown to the people. But each time the appearance of the body caused so much excitement among the people that the officials thought it best that the tomb be closed again.

One hundred and forty years after the body was placed in the tomb, it was brought out so that an important bishop might see it. Present on that day was a French Jesuit. He writes that the body was in a perfect state, and he also gives a good description of Saint Francis Xavier.

"The Saint's hair is black and slightly curling," he wrote. "The forehead is broad and high, with two rather large veins, soft and of a purple tint, running down the middle, as is often seem in talented persons who spend much time in deep thought. The eyes are black, lively, and sweet, with so keen a glance that he would seem to be alive and breathing. The lips are of a warm reddish color and the beard is thick.

"In the cheeks there is a pale purple tint. The tongue is quite flexible, red, and moist, and the chin is beautifully shaped. In a world the body has all the appearances of a living man. It is so great a marvel, that on seeing it, while I was present, the Commissioner of the Dutch East India Company became at once a convert to the Catholic Faith."

Not only after this, the body began to darken and dry up. When it was photographed in 1932, it had become mummified.

The fact that the body is now mummified does not lessen the miracle of its preservation for a hundred and fifty years. A miracle does not have to last forever to be a miracle. When Our Lord brought to life the dead son of the widow of Naim, that young man died again some years later. But that does not make the miracle any less important. (Father Albert J. Nevins, M.M., Saint Francis of the Seven Seas, Vision Books, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1955, pp.179-182.)

 

Only a very hard-hearted Catholic could refrain from getting a little misty-eyed over the story of the Dutch Calvinist's conversion to the Catholic Faith as a result of seeing the then incorrupt body of Saint Francis Xavier one hundred forty years after the Saint's death. And the great esteem shown this true Catholic missionary by the people of Goa demonstrates that souls liberated by Baptism from their captivity to the devil by means of Original Sin and their participation in false religions remain supremely grateful to the priest responsible for giving new birth to their soul and giving them access to the Sacred Tribunal of Penance and to the worthy reception of the God-Man, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in Holy Communion.

Saint Francis Xavier, who was canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622, along with Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Philip Neri, mirrored his mentor and companion Saint Ignatius Loyola's great love for Our Lady. It was to the Mother of God that Saint Francis Xavier entrusted all of his missionary work to effect the conversion of pagan peoples to the true Faith as he prayed Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary on a daily basis.

We may never get to travel to distant lands to serve as missionaries. Each of us, however, can be a spiritual missionary, if you will, by praying as many Rosaries each day as the duties of our states-in-life permit, attempting also to distribute blessed Green Scapulars and blessed Miraculous Medals to those whom God's Holy Providence places in our paths each day. We desire the possession of Heaven for ourselves. We desire it also for all others on the face of this earth as each person is made in the image and likeness of the Most Blessed Trinity and has been redeemed by the shedding of the Most Precious Blood of the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, made Incarnate by the power of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, in the Virginal and Immaculate Womb of Our Lady.

May Saint Francis Xavier help us to have a holy zeal for souls and a holy zeal for the honor and glory and majesty of God as we reject everything to do with the false religion of conciliarism and with its spiritual robber baron "popes" and "bishops" who do indeed esteem the devil's religions and reaffirm people in falsehoods that could indeed wind up sending them to Hell for all eternity.

May Saint Francis Xavier help us to lift high the Holy Cross in our lives on a daily basis--and to keep Our Lady and all of the angels and saints, himself included, company at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered by true bishops and true priests who are una cum the Catholic Faith and not with the apostates who blaspheme God regularly.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

 

Our Lady of Fatima, us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, S.J., pray for us.

Saint Ignatius Loyola, S.J., pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints



© Copyright 2012, Thomas A. Droleskey. All rights reserved.