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Handout #193 |
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Francis Xavier in India |
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In this letter of January 1545 A.D. Francis
describes his missionary method in the villages of Travancore (South India).
It seems very summary, and hardly concerned with a knowledge of the culture
of the people he meets. Later, in Japan, Francis was to be much less
expeditious. He required of the missionaries a solid intellectual training
to enable them to cope with educated Japanese.
In one month I baptized more than ten thousand people. This was my method: when I arrived in the villages of the infidels who called on me to convert them to Christianity. I gathered together all the men and the children of the village in one place and, beginning with the proclamation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I had them make the sign of the cross three times, and invoke the three persons, confessing the one God. Then I recited I confess to God, followed by the Creed, the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina. I translated these prayers into their own language two years ago and I know it by heart. Gradually they all repeated them, both great and small. When the prayers were over, I gave them, in their own language, an explanation of the articles of faith and the commandments of the law. Then I made all of them ask forgiveness publicly from God our Lord for their past life ... After the sermon, I asked them all, men and children, if they really believed the articles of faith. They all told me that they did, so I recited each of the articles in a loud voice. After each article I asked them whether the believed, and crossing their arms in front of them they told me that they did. Then I baptized them, writing down the names of each one for them. The men then returned home and sent their wives and families for me to baptize in the same way as I had baptized them. When I had finished the baptizing, I sent them to tear down buildings in which they kept their idols and once they were Christians I made them break the statues of the idols into little pieces. |
