Trudie
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 Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:27 pm Post subject: July 31st - St. Justin de Jacobis, Bishop. |
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July 31st - St. Justin de Jacobis, Bishop.
Born at San Fele, Lucania, Italy, on October 9, 1800; died in the Valley of
Alghedien, Ethiopia, on July 31, 1860; beatified in 1939; canonized in 1975
by Pope Paul VI.
Saint Justin was a great apostle of Africa and the true founder of the
Abyssinian (Ethiopian) mission. Even during his youth in Naples, he was
known for his extreme piety. At the age of 18, he joined the Congregation of
the Mission, which is also known as the Vincentians after the founder Saint
Vincent de Paul. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1824 and excelled at
preaching, especially to the rural poor because he had a special gift of
making the faith attractive to both the scholar and the ignorant. After he
helped to found a Vincentian house at Monopoli, he served as superior at
Lecce (Apulia). In 1836-1837, Father Justin served the sick with heroic
charity in the cholera epidemic in Naples. Then he was chosen by the
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith as Prefect Apostolic for
Ethiopia.
In 1839, he left for his mission field with a few companions. Upon his
arrival at Adua, Father Justin found no warm welcome. Abyssinia was an
unhappy country politically. Most of the country was Islamic or Coptic
Christians who had been in schism from the Church for many centuries. Adding
to the difficulties, the "Franks," i.e., Western foreigners, had gained a
reputation for being arrogant and heretical. Following the Portuguese
intransigence in the 16th century, all Catholic missionaries had been
excluded for 200 years. But Saint Justin's attitude of courtesy as an
expression of his truly Christian love for each individual he encountered,
helped him in the long, slow work he had accepted.
He adopted the whole culture of the country, including the language, and
amid persecution, prison, and hardship labored with indefatigable zeal that
led to success in improving relations with the local churches. In 1840 or
1841, he was invited by the Coptic clergy to participate in a delegation of
Ethiopian prelates to Cairo. Their mission was to request that the Coptic
patriarch of Alexandria appoint one of his monks as Abuna (patriarch) of the
Ethiopian Church. In Cairo, the patriarch denounced the presence of Father
de Jacobis and intrigued to appoint one Salama, a very young and not very
capable man, as patriarch. Justin persuaded some of the delegation to
accompany him to Rome to meet with the pope and seek reunion with the Holy
See. The venture failed but Justin gained credit and confidence.
While he did not overcome the enmity of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria,
nor the Metropolitan Salama, head of the Ethiopian church, he did found
missions, a school and a seminary at Guala, and named native clergy. In
1846, a vicarate apostolic of the Galla was established with the Capuchin
William Massaia as its first bishop. Additionally, his converts are
estimated at 12,000, among them Blessed Michael Ghebre (Gara Mika'el).
The arrival of a Western bishop and the growth of the mission led to an
outbreak of persecution at the instigation of Salama who issued instructions
"to kill Abba Jacob and all his people. . . . to kill one who follows their
religion is to earn seven heavenly crowns hereafter." The college was
closed, Catholicism was proscribed, and Bishop Massaia was forced to return
to Aden. Father Justin barely escaped the martyrdom that claimed the life of
Blessed Michael, who died in captivity.
In 1848 or 1849 at Massawa, Father Justin, now a hunted man, was constrained
to accept the title of Vicar Apostolic and secretly receive episcopal
consecration at the hands of Bishop Massaia in order to help his scattered
flock. Although he remained a priest of the Latin rite, he was also given
faculties to celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments according to the
ancient Ethiopic rite to enhance his ministry.
By 1853, he had ordained some 20 Ethiopians, was ministering to 5,000
Catholics, and was able to reopen the college. But in 1860, Kedaref Kassa
became king as Theodore II and in return for the support of Abuna Salama
launched another persecution of Catholics.
In due course, Saint Justin was arrested in an attempt to make him
"disappear." But, after several months' imprisonment at Gondar, his guards
released him in a wild area from which he was able to make an agonizing
journey to Halai in southern Eritreak. He tried to return to his flock at
Tigrai, but had to remain on the coast of the Red Sea. Bishop Justin's work
was now circumscribed to the area along the Red Sea; but this still meant
exhausting journeying.
He was again imprisoned for extending hospitality to a French political
mission. This time he was forced to endure long marches, rapid changes of
climate, and a fatal fever. Again he was released and attempted to return to
Halai on horseback, accompanied by a priest, and a group of monks and
students. When he found he could ride no further, he knew that it was time
to give up his spirit. He was anointed, his head supported by a rock in the
desert, and spoke his last words: "Pray hard, little ones, for I am going to
die. I won't forget you. . . . I am dying." Thus, Saint Justin died of a
fever on the roadside near Halai.
He is buried in a church at Hebo, in the far north of the country, where his
shrine is carefully preserved, and his memory is still very much alive among
the people who feel that he was one of them. Saint Justin was an impressive
pioneer of ecumenism as well as of missionary achievement. Cardinal Messaia
wrote of this man of enormous tact, "God chose him to be a teacher even more
by example than by words" (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, White).
From:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0731.shtml
Saint Quotes:
"We were created to praise, to reverence and to serve God. And everything
else on the face of the earth was created for our sake, to help us to
achieve the goal for which we were created."
"In a time of desolation, never forsake the good resolutions you made in
better times. Strive to remain patient-a virtue contrary to the troubles
that harass you-and remember that you will be consoled."
"Prefer neither health nor sickness, neither riches nor poverty, neither
honor nor ignominy, neither a long life nor a short one."
"We must put aside all judgment of our own, and keep the mind ever ready and
prompt to obey in all things the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy
Mother, the hierarchical Church."
-Saint Ignatius
<><><><>
Canticle Magnificat
My soul rejoices in the Lord
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God, my salvation.
For he has shown me such favour -
me, his lowly handmaiden.
Now all generations will call me blessed,
because the mighty one has done great things for me.
His name is holy,
his mercy lasts for generation after generation
for those who revere him.
He has put forth his strength:
he has scattered the proud and conceited,
torn princes from their thrones;
but lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel,
he has remembered his mercy as he promised to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen. |
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