Feast of Augustine Zhao Rong and 119 companions

By Santificarnos.com

The Feast Of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and 119 companions, commonly called the 120 martyrs of China, will be celebrated on Jul 9. The feast has been included for the first time in the Ordo for the Singapore Archdiocese although it has been included in the Roman Ordo for five years.

Among the 120 martyrs were 87 Chinese and 33 foreigners. Augustine Zhao Rong was neither the first of the martyrs nor the one highest in the church hierachy among them – there were seven bishops, but none native.

Augustinus Zhao Rong (1746-1815) was placed first on the list because he was the first native priest martyr. A native mandarin of Guizhou, he was baptized a Catholic at the age of 30 and ordained a priest five years later. His desire for baptism came after his service as one of the soldiers who escorted Monsignor Dufresse (another of the 120 martyrs who was later beheaded) from Chengdu to Beijing.

Rome decides who is to be canonized (there are many thousands more who died for the faith in China but have not been canonized) and Rome decides the status of the particular saint in the church. By giving the 120 Chinese martyrs the status of universal memorial celebration, Rome affirms their importance to the universal church and to the church in China.

“I know that you are spiritually united with us, and I am certain that you understand that this is a special moment of grace for the whole church and for the entire Catholic community in China,” Pope John Paul II said to Catholics in China at the canonization ceremony on Oct 1, 2000. He prayed that the new saints would “comfort and sustain” the Catholics in China. “Like them you bravely and generously bear witness to your fidelity to Jesus Christ and to your genuine love of your people,” he said.

China’s First Saints

A group of 120 Chinese and European martyrs spanning three centuries – were canonized by Pope John Paul II at an Oct 1, 2000 ceremony in St. Peter’s Square.

Eighty-six of the martyrs were killed about a hundred years ago in China’s anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion, in which an estimated 30,000 Catholics were killed.

Those canonized range in age from seven to 79. They include 87 Chinese nationals, all lay men and women except for four priests. The other 33 were missionaries from Spain, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands: seven bishops, 18 priests, one religious brother and seven nuns.

Spanish Dominican Father Francesco Fernandez de Capillas, beheaded in 1648 while reciting the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, is recognized by the church as China’s first martyr.

The other martyrs include:

— Five Spanish missionaries killed in a wave of persecutions in southeast China in the mid-18th century. One was beheaded; the others were suffocated or strangled.

— 26 people killed between 1816 and 1862 in a series of anti-Christian edicts issued by two successive Chinese emperors, including a French priest betrayed by a Chinese Christian for 30 coins and a 57-year-old Chinese man who was executed two days after being baptized.

— 86 Catholics killed in the Boxer Rebellion, including 39 lay Chinese men and 27 lay Chinese women. Among them are two Jesuits killed at a church altar and a Chinese man who protested at his trial that he was a Christian over the attempts of his friends to testify otherwise.

— One Italian Salesian bishop and an Italian Salesian priest killed in 1930 by communist soldiers.

Defending the new saints’ reputation for holiness against accusations by Chinese government representatives that some of them were “evil-doing sinners”, he said the Holy Year was the right time to highlight their “heroic witness”. The Mass, celebrated in St. Peter’s Square featured Chinese singing, readings and incense-bearing processions.

Chinese authorities, who had branded the martyrs as anti-Chinese criminals in the days leading to the Mass, expressed fresh indignation at the canonizations and said the move would seriously damage future dialogue with the Vatican. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said some of the martyrs were “evil-doing sinners” who raped, looted and committed unforgivable crimes against the Chinese people.

In his sermon, the pope touched gently upon the political issues, saying the martyrs had lived during complex and difficult periods of Chinese history. Most were killed during the anti-foreigner Boxer Rebellion of 1900. He said the canonization Mass, however, was not the moment to “form judgements on these historical periods; this could and should be done in other circumstances”.

“Today… the church intends only to recognize that these martyrsare an example of courage and integrity for all of us and do honour to the noble Chinese people,” he said.

At an audience with pilgrims the next day, the pope stressed that the canonizations were not an attempt to legitimize the colonial policies of past eras. He said critics who see only errors and limits in the missionaries’ actions were not being objective; but if mistakes were made in the missionary effort, he added, “we ask forgiveness”.

At the canonization Mass, the pope said the foreign missionary martyrs in the group had “sincerely loved China, giving all their energy to the country”. The pontiff also spoke of the deep faith shown by the martyrs in the face of death. He recalled 14-year-old Anna Wang, who before being beheaded declared to her executioners: “The door of heaven is open to everyone.”

He said that 18-year-old Chi Zhuzi, even as he was being skinned alive, cried out: “Every piece of my flesh and every drop of my blood will tell you again that I am a Christian.”

At the end of the Mass, which was broadcast to China by Vatican Radio, the pope told Chinese Catholics that he prayed for them daily, understood their trials and was sure they supported the canonizations. “I know that you are spiritually united with us, and I am certain that you understand that this is a special moment of grace for the whole church and for the entire Catholic community in China,” he said. Pope John Paul prayed that the new saints would “comfort and sustain” the Catholics in China. “Like them you bravely and generously bear witness to your fidelity to Jesus Christ and to your genuine love of your people,” he said.

The pope’s words attempted to bridge the growing rift between the Vatican and China’s communist government over the new saints. In a crescendo of criticism that began in mid-September, Chinese authorities first questioned the motives and timing of the canonizations, then said that most of the martyrs were agents of Western imperialism and deserved their fate.

Those canonized included four priests born in China and seven European bishops. The 120 martyrs ranged in age from seven to 79. Nearly three-fourths of them died in the Boxer Rebellion, during which an estimated 30,000 Catholics were killed. China’s current government has applauded the nationalistic fervour of the 1900 uprising.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sun Yuxi, told reporters before the canonization ceremony that most of the martyrs “were executed for violating Chinese law during the invasion of China by imperialists and colonialists”. He said their canonization “distorts truth and history, beatifies imperialism and slanders the peace-loving Chinese people”. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican was “deeply saddened” by Sun’s remarks, especially by his claim that many of the martyrs were guilty of “enormous crimes”.

“The misdeeds which were committed by colonial powers” cannot be blamed on the martyrs, the Vatican spokesman said. “How is it possible to imagine that the Holy See would canonize persons who have committed ‘enormous crimes’?” he asked. China had earlier objected to the date of the canonizations, which fell on the Oct 1 anniversary of the communist takeover of China, a national holiday in the country. The Vatican called that a coincidence, saying it chose the date traditionally used to honour the church’s missionaries.

In the Catholic Church calendar, Oct 1 is the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, patron saint of missions. That day was chosen for the canonization because the history of Catholicism in China is intimately linked to missionary work and there are many missioners among the 120 martyrs.

Sentiment among Chinese Catholics over the canonizations appeared sharply divided between the clandestine and the government-backed wings of the church. The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China issued a statement denouncing the canonization of the 33 foreign missionaries. They also expressed dissatisfaction that the mainland bishops had been left out of the process and said the choice of China’s National Day for the canonization humiliates the Chinese people. Local church celebrations of the canonizations were barred in mainland China amid repeated harsh condemnations by the Chinese government and top Chinese church officials.

Bishops and priests in various Chinese dioceses, who all asked not to be named, said that they had been pressured by the government to avoid speaking publicly about the canonizations. But the Vatican missionary news agency, Fides, reported that 57 bishops of mainland China, representing the government-backed and underground church, had sent a signed petition to the pope requesting the canonizations. Church leaders from Hong Kong and Taiwan defended the canonizations.

In the midst of the controversy, China published revised restrictions on religious activities by foreigners, reiterating a ban on proselytizing by foreigners, prohibiting foreigners from bringing religious items into the country except for personal use, and requiring teachers and speakers at any religious gathering to have prior approval from the central government’s religious affairs office.

This is an edited version of an article published at Singapore's Catholic News

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By Mark and Louise Zwick

"Jump out before the train reaches its destination, even it it costs you your life" -Franz Jagerstatter

At the beginning of June the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to publish his declaration of the Catholic martyrdom of Franz Jagerstatter. The date for his beatification had been published as October 27, 2007. It will take place in Linz, Austria, where he had his farm and worked at the parish.

Franz Jagerstatter was an Austrian who was martyred because he refused to be drafted into the Nazi army after Hitler took over Austria. He said he could not participate in an unjust war, and for this the father of three little girls was beheaded within six months of his arrest.

Franz was not only a conscientious objector to war, but a selective conscientious objector. He could not join a fight which he believed to be morally wrong.

Biographical accounts of Jagerstatter all mention his rather wild youth and then at some point a deeper religious conversion as a young man.

According to Gordon Zahn, who researched and wrote the powerful book, In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), the martyr believed that he could not be a soldier in an unjust war sponsored by a government determined on imperialist expansionism and slaughter of innocents, presenting itself as a substitute for religion which saw and treated his Church as the enemy.

Zahn emphasizes that after his deeper conversion, Franz attended daily Mass, fasted and prayed. In addition to being a farmer, he was the sexton at his parish church. He and his devout wife made a pilgrimage to Rome for their honeymoon. Jager-statter was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi, who discouraged and even forbade military service. Zahn presents Jagerstatter as a contemplative in the world who made the decision not to participate in that war because of his Catholic faith.

He was drafted in 1940 and reported for approximately six months of training. Then he returned to his village, St. Radegund, vowing disobedience to further military orders.

A Train to Hell

When Gordon Zahn visited Jagerstatter's widow, she presented the martyr's documents and writings to him. The book includes those writings regarding his decision to resist.

Zahn's book particularly features the dream that influenced Jagerstatter‘s deci-sion so much:

"Let me begin by describing an experience I had on a summer night in 1938. At first I lay awake in my bed until almost midnight, unable to sleep although I was not sick; I must have fallen asleep anyway. All of a sudden I saw a beautiful shining railroad train that circled around a mountain. Streams of children—and adults as well—rushed toward the train and could not be held back. I would rather not say how many adults did not join the ride. Then I heard a voice say to me: 'This train is going to hell'. . .

"At first this traveling train was something of a riddle to me, but the longer our situation continues, the clearer the meaning of this train becomes for me. Today it seem to me that that it is a symbol of nothing but National Socialism [Nazism], which was then breaking in (or better, creeping in) upon us with all of its many different organizations—like the NSDAP, NVW, NVF, HJ, etc. In brief, the whole National Socialist Folk Community, together with all those who sacrifice and fight for it. . .

"There are only two alternatives possible: participation in the National Socialist Folk Community [Nazism], and contributions to the red boxes as well, must either help or hinder us Catholics in our efforts to gain salvation. . .

"Thus I believe God has shown me most clearly through this dream, or revelation, and has convinced me in my heart how I must answer the question: should I be National Socialist [Nazi] or Catholic? I would like to call out to everyone who is riding on this train: 'Jump out before the train reaches its destination, even if it costs you your life!'" [The many children getting on the train in the dream may have been interpreted by Franz as a reference to the pressure for young people to participate in Hitler Youth, to which he was very much opposed; he made sure that his godson did not participate. It is significant that although Pope Benedict XVI, who declared Jagerstatter a martyr, participated for a brief time in Hitler Youth, he quickly 'got off the train.']

When everyone else in his community was adopting the required salute, "Heil Hitler," Franz would respond, "Pfui, Hitler." His meditations and conclusions on the impact of the Nazi presence in Austria help us to understand his refusal to participate at any level:

"Christ, too, demands a public confession of our faith, just as the Fuhrer, Aldolf Hitler, does from his followers. The commandments of God teach us, of course, that we must also render obedience to secular rulers, even when they are not Christian. But only to the extent that they do not order us to do anything evil, for we must obey God rather than men.”"

Others, including priests, tried to convince Jagerstatter to change his mind, in order to save his life, especially since he had a wife and three small children. Jagerstatter, however, expressed his belief that perhaps the best thing he could do for his family was to refuse to cooperate with the Nazis. He would rather his children have a father martyred for following Christ than a Nazi for a father.

In his writings Jagerstatter answers some of the arguments used by his countrymen to defend or rationalize going along with the Nazi occupation and participating in it, even fighting in it: "One can always hear Catholic saying that this war Germany is fighting is probably not so unjust after all because it will bring about the destruction of Bolshevism [Soviet Communism]." His answer: "Whenever anyone has taken up arms to wipe out Christianity (as people have often thought they could in the past), the blood of their victims has always become the new seed and shoots from which Christianity flowered anew with more vitality than before. Now, could this not happen again if one spills Bolshevist blood? Could not this, too, become new seed? Are we Christians today perhaps wiser than Christ himself? Does anyone really think that this massive bloodletting can possible save European Christianity from defeat or bring it to a new flowering?"

Jagerstatter's Witness Applies to Iraq

Pope Benedict's declaration of Jagerstatter's martyrdom gives tremendous encouragement not only to conscientious objectors to all war, but also especially to those who believe that it would be wrong for them to participate in the present conflict in Iraq. The declaration of the martyrdom of a selective conscientious objector is a statement of a profound truth and a clear call to follow Jesus' teachings on a practical level.

Specifically, this step of Pope Benedict XVI gives hope and support to Catholics and others who have come to believe that they cannot participate in the present conflict in Iraq. The Center on Conscience and War, which advises military personnel on CO discharges, reported at the beginning of June 2007 hundreds of soldiers have applied for conscientious objector status just since January of this year. Unfortunately, as in previous wars, often these applications are not approved and a number of those objectors of conscience have gone to prison for refusing to fight in Iraq.

As we were talking with an immigrant woman who cared for one of the paralyzed undocu-mented workers we assisted until his death a few months ago, after an intense day of meeting one suffering or desperate person after another, we mentioned the Holy Father's decision as a source of hope. Her immediate response came from her awareness of the court martial and imprisonment of Camilo Mejia in 2004. Mejia, the son of a well-known Nicaraguan singer, had been in the U. S. Army, then the Florida National Guard, and was deployed to Iraq, where he was an exemplary and popular soldier. But according to the Common Dreams News Center, "unbeknownst to the other soldiers. Camilo was changing as he experienced the horror of war—the firefights, the ambushes, the excessive use of force. He watched the Iraqis quickly turn from welcoming to hostile. . . He was also deeply disturbed by the abuse of Iraqi prisoners he witnessed. In fact, months before the appearance of the Abu Graib photos, Camilo complained to his superiors about conditions at a makeshift detention camp near the Baghdad airport where Iraqis were arbitrarily arrested and detained, and where he and his men were directed by three unidentified interrogators to “soften up” prisoners for questioning. They were taught to stage mock executions, clicking pistols near the ears of hooded prisoners, or to bang on metal walls with sledgehammers to keep prisoners awake for up to 48 hours.

"On March 15, 2004, surrounded by his family and supporters from the anti-war movement, Camilo surrendered to military authorities and filed for discharge as a conscientious objector. He became the first veteran from Iraq to challenge the morality of the war and refuse to fight. ..

"Camilo's stellar team of lawyers and experts, including West Point graduate and Vietnam conscientious objector Louis Font and international law professors Francis Boyle and Jules Lobel, threatened to make the trial an explosive indictment of the entire war. And given the global outrage against the torture of Iraqi prisoners, the defense planned to show that months before the abuses became public, Camilo had already spoken out against the cruel treatment of prisoners, as well as the slaughter of civilians and the needless deaths of American GIs.

"But military judge Col. Gary Smith quickly squelched those plans, ruling out issues related to the legality of the war, the abuse of prisoners, and Camilo's conscientious objector claim. By denying all the defense motions, the judge denied Camilo the possibility of a fair trial. . .

"'What an incredible irony that we're prosecuting soldiers in Iraq for violations of international law and we're prosecuting a soldier here because he refused to do the same things,' said former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Camilo's defense team.'"

"Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers' fame agreed that Camilo is a hero. “Sergeant Mejia served his country bravely and well in Iraq, but he is serving his country better, and just as bravely, in his refusal to participate further in what he correctly identifies as an illegal war using illegal means."

Camilo was sentenced to prison for a year. Common Dreams published his letter from prison: “I was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and returned home for a two-week leave in October. Going home gave me the opportunity to put my thoughts in order and to listen to what my conscience had to say. People would ask me about my war experiences and answering them took me back to all the horrors—the firefights, the ambushes, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gun fire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child, or an old man on his knees, crying with his arms raised to the sky, perhaps asking God way we had taken the lifeless body of his son.

"I thought of the suffering of a people whose country was in ruins and who were further humiliated by the raids, patrols and curfews of an occupying army.

"And I realized that none of the reasons we were told about why we were in Iraq turned out to be true. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. We weren't helping the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people didn't want us there. We weren't preventing terrorism or making Americans safer. I couldn't find a single good reason for having been there, for having shot at people and been shot at.

"I realized that I was part of a war that I believed was immoral and criminal ... I realized that acting upon my principles became incompatible with my role in the military, and I decided that I could not return to Iraq. . .."

Martha's concern as she had heard about this soldier's conscientious objection was that her young son not be put in such a situation. She knew that at present there is no military draft, but that poor Hispanic youth in the United States are recruited early into ROTC Army training with the promise of assistance later with college tuition. Martha vowed to never allow her son to participate in ROTC. This may not be easy to achieve. High schools in lower-income neighborhood which serve Mexican Americans and immigrant youth are saturated with the ROTC presence. The local public school for 6 th to 8 th graders has ROTC as one of the electives. When one student who stayed at Casa Juan Diego transferred in during the middle of the year, that student was placed in ROTC simply because the classes of all other electives were filled. The irony is that the children of the undocumented, despised by many simply for being undocumented, are being sent to fight U. S. wars in foreign lands.

May Franz Jagerstatter give all hope and the courage to live by their consciences in spite of societal pressures and poverty.

Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XXVII, No. 4, July-August 2007.


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On October 28 Pope Benedict XVI will raise 498 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War to the altars—perhaps the largest number of martyrs beatified in one ceremony in the history of the Church. Among the five that are not of Spanish origin will be Brother Jose Lopez Piteira, an Augustinian deacon born in Cuba.

Brother Jose will be come Cuba’s first blessed. He was born in Arroy Blanco, Cuba, on February 2, 1912 to Spanish immigrants. According to the family records, his family returned to Spain when Jose was four or five years old.

They settled in Partorvia in northwestern Spain. As a young man Jose entered the Augustinian order and began studies for the priesthood. He made his solemn profession in 1934 and was ordained deacon on September 8, 1935, the feast of Our Lady of Charity, the patroness of Cuba.


One of his biographers, Father Gonzalez Velasco, wrote: “It should be noted that the young Jose Lopez Piteira always felt proud that he was born in Cuba and was a Cuban citizen.

The magazine Palabra Cubana related the story of his martyrdom: “While studying at the Monastery of El Escorial, he was detained on August 6, 1936 with his Augustinian community at that monastery and imprisoned in Madrid. When he was told he could appeal to his Cuban citizenship to gain freedom, he answered: “All of you who have been my teachers and superiors are here. What I am going to do in the city? I prefer to have the same fate as everyone else, whatever God wishes that might be.”

“On November 30, 1936, Brother Jose Lopez Piteira was martyred in Paracuellos de Jarama together with 50 other Augustinian religious. At the time of his martyrdom he was 23,” the magazine reported.

Souce: CNA

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Fr. Segura's Lost Mission of 1570-71

By Matthew M. Anger

In 2002, the Diocese of Richmond opened the cause for the canonization of the Spanish Jesuit Martyrs of Virginia. This has renewed interest in the fascinating, almost fantastic, tale of a lost Spanish colony in Virginia and the men who died trying to convert the Ajacan Indians. In 1571, Fr. Segura and his seven companions were killed by hostile tribesmen at the St. Mary's mission sited on Virginia's Lower Peninsula, near the Chesapeake Bay. This was close to the spot where the English would permanently settle just thirty years later. Fr. Russell E. Smith is the postulator for the martyrs' canonization and a judge with the diocesan tribunal. Fr. Smith learned about the Jesuit settlement while growing up in historic Williamsburg, Virginia and as a priest he took up the matter with the postulator general for the Society of Jesus, in Rome. The Virginia Historical Society and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities have also lent their scholarly support for evidence of the Spanish mission. Meanwhile, the Richmond diocese has designated St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in New Kent County as the new Shrine of the Jesuit Martyrs.


Spiritual Conquistadors
When Sir Walter Raleigh claimed the territory of Virginia for England's Queen Elizabeth in the 1580s, he was a relative late-comer. Some fifty years before, Spaniards had landed in what some historians estimate to be the Chesapeake Bay. Spanish attempts at colonization in the geographical limits of the present United States probably began in the summer of 1526. Judge Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, with an expedition of 600 other settlers, sailed from San Domingo (now the Dominican Republic). They were accompanied by two Dominican priests and two religious. Entering the capes along the coast the Spaniards made their way up a major river, said to be the James in Virginia. They landed at the Indian town of Guandape, which Ayllon christened San Miguel de Guandape (St. Michael of Guandape). Unfortunately for this first attempt at European settlement, conditions were harsh and Ayllon died in October from fever. The colonists lasted through a miserable winter and fended off hostile Indians, finally departing in the spring of 1527. Only 150 Spaniards reached San Domingo alive.

The conquest of Mexico had challenged Spanish fortitude and zeal. Yet by comparison, the territory of the present United States was to prove even more difficult. The northern lands were more heavily wooded and sparsely settled and the natives were hunter gatherers as opposed to the more sedentary, agricultural based populations further south. The relatively higher level of culture under the Aztecs certainly lent itself to the forging of a new civilization in Mexico. Perhaps the greatest challenge for the Florida settlement (which included the entire southeastern seaboard) was logistical. Whereas a handful of Spaniards could keep the peace amongst the natives of Mexico, a significantly higher proportion of men, working with scanty resources, were demanded in Florida. Spain could spare few individuals from its vast imperial efforts for this relative backwater which, though strategically crucial, was always a losing proposition. There were no gold fields and even foodstuffs had to be imported.

Throughout the northern American territories, both French and Spanish Jesuits would endure terrible trials and sufferings with often painfully disappointing results. Unlike Mexico, which ultimately yielded millions of converts for the Catholic Church, the American woodlands produced only a few thousand new disciples. There were certainly periods of apathy and disillusionment. The Jesuits remarked that their primary aim was not martyrdom but conversion and the spread of Catholic culture, which the natives so violently resisted. Nevertheless, they were resigned to the possibility of dying for their faith, and many faced it with a heroic resolve that seems difficult for us to fathom. It was a passive heroism that rivaled the active military valor of the famous conquistadors.

In all, there were five attempts to conquer la Florida (the "place of flowers"). The last succeeded in 1565 with the establishment of St. Augustine, the first city in the United States. Dozens of mission stations and presidios (forts) dotted what is preset-day Florida, while small settlements spread along the eastern coast into Georgia and the Carolinas. The northern-most post was Santa Elena (today Port Royal, South Carolina).

Despite Ayllon's failure in 1526, there were continued Spanish expeditions to the Chesapeake Bay, named "La Bahia de la Madre de Dios" (the Bay of the Mother of God) or "La Bahia de Santa Maria" (the Bay of St. Mary). On one of such journey in 1560, the son of an Algonkian chief in Ajacan (as Virginia was called) was captured and brought to Mexico. He was instructed in the Catholic religion and baptized Don Luis, in honor of Luis de Velasco, his sponsor, the Viceroy of New Spain. It would seem that the Indian convert was favored with a trip to Madrid, an audience with the Emperor and a thorough Jesuit education. The next serious foray into Ajacan was not until 1570, when a group of missionaries sailed north from Santa Elena. This small band consisted of Father Segura, Vice-Provincial of the Jesuits, Father de Quiros, six Jesuit brothers and a servant. They were accompanied by the Indian Don Luis as their guide and translator.

Fr. Segura's Ambition
We can gather a reasonably detailed picture of the mission and its members through the collection of primary source materials and the indispensable work of Clifford M. Lewis, S.J. and Albert J. Loomie, S.J. published in 1953. Some material is admittedly conjectural interpolation by men writing after the event, but there is enough agreement in the essentials to provide a portrait of the events that transpired. The only surviving eye-witness of the mission was Alonso de Olmos, the boy who accompanied the Jesuits as their altar server and assistant. He was probably between the age of twelve and fourteen at the time of Fr. Segura's mission, and it is from his recollections that all subsequent accounts are drawn.

The leader of the ill-fated expedition, Fr. Juan Baptista Segura was roughly forty-one at the time of his martyrdom. He had been ordained in 1557 and entered the Society of Jesus at Alcala, Spain in 1566. Fr. Segura was a well read individual and a popular teacher. He spent many years as a professor and rector at a number of institutions before taking a position at the college of Valladolid. There he had the misfortune of stepping into the crossfire of petty factional squabbles and attempts at impartiality only seemed to worsen his reputation amongst the querulous locals. He was an extremely reticent man who devoted a great deal of effort to cultivating in himself the virtues of humility and obedience, yet he felt more and more drawn to the idea of an overseas mission. No doubt the scandal-mongering which confronted him at the university was a strong incentive to go abroad. Says Florida historian, Frank Marotti

An easy-going leadership style and a scrupulous conscience had served Segura well in remote areas of northern Spain. This was not true in pressure-packed Valladolid, where vehement political disputes rocked his college. Segura was ambitious, but only in the spiritual sense; he desired a post in the Indies [i.e. the New World], where he believed he could demonstrate his love for Christ in a heroic manner.

The memory of St. Francis Xavier, who died in 1552 while almost single-handedly building the Church in Asia, was still fresh in everyone's minds, including Fr. Segura's. With the permission of his superiors, Fr. Segura was permitted to go overseas. In 1567 he was named vice-provincial of Florida and after a rather eventful trans-Atlantic crossing, including a hairbreadth escape from Caribbean headhunters, he arrived the following year in the New World with three other Jesuit priests.

Inexperienced but enthusiastic, Fr. Segura was inspired by a favorable account of the northern Florida missions given by Fr. Juan Rogel who had recently toured Guale and Santa Elena. Yet when it came to talk of an Ajacan mission, Rogel and the district superior, Fr. Martinez, were dubious. Nor was their skepticism unjustified. The Florida apostolate was doing all it could just to meet its present obligations. Why increase its burdens? Fr. Segura countered by saying that the slow progress of the existing missions demanded new opportunities. Furthermore, accounts of the great Chesapeake Bay near Ajacan held forth the ever elusive hope of a direct water route to Asia, which European explorers were to pursue even two centuries later. Fr. Segura also wanted to establish a mission without a military garrison. As startling as this demand was to his contemporaries, it was not totally unreasonable. One of the chief stumbling blocks to converting the Indians was the often deplorable conduct of the colonial soldiers, which missionaries were forever lamenting in their letters to Spain. Soldiers on garrison duty, not challenged by the prospect of fighting, were apt to seek an outlet for their boredom in drunkenness, thievery, bullying and sexual license. It was an age old problem.

Despite concerns about the plan's feasibility, Fr. Segura eventually obtained a green light from his superiors for the founding of St. Mary's mission. In August 1570 he and his ten companions, including the convert Don Luis, sailed from their base of operations in Havana to the Santa Elena settlement (South Carolina). This was the final stop-over before Ajacan. At Santa Elena they were outfitted with the best religious articles, including chalices, monstrances, and vestments by Br. Juan de la Carrera.

Br. Carrera, a hardened veteran of the Florida missionary circuit had conflicting views about the journey north. Fr. Segura's plans were "praiseworthy, for they came from a holy, sincere Christian heart, and I gave him high praise. But I pointed out the difficulty in the execution of the plan, saying that the Indian [Don Luis] did not satisfy me...." No doubt Br. Carrera shared the bitter experience of other missionaries, who found the Indians often dissimulated before their European overlords. They would proclaim loyalty to the Spanish crown and church to gain favors and alliances against rival tribes, but would frequently come up short on their end of the bargain. Br. Carrera saw that Don Luis was "a liar" and "a clever talker," but Fr. Segura could not be dissuaded from the idea that the Algonkian was another "Paul of Holy Faith," referring to the Japanese convert who helped St. Francis Xavier in Asia. The mission's "second-in-command" was Fr. Quiros, also fresh from Spain and eager to claim new conquests for the Church.

The Ajacan Mission
On September 10, the Jesuits landed in Ajacan. Previous research placed the spot at Queen's Creek on the north side of the Lower Peninsula, near the York River. New findings, however, suggest that St. Mary's Mission may have been in the village of Axacam on the New Kent side of Diascund Creek near its confluence with the Chickahominy River. This would have been reached via the James River. Both spots, however, are relatively close to one another (and to the later English settlement). Certainly the physical details remain elusive. This is true for most early explorations, such as the mysterious "Lost Colony" at Roanoke under Sir Walter Ralegh in 1587. But there is little doubt as to the basic facts or the chronology of events.

Don Luis led them there in search of his native village of Chiskiak (or Kiskiak) which he had not seen in ten years. It was near this spot that a small wooden hut was constructed with an adjoining room where Mass could be celebrated. After establishing their camp with the help of the ship's pilot, Fr. Quiros wrote a letter (with a postscript by Fr. Segura) to the Treasurer of Cuba who was a chief benefactor of the Jesuits in New Spain. It is the only writing that has survived from the Ajacan mission. Fr. Quiros relates that Don Luis was uncertain as to the exact spot of his tribe. Ravaged by drought and famine, many of the inhabitants had removed to other areas. Contact was eventually made, and relatives of Don Luis greeted them with good will and "seemed to think that Don Luis had risen from the dead." A "brother" (possibly a nephew) of Don Luis, in a nearby village, was reported to be fatally ill, and the Indian asked that one of the Fathers baptize him.

The Algonkians who inhabited Ajacan were, according to Spanish and later English narratives, remarkably tall (up to six feet in height), athletic and more fair skinned than other tribes. Yet their existence was primitive and austere. Clothing consisted of animal skins while many lacked even that luxury, going about almost naked with nothing more than skirts made of grass or leaves.

While spiritual prospects seemed hopeful—the local chief was interested in hearing the Gospel preached—material conditions posed immediate challenges. The missionaries were forced to share half their rations with the ship's crew, who had run low on food during the long journey from Santa Elena. The Indians did not know how to properly harvest and store food for use in the winter, since they would eat most of the food as it was gathered. Nevertheless they did generously share some of their corn with the missionaries upon their arrival. During the cold months, however, they would barely eke out an existence on roots and berries. Fr. Quiros requested an urgent shipment of grain in the hopes that the missionaries could impart the rudiments of agriculture which would make the natives more sedentary and less prone to starvation.

The Massacre
Don Luis was on his best behavior during the two days that the ship's crew remained to assist the missionaries and, following his example, the locals were quite hospitable. Yet almost as soon as the ship disappeared over the horizon, the Jesuits were left completely at Don Luis' mercy and his demeanor began to change. No longer was he constrained by the mores of Spanish civilization. In the Virginia wilds, with the old ways of his people beckoning, Don Luis seems to have quickly shed his Christian scruples. Accounts show that "marital immorality" was his downfall, since he was a member of the native aristocracy for whom polygamy was de rigueur.

Don Luis asked permission to visit his uncle, the reigning chief, who lived a day and a half away. Having heard the Indian's reasonable excuses, such as that he wanted to gather catechumens for the mission and food for the Jesuits, Fr. Segura assented. As the days passed and no word was heard from their native guide, the truth of the situation must have quickly dawned on the missionaries. According to the sole survivor, the young Alonso, the Jesuits braced themselves for the worst. Death at the hands of the local inhabitants was all too common. They increased their prayers and devotions and meanwhile coped as best they could, hoping that Don Luis might repent or that Spanish help would soon arrive. Fr. Rogel, while taking part in the belated relief expedition to Ajacan in August 1572, wrote the following account:

Father Master Baptista [Segura] sent a message by a novice Brother on two occasions to the renegade. Don Luis would never come, and [the Jesuits] stayed there in great distress, for they had no one by whom they could make themselves understood to the Indians.... They got along as best they could, going to other villages to barter for maize with copper and tin, until the beginning of February. The boy [Alonso] says that each day Father Baptista caused prayers to be said for Don Luis, saying that the devil held him in great deception. As he had twice sent for him and he had not come, he decided to send Father Quiros and Brother Gabriel de Solis and Brother Juan Baptista to the village of the chief near where Don Luis was staying. Thus they could take Don Luis along with them and barter for maize on the way back. On the Sunday after the Feast of the Purification, Don Luis came to the three Jesuits who were returning with other Indians. He sent an arrow through the heart of Father Quiros and then murdered the rest....

According to Rogel's letter, the incident would have taken place in early February, 1571.

Leaving the deputation of three Jesuits dead or dying in the forest, the Indian party swooped down on Fr. Segura's encampment. Don Luis stealthily confiscated all the tools and hatchets so as to leave the Spaniards defenseless. It was said that as a ruse he claimed he wanted the tools to fell timber in the woods. The Indians had the European axes and their own machetes ready, and Don Luis assigned one native to one Spaniard each, so that they would be killed all at once without being able to combine in self-defense. Br. Carrera, who had such grave premonitions about the mission the year before, said that the "wretched and perverse Don Luis attacked Father Baptista... to pay him back for the many kindnesses shown him." Fr. Segura lay ill in his hut on a grass mat. When his former Indian protégé entered, the priest greeted him joyfully: "You are very welcome, Don Luis!" The Indian replied with a series of axe blows to Segura's head and body. The other Jesuits were similarly dealt with. One of them, Br. Cristobal Redondo, was in the kitchen. He was described in disposition and speech as being "more of an angel than a man." When his appointed murderer suddenly appeared and wounded him he cried out: "Help me, my Fathers, they are going to kill me." But it was too late.

Alonso at first rushed in amongst the Indians to try to prevent the killing, or else to be martyred with the Jesuits, but was held back by Don Luis' brother who hid the boy in a nearby hut. One may be surprised that the Indians did not finish him off as well. It would seem Alonso was spared because he was not a Jesuit and, moreover, because of his youth. The Indians throughout colonial history had a practice of adopting the young of their enemies. Nevertheless, the treacherous Don Luis quickly regretted this oversight. He plotted of a way to dispose of the only eye-witness to the massacre in the likelihood that the Spaniards might return. Fortunately, either due to the influence of a friendly Indian or Alonso's own perspicacity, the young boy made his way to a rival chief who lived close to the main coast on the Chesapeake Bay. There he waited until the relief expedition arrived in 1572, by which time he had nearly forgotten his own language.

The intriguing question is why did Don Luis turn so suddenly on his benefactors? Fathers Lewis and Loomie offer two motives. One contributing cause was the precious vessels used by the possessed. After the massacre Don Luis and the others not only dressed themselves in the attractive vestments but also wore patens around their necks and drank from the gold chalices. But there were probably deeper motives at work than mere covetousness

[Greed] may have induced Luis' companions to follow him, and it would have been a strong motive in a tribe where wealth meant greater power and possession of more women. But it hardly explains Luis' own actions, which seem to have been immediately occasioned by the third visit and the importunity of the Jesuits, calling upon him to abandon his sins and to return to the practice of his religion. In the light of ... studies of historic Indian psychology... we may expect Don Luis to manifest extreme sensitivity to overtones of anger or public criticism, in his case a sensitivity perhaps heightened by a disturbed conscience if his conversion had been genuine.

Such, note the writers, was the motive behind the massacre of Franciscans at Guale (Georgia) only a few years later.

Aftermath
More than a year after the massacre, a Spanish supply ship found and rescued Alonso. Upon receiving news of the killings, Florida Governor Menendez arrived in Ajacan to punish the culprits, though Don Luis proved ever elusive and was never discovered. Eight other Indians accused of murdering the missionaries were promptly hanged by the Spaniards.

The disastrous attempt at a Virginia colony spelled the end of Spanish ventures in the area. Following the death of Fr. Segura and his companions, the Jesuits were recalled from St. Augustine and sent on to Mexico where the harvest, temporal and spiritual, seemed much more promising. In the judgment of Theodore Maynard, "The failure [of the Virginia mission] was made glorious by martyrdom. It was therefore not a failure under its religious aspect." At the same time it is also true that

The abandonment of the Chesapeake region... was politically disastrous for Spain. Could it have been held, an effectual barrier would have been erected against the encroachments of the English in Virginia. But not even Spanish energy was quite sufficient to keep its grip on such far-flung territories. It was already becoming as much as the authorities could do to protect the settlements already made in the Indies and Central America...

Spain expended so much energy in maintaining her Mexican colony that the initial sacrifice of conquering the U.S. seaboard did not seem worthwhile, though, as the English were to discover, this part of the New World would eventually yield the most fertile territories. Interestingly, English settlement was first prompted, in a purely negative way, by Spanish colonization. They wanted to counter Catholic activity in Florida and the Caribbean. The ill-fated Roanoke colony of 1587 and the subsequent Jamestown settlement of 1607 were in large part meant to be bases of operation for privateers and soldiers to attack la Florida.

As rum and guns flowed southwards from the English towns, many of the natives turned against Spanish rule. No doubt the Indians thought they were cleverly playing off one tribe of Europeans against another for their own short-term gain. Little did they think that in the place of the traders and missionaries who dominated the Spanish settlement would come the growing waves of English pioneers who would clear the forests and expel or kill the Indians without even the pretense of converting them. By contrast, the lack of intensive cultivation and depopulation by Spanish colonists generally favored their relations with the natives. But it hindered them insofar as they could no longer compete with English interlopers whose growth in population and territory in the New World quickly surpassed them.

It is worth noting that the colony at Jamestown faced many of the harsh conditions as endured by Ayllon and Segura, and its survival was touch-and-go for many years. Even as late as 1622—fifteen years after Captain John Smith first landed on the James Peninsula—the settlement was nearly wiped out in an Indian raid which claimed 347 lives. The Indian chief who sought the destruction of the Jamestown settlers was the aged Openchancanough. As legend would have it, he was the apostate Don Luis who had killed Fr. Segura and his companions in 1571. An ironic footnote to the noble failure of the Virginia mission.


***
Matthew Anger currently resides in the Richmond, Virginia area with his wife and six children. He is a frequent writer for traditional Catholic publications on historical, political and cultural topics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
· Gibson, Charles. Spain in America. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
· Lewis, Clifford M., S.J. and Loomie, Albert J., S.J. The Spanish Jesuit Mission in Virginia 1580-1572. Richmond, Virginia: The Virginia Historical Society, 1953.
· Hill, William B. The Indians of Axacan and the Spanish Martyrs: The Beginnings of Virginia, 1570. Clarksville, Virginia: Prestwould House, 1970.
· Neill, Steve. "Richmond Diocese Promotes Cause of Jesuit Martyrs." Arlington Catholic Herald, July 18, 2002.
· Woodbury, Lowry. The Spanish Settlements Within the Present Limits of the United States, Florida 1562-1574. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1905.
· Marotti, Frank, Jr. "Juan Baptista de Segura and the Failure of the Florida Jesuit Mission, 1566-1572." The Florida Quarterly, LXIII (Fall 1985): 267-279.
· Maynard, Theodore. The Story of American Catholicism, Vol. I. New York: Image Books, 1960, p. 44.



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