PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 18, 30 August 1873, Page 11

PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH.

MISSIONS IN ASIA

From the annals of the Propagation of the faith (the number published in January of this year) we make a summary of a letter from the Rev. Father Trincal, S.J , which gives some interesting de^ tails of mission work in Hindostan. — We have struck out long arad un« pronounceable names of localities and villages, in many parts of his letters. Reporting progress on the 1 2th February 1872, Father Trincal writing to the Vicar- Apostolic of Madura, says. " Monseigneub :—": — " Your Lordship will, I hope, read with pleasure the short account I forward of the last visit I made to the most recently founded Christian settlements in my district ; for they ate nearly all of a date posterior to your departure for the Council, and you must necessarily be still in ignorance of their names and topo~ graphical position. " Having set out, with your blessing, on the 18th October last, after stopping for some days, in two or three churches I found on my route, I repaired, on the 26th November, to Vellour, to celebrate there the feast of St. Francis Xavier, the patron of this Mission. " Vollour is a large village, which was altogether pagan two years' ago, but which, I hope, will shortly see all its inhabitants Christians. It owes its first germs of religion to a young man I baptized in the orphanage of Madura in 1864, and who, during five years, scattered the seeds of faith around him, and had the happiness of inducing seventy families of his own relations or o£ his caste to ask to be baptized. It was on the "'feast of our blessed Father St. Ignatius, 31st of July, 1870, that I baptized two hundred and twenty-one persons in the village of Vellour. Since then, I have on four occasions visited tlie settlement, and, each time, I baptized three or four families, so that we have now more thau three hundred souls. These Christians are all Parian labourers.

" There we find realized the words of our Blessed Father 5 'Thedifficulties experienced in the begining of any work, are a sure pledge of its future prosperity.' The rich proprietors of the villago, to whons these pariahs are a sort of farmers, did all they could to prevent them becoming Christians ; and that for two reasons : first, because they could not in future get them to work on Sundays ; and secondly, because they would refuse to perform certain services required of them on idolatrous festivals. As soon as they perceived that they held any communication with mo, they made every effort to turn them away from Christianity. Promises, threats, all were put iv requisition foV the purpose of retaining them in idolatry ; they even went so 1 far as to forbid them to till their land. Not being able to frighten them by these means, and seeing them firm in their resolution of embracing re ligion, the villager* one fine day rose in mass, and carried their violence-

bo far as to demolish and scatter to the winds a temporary building, which the catechumens had erected on their own land for my recep. tion. They were not ignorant of the fact, that under the English government, such an act would bring them into trouble, but they hoped to escape the consequences by tha expenditure of some money. I succeeded, however, though not without some trouble, in bringing the most guilty parties to justice, and since then, not only are we reconciled, but they have become my friends. On the feast of St. Francis Xavier, they all joined ia the procession, and some of them even asked to carry the stand on which rested the statue of the saint. I must not forget to tell your Lordihip, that this good and fervent Btttlement has nothing to serve ac a church but a cabin twenty feet by ten in extent. I have purchased a suitable site, and lam waiting for 7ra cc *° furnish me with ***• means for building a ohuroh.. jFrom Vellour I went to S«vagassi, where I was impatiently expected by some twenty fervent catechumens. Sevagassi, seven miles south of Vellour, is a village of 18,000 souls. Last year, in the month of July, I made a reconnoitering visit to the place. I was received mto a house arranged by the principal catechumen as a church, lnw good fellow, who is now Mikel-Nadan, gave me a grant, in the form of Bale, of a house and a large domain surrounding it, worth 500 S £V*- t# This will be Bn «w*H«rt site for the church when tHe Christiana will have become too numerous for the house. I had some levelling done, planted treos, aud enclosed the ground. I baptized four families there, leaving three insufficiently instructed. ' From Sevagassi I went to a place, five miles to the east. There »re twenty families in this settlement, founded July 24th, 1870. Like Vellour, there is only a little hut for a church ; but, following the example of the people of Sevagassi, the Christians gave me a grant, in au due and proper form, of a fine piece of ground, such as 1 could not have procured for 300 francs. Besides, they built for me, free of expense, one half of the enclosure, and planted trees in it, which they engage to take care of. J

" Afterwards I visited, three miles to the eastward, the little settlement of Sanards. Your lordship knows it already, for it dates from the year 1866. Then I went to Oupoute for the festivity of Christmas. This settlement of thirty families, seven miles east of Sattour, and three miles onl> from the vilage of the Christian Sanards, was baptized in a body on the 12th of July last year, and this was my first visit since its creation. I was glad to find it no way inferior to settlements of earlier date.

" The thine that most of oil contributed to form these neophytes to a Christian life, wai the fact that, on leaving them after baptism, I recommended them to an old Christian in the neighbourhood, charging him to come twice a week to teach them (heir prayers aud the catechism, promising him 1 franc 50 cents, a raonth for his tr«jible. Though the good man was by no meane highly instructed, he acquitted himself of the task with great zeal and suocess I only hope I may be fortunate enough to find such another for each of my new settlements. Here, too, the church is only a cabin, hardly capable of accommodating ten persons. And this was the reason I had" to celebrate the midnight Mass under the vault of heav«n. For, in addition to my two hundred meophyteß, I had several hundred Christians from the neighbouring district/and a crowd of pagans. After Mass, I baptized four other adults.

"During tin's tour. I received deputations from four pagan villages, begging of me to gi *nd baptize them. It is not that I was asked by iudividuals or isolate d families, but by twenty, thirty, forty fatnffies at a time, all related to *iy neophytes. One of these deputations came from Vatrape, a part of the country situated at the foot of the mountains, fifteen miles west of Vellour, where there is not a single Christian. And so, although it was my intention to go to the Christians of a locality, whom I had not visited for more than a year, I left the sheep of the fold, and went in search of those who wanted to eater it.

" I retraced my steps, therefore, and went to a village, six miles west of Sattour. This was the nearest of the four villages that had asked for me. I was very well received, not only by those who were expecting me, but likewise by the principal inhabitants of the neighbourhood, and they were so obliging as to place the village school at my disposal during the term of "my stay among them. I remained there three days, during which I sounded the dispositions of my new catechumens, and I received as many as fifteen families. On my departure, I gave them 35 francs towards the erection of a temporary chapel, and promised to come to instruct and baptize them as soon as possible.

" From this village I returned to Vellour, urged by a desire to make an excursion into the district of Vatrape, a place quite unknown to me, which has of its own accord opened its gates to th_- Gospel. However, I thought it well to send on my catechist to prepare the way. While awaiting his return, I remained at Vellour, where I baptized seventeen other pagans. Aly catechist found many persons in the country disposed to receive the good tidings of salvation ; but, as it was then the season for country work, he thought it would be wise to defer my excursion. I therefore took advantage of the respite to go and make my retreat at Madura, where I am now writing this letter.

" But I cannot conclude, Monseignenr, without telling you of my wants. Since your departure for the Council, I have baptized 532 pagans. If I could get 250 francs for every new settlement of one hundred souls, I wculd with that assistance build a little chapel for my Chrißtiansj erect a shelter for myself, and be in a position to invite your Lordehip to visit and confirm the r.ew children who belong still more to you than to me. The torment of life is the being obliged to leave them, after they have been baptized for many years to worship in the open aii, while habituating them to pray more than other Christians do, and being too much pressed myself to remain a sufficient time among them. I should also want to take in each settlement a pious Christian who -would watch over them, say the prayers JBBtruct the children, and baptize newly-born infants. ' To be Continued.