THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 41, 11 October 1900, Page 4

THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

BITS OF CTIINA, OLD AND NEW

BISHOP AN/ER IN ROME.

Mgr. Anzer, Vicar-Apostolic of Southern Shan-tung (writes a Rene correspondent under date August 1 ">), is spending a few days iti Itrniic nri Vu'o wiv hwW to Chin \ In ill nr^h'thi li tv hi« Lordship will prolong his stay here until news reaches him that it will be T»n«kiVil(> fur Inn *■'"> T-fitrn t 1 t\\n u,»nnn (if }p^- t ruwt-nM'' 1 I bora, which is now completely cut off from the coast owing to the insurrection. Mgr. An/er has had several long interviews with tin- heads of Propaganda Fide, in the archives of which Congregation he has deposited important documents tending to prove that the Boxer uprising has been carefully prepared and is still secretly supported by the Imperial authorities lam informed that Bishop An/sris preparing a lengthy report on the causes and possible remedies of the present troubles, to be submitted to the Holy Father.

THE BOXERS AND THE CHRISTIANS.

The Key. Father Steenackers, of the Missions of Scheut, contributes to the Jlii nt (If no rah' an article in which he analyses the cause of the disturbances in China, and places the responsibility where it should properly rest. There is, he remarks, no solid foundation for the statement that the missionaries have brought abnut the troubles. The Chinese are not ho devoid of reasoning faculties as not to come to the conclusion that their land was being gobbled up by birds of prey. National sentiment is not absolutely dead amongst them, and when they saw one place after another annexed, they felt that the best course would be to clear out the foreigners at any cost. This, and not religious fanaticism, has been the SHcret of the uprisings. If, observes Father Steenackers, the Boxers have been fighting for a religious idea, what religion do they think imperilled by the missionaries — Confucianism or Buddhism? The Boxers are like the mass of the Chinese, who enumerate a list of gods and good and evil spirits, but, in the true sense of the word, venerate none. The only really national religion which the Chinese practise seriously is ancestor-worship To this cult the missionaries offer no opposition, except when it degenerates into superstition. Indifferent to religion, tho Chinese are hostile to Europeans because they know they are annexationists. If the missionaries have lost their lives, it was not for having preached Christianity, but because they were natives of Europe or loved it.

FRESH DISASTERS.

The Mus'tont Cathahques, of Lyons, publishes a despatch an. nouneing fresh disasters in the much-tried province of South East Pe-Chili. Six priests have been murdered — Fathers Fink, Gaudißsart, Meveux, Cesard, Gissiger and Kieffer. The mission has been destroyed. Jhe same paper contains an announcement from the "-up-rior of the foreign Mis-ions at Paris with regard co the assassin ition of the missionaries — Fathers (Jeorjon and Leray in Southern Minehuiia. A telegram from Shanghai states that live German mi» u ionaries were massacred on August 3, at Tai-Niug.

CAIHOLHs IN I'CKI.V.

According to information obtained at the the legation of Mgr Martinelli, apostolic delegate to the Un'ted Slates, (says an American exchange ) there are Ss.'Ho Catholics in the province of Pekin, which Inn a population ot 1 2 uuf),ooo. Bishop Alphonse Favier, VicarApostohc, succeeded the late Bishop John Baptist Sorthon, to whom ho was coadjutor for several yeirs. Bishop Sorthon died in May, 1 *'.<!). Bishop Favier wai born in France in ls.iS. He has been in China many year?. lie has as assistants 2 A European and 2-t native mi-«ionariep. There are 22 residential parishes in the province of lVkm. Five arc in the city of Pekin and two are in Tien-tsin. There are It'll) stations, not residential, which are visited by missionane- ;>") churcliPH, II.") chapels and 107 oratories. In the city of I\km are two In the province of Pekin are 133 elemental} Catholic schools. «">'.) for boys with IHjK pupils, and 64 for jriris wll h I M'.) pupils Tnere is in the city of Pekin an academy for boys \wlh 1 1"> students In Tien-tsin there is a college for Europeans with 20 boarding students , also a normal school and a school for catechists. There :ue two hospitals m IVkin and one in Tien-tsin. In the province of Pekin are two homes for old men and two for old women. In the city of Pekm there are two orphan asylums and three pharmacies, ami there is one pharmacy in Tien-tsin, There are also in the province seven asylums for pagan orphans. In religious institutions there are 44 Lazarists and six European and 4 7 native Trappi«tb. Of nuns there are 32 Sisters of Charity having four houses in the province, and 53 Sisters of St. Joseph, all of whom are natives.

THE CKACE OF MARTYRDOM

One of the martyred missionaries (writes a Paris correspondent) is the Rev. Pere Edouard Agnius of the Society of Foreign Missions, who has lately fallen in Manchuria. An episode has just come to light concerning him, fehowing that while etill a seminarist he prayed for deuth for his faith at the hands of the heathen. It is related of him that in IS!) I, while studying for the priesthood at the Petit Serninaire of Oambrai, he made the Novena of Grace of St. Francis X xvier for a special intention. When asked what that intention was he replied in a manner as is said never to be forgotten 'It is that I may obtain the grace of martyrdom.' He who gives these [details to the Cnnx dv Xord says: 'His prayer it answered. I can understand the sorrow of his tamily but for him I cannot grieve.' Another of the recent martyrs in Manchuria is the Rev. Ptre Jules Bayard. He too belonged to the Society of Foreign Missions and to the diocese of Caniorai. He left France for China on the 6th May last. Leaving a widowed mother behind him, he tried to console her by his letters. His last letter to her is

dated the ll'h Tune. Tt was writ'on five days after hi- arm il at Shanghai. Now this widowed mother niouni-< the death of her only son. It is a u ked whether a diary Pere B.iyiiid wrote on his way from Shanghai to Moukden will ever reach her hand-" Xcwcomes of the massacre of two more priests, Fathers Derm and Mangin, both Jesuits, and of s >uo Christians of the province of Tchili. Pere Derm had been a missionary in China 30 years. Pere Mangin had been there IS years, and was only -!.'{ at the time of his death.

THE MASbACKE 01' MI>sIOXAKIE.s

Referring to the reported rr.assacre of xo many iuli--lur.i-.r1,. > „: China, thfl Archbishop of Melbourne, speaking at the Catholic Congress in Sydney, observed that when the reports of ihtroi- uia-^rt^ were made known, meetings were held in Australia by all kinds of religious bodies, who had expressed horror at such atrocities. The Catholic members of the community had, however, held their souls in peace and hope. In reading the reports of those meetings one would have thought there was no such thing as a Catholic missionary in China. The name was never mentioned. All that wan said was about the American and English Protestant missionaries of various denominations. He did not blame those who had held the meetings for bringing forward in the very strongest manner the zeal and self-Bacrifice of those missionaries. They deserved the greatest praise for their work, and although the privations they had Buffered were not to be compared with those endured by the Catholic missionaries, yet they were entitled to every commendation, if for nothing else than their intentions and for the religious principle that was at the bottom of them. But while giving them all the praise to which they were entitled, he thought they could have afforded to have taken notice of the Catholic missionaries. The fact was that while the Protestant missionaries in China were supported by the wealth and influence of the world, they had not made, taking the lowest computation, one convert for every 10 made by the Catholic missionaries.

CATHOLIC CLIFI" DWTLLCH 1 -..

Professor G. Frederick White, of Oberlin. who started on a tour round the world several months ago. reached China just before the Boxers' outbreak had assumed dangerous proportions, and at once made an excursion into Mongolia, returning later to Tientsin. From there ho sent an account of a singular and interesting village of Catholic cliff dwellers which he visited m Mongolia, lie wrote : — 'The village of Shiwan/e attracted our special interest. This is in Mongolia, about 200 miles north-east ot l'tkm. and can be reached only by mule-carts or pack animals. Jt is reached from Kolgan by following for 40 or ."iO miles the ascending course of one of the narrow alleys already described as wprn out ot the mountain plateau by a small stream of water. For much of the way the eld Chinese wall is visible, running along the sharp summit of a mountain ridge to the south-east. The narrow gorge opens at length into a more undulating valley, three, or four miles broad, which is about 1500 feet below the general level. 1 Here, to our surprise we came upon a thriving Chistian community of Chinese, living like their neighbors in houses dug out of the cliffs of loess, especially prominent here. 'Shiwanze has an interesting history. In 1 79tJ the Catholic converts in Shansi and Pekin were driven out by bitter persecution. Some of the refugees fled beyond the great wall to Mongolia ami settled in Shiwanze. The refugees were never forgotten. Missionaries from Europe were from time to time sent them, until now it is a bishopric and the centre of Catholic missions in Mongolia, which are supported by a Society in Belgium. Here we enjoyed for a day the hospitality of the Bishop and his co-workers, two or three of whom spoke English readily. The Christian village contains 1800 inhabitants, and has a large church with a girls" school of 400 and a boys' school of 2< >0. The total number of Christians in the diocese is 30,000. We had occasion to vote several other Christian villages in our further travels. 'The main physiological difference between the heathen and the Christian women in China is in the feet. Those of the heathen women are made so small by their cruel mode of bandaging from infancy that they are practically useless in walking, but the feet of the women in Shiwanze are of natural size. This permitH them to frequent the streets much as women do in Europe and America, and is connected with a higher development in every respect. When we asked the privilege of photographing a small group, they immediately disappeared inside the doors ot their cliff houses, and we feared that we had unseed our opportunity, as we uniformly did with the heathen Chinese women, who feared some evil effect from having a picture taken But we were mistaken. Soon they all reappeared in their beat attire, and bringing their neighbors with them.'

A >URBERY Or MARTYR"

A good number of the missionaries (writes a Paris correspondent) who have lately met their death in China belong to Brittany. The town of Vannes seems to be a nursery of martyrs. It was the birthplace of the Rev. Pere Auguste Le Giu'vel just number* d among the victims of the Chinese horrors. This priest was but 2~> years of age at the time of his death. After being ordained m l'ari-, last year he went back to Vannes, and there on the 2nd July celebrated High Mass in the Church of Saint-Patern, in which he was baptised. On the same day after Vespers, with the cope still upon him, he advanced to the altar rails and said . ' And now we must say farewell. Wo shall probably never meet again in this world but some day, thanks to your prayers, which I now beg of you, we ■hall meet in Heaven.' The emotion was general. All knew he was about to leave for the foreign missions. Hardly a year of apostolate has been his. The Rev. Pere Magnet, h J., who probably by this time is among the murdered missionaries, wrote some time back : ' What a life ours has been for the last six months. And yet what an intense joy has been ours also to feel ourselves night and day sensibly in the arms of Divine Providence."