From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Few Lovers of the Cross of Jesus  [III]   
      
   Oh, how powerful is the pure love of Jesus, free from all   
   self-interest and self-love! Are they not all mercenaries, who are   
   always seeking comfort? Do they not betray themselves as lovers of   
   self rather than of Christ, when they are always thinking of their own   
   advantage and gain? Where will you find one who is willing to serve   
   God without reward?   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2, Ch 11   
      
   =============   
   July 10th - Martyrs of Damascus   
   (d. 1860)   
      
   During the past several years, the Mideast has made the headlines as a   
   maelstrom of religious, social and political violence. It may help us   
   to know that this is nothing new in those parts! The case of the   
   Blessed Martyrs of Damascus is a good illustration.   
      
   In 1856, Turkey, the Muslim country that had controlled most of the   
   Mideast for years, was defeated in the Crimean War. In the peace   
   treaty, the Turkish sultan had to sign a decree forbidding future   
   discrimination against non-Muslims in taxes and in access to civil   
   office.   
      
   The sultan may well have signed such a law, but dyed-in-the-wool   
   Turkish Muslims considered it an insult and not acceptable. They had   
   never granted equal rights to Christians, and, so help them Allah,   
   they never would. A fanatical sect called the Druses (who have also   
   figured in more recent conflicts) was determined to put down the   
   Christians, especially those who lived in Lebanon.   
      
   In 1860, the Druses began a systematic massacre of Christians. The   
   Turkish officials persuaded the Christians to give up their arms in   
   the interest of maintaining peace. That just made things easier for   
   the Druses. From May 30 to June 26, 1860, they pillaged and burned   
   every defenseless Maronite village in main and southern Lebanon,   
   killing, mutilating or otherwise degrading 6,000 Christians. Some of   
   these victims were members of religious orders like the five Jesuit   
   missionaries of Zahleh and the 21 Maronite monks of Dair al-Kadar. The   
   only bright spot in the episode was the protection given by the   
   Algerian Muslim leader, Abd-al-Kadar, who boldly sheltered 1500   
   Christians, Europeans and Oriental.   
      
   The slaughter reached Damascus on July 9, 1860, and 3,000 men were   
   slain. European Franciscans had a convent there. When the attackers   
   neared, the father superior gathered all his flock together, including   
   the school children, to pray in the chapel. They might have escaped   
   the mob, had not a man whom the friars had befriended turned traitor   
   and shown the killers an unguarded back entrance.   
      
   The Muslim group killed eleven of these persons clearly out of hatred   
   of the Christian faith. The superior, Blessed Emmanual Ruiz, was a   
   Spaniard. When they demanded that he give up the faith, he replied, “I   
   am a Christian and I will die a Christian.” So they split open his   
   head with their axes. Bl. Engelbert Kolland, an Austrian Franciscan,   
   was also killed for refusing to deny the faith. Bl. Carmen Volta lay   
   dying for an hour. Two Muslim friends found him and said they would   
   hide him in their house if he apostatized. He refused, so they killed   
   him. Much the same thing happened to Bl. Nicanor Ascanio, Bl. Peter   
   Soler and Bl. Nicholas Alberca. The two other Franciscans executed   
   were lay brothers, Bl. Francis Pinazo and Bl. John James Fernandez.   
   Most of the lay people in the house escaped or were spared, but three   
   lay Maronites, all blood-brothers, shared the fate of the friars: Bls.   
   Francis, Abdul-Muti, and Raphael Masabki. Francis was aged about 70.   
   All three had refused the demands of the rioters that they embrace   
   Islam.   
      
   Pope Pius XI beatified these 11 modern martyrs on October 10, 1926.   
   Their story was another chapter in the tempestuous history of the Near   
   East, where savage violence, largely religious in its motivation, has   
   so long been visited on those who were swept into its whirlpool.   
   Sometimes the victims were locals, Christian or non-Christian, or   
   sometimes innocent bystanders from the West.   
      
   We would do well to call upon these blessed martyrs of Damascus to   
   intercede for peace among the still embattled peoples of the Middle   
   East. May Muslims and Christians, both children of the one God,   
   remember that God is love.   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "What are all the gains, all the fortunes, all the offices and   
   careers, even all the kingdoms  of the world, compared to an offence   
   against God, to a sin which is the greatest evil in the world? There   
   is no work greater or more noble either in heaven or on earth than   
   this: to prevent offences [sins] against God."   
   --St. Joseph Cafasso (Confessor, 1811-1860)--"The Priest The Man Of   
   God. His Dignity and Duties   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let no man therefore despise him: but conduct ye him on his way in   
   peace, that he may come to me. For I look for him with the brethren.   
   And touching our brother Apollo, I give you to understand that I much   
   entreated him to come unto you with the brethren: and indeed it was   
   not his will at all to come at this time. But he will come when he   
   shall have leisure.  [1Co 16:11-12]   
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer:   
   "Lord Jesus, inflame my heart with your love that I may always pursue   
   what matters most--love of you, my Lord and my God, and love of my   
   fellow neighbor whom you have made in your own image and likeness.   
   Free my heart from selfish evil desires that I may only have room for   
   kindness, mercy, and goodness toward every person I know and meet."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)