From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   July 27th - Bl. Rudolf Aquaviva and Companions   
   d. 1583   
      
     These five martyrs of the Society of Jesus were Rudolf Aquaviva,   
   Alfonso Pacheco, Pirrea Berno, Antony Francisco, Priests, And Francis   
   Aranha, temporal coadjutor.  Father Aquaviva was son of the Duke of   
   Atri, related to the family of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, and nephew of   
   Claud Aquaviva, the 5th general of the Jesuits.  He was admitted at   
   the age of 18, in 1568, and after being ordained priest at Lisbon was   
   sent to Goa, in India. In 1579 a request was received from the Great   
   Mogul Akbar that missionaries should be sent to his court at Fatehpur   
   Sikri, near Agra.  Father Aquaviva, a man "of very sweet and simple   
   disposition....perpetually conscious of God", was one of the two   
   chosen for this mission, and he spent till 1583 in strenuous efforts   
   to convert Akbar and his subjects; he had no success, and in that year   
   was recalled to be put in charge of the Salsette mission, north of   
   Bombay.   
      
     Father Pacheco, a Castilian, and Father Berno, a Swiss, accompanied   
   two punitive expeditions of the Portuguese against the village of   
   Cuncolim; on these occasions they were both conspicuous for their   
   energy in the destruction of Hindu sacred buildings, and no doubt the   
   people made a note of it. Father Francisco was Italian; Brother Aranha   
   was the mission architect at Goa and at his death had been 23 years in   
   India.   
      
     These five Jesuits, then, were all in the district of Salsette, and   
   they determined together to make a "frontal attack" on Cuncolim, which   
   was the heart of Hindu opposition in that mission.  On July 15, 1583,   
   they met at Orlim and, together with other Christians, set out for   
   Cuncolim, intending to choose there a piece of ground for a church and   
   to plant a cross thereon.  On their arrival the notables of the   
   village hurriedly took counsel, and then approached the missionaries   
   with an armed force.  A Portuguese layman, Rodriguez, would have fired   
   on them, but he was stopped by Father Pacheco with the words, "We are   
   not here to fight ".   
      
   The villagers then fell on the party. Bl. Rudolf and Ed Alfonso were   
   killed praying for their murderers, and the other two priests were   
   likewise slain outright. The coadjutor, Bl. Francis, left for dead,   
   but found living the next day; he was given the chance to venerate an   
   idol, and on refusing was tied to a tree and shot through with arrows.   
      
     There were put to death at the same time Goacalo Rodriguez and 14   
   Indian Christians, two of whom were lads.   
      
   There is now no means of judging the reasons on account of which these   
   15 were omitted from the cause of the martyrs by Mgr Menezes,   
   Archbishop of Goa, in 1600 but, from what is known of the methods of   
   that prelate, they would probably be found unconvincing today. Even   
   the cause of the five Jesuits was subjected to long delay. The   
   promoter of the faith raised the doubt that the destroying of Hindu   
   pagodas and other aggressive acts had brought about what was in effect   
   a state of war which, rather than hatred of the faith, involved the   
   massacre. It was not till 1741 that Pope Benedict XIV declared the   
   martyrdom proved, and even then the formal beatification did not take   
   place till 1893.   
      
   The best popular account of the Martyrs of Salsette is that written in   
   German by Father H. Gruber, Der selige Rudolf Aquaviva und seine   
   Gefahrten Les BB. martyrs de Salsette (1893), and in English F.   
   Goldie, The First Christian Mission to the Great Mogul (1897), and J.   
   S. Naraysn, Aquaviva and the Great Mogul (Patna, 1946). From the point   
   of view of secular history valuable sidelights may be obtained from   
   Sir Edward Maclagan's article in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of   
   Bengal (vol. Ixv) on "Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar", and from   
   C. H. Payne's Akbar and the Jesuits (1926) (1894); but see also P.   
   Suau.1583   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
       "Prayer is, therefore, the source and origin of every upward   
   journey toward God. Let us each, then, turn to prayer and say to our   
   Lord God: 'Lead me, O Lord, on your path, that I may walk in your   
   truth.'"   
   --St. Bonaventure   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And Jesus knowing it, said to them: Why do you trouble this woman? For   
   she hath wrought a good work upon me.  For the poor you have always   
   with you: but me you have not always.  For she in pouring this   
   ointment on my body hath done it for my burial.  [Mt. 26:10-12] DRB   
      
   <><><><>   
   "Lead, Kindly Light" a prayer of John Henry Cardinal Newman:   
      
   Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom   
            Lead Thou me on!   
   The night is dark, and I am far from home.   
            Lead Thou me on!   
   Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene —   
            One step enough for me.   
      
   I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou-   
            Shouldst lead me on.   
   I loved to choose and see my path, but no.   
            Lead Thou me on!   
   I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,   
            Pride ruled my will;   
            Remember not my past years.   
      
   So long Thy power hast blessed me, sure it still   
            Will lead me on.   
   O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till   
            The night is gone;   
   And with the morn those angel faces smile   
            Which I have loved long since,   
            And lost awhile.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)