By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 7
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” (Tertullian, AD 197).
From the Edict of Milan (AD 313) by the Emperor Constantine, which gave freedom to the Church and brought persecution to an end, the Church grew so much in numbers that, among other things, it became necessary to hold a council to determine, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which ones among the various Gospels and Epistles that were in circulation were authentic, and which ones were not.
This is an often-forgotten point in salvation history: The New Testament was not given to the Church as we know it today. There were many versions of Gospels and Epistles and Apocalypses and Acts — but not all were inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was incumbent upon the Council of Hippo, in 393, and of Carthage, in 397, to finalize the list of New Testament books. That’s why we say that the New Testament is a collection of Catholic books.
I mention this because, as the fourth century was a time of relative peace, the Church could occupy herself with the Bible — but the peace did not last long. In the fifth century, there was the persecution by the Vandal regime, from the time of Gaiseric in 429, and Catholics suffered much under the persecution of the heretical Aryans in Africa. They were particularly hostile to bishops because of their allegiance to Rome.
In the fifth century, the followers of the Monophysite heresy murdered 350 Maronite monks in Syria.
The seventh century saw the rise of Islam, which came to be the most enduring threat against Christianity in history. By fire and sword Mohammed conquered Arabia, and the caliphs after him launched a relentless war of conquest — jihad — against the Christian world. There were 350 dioceses in the north of Africa, and the Church flourished in the days of St. Augustine. The Middle Eastern countries were Catholic.
Today the crescent-shaped scimitar, stained with the blood of Christians, reigns supreme in those lands. In the next 900 years, in every generation a violent assault was made against a Christian land. The fate of war prisoners was simple: either instant conversion to Islam, or instant death. We see the same genocide happening today, under the indifferent gaze of Western powers, including the United States.
In the eighth century the iconoclast heresy wrought havoc in the Byzantine Empire. St. Paul of Cyprus, one of the most well-known martyrs, was given the choice of trampling on a crucifix or being tortured at the rack. He refused to trample on the crucifix. He was tortured to death at the rack. I ask myself, “How would I respond to the offer, if I were there?” How would you, reader?
Persecution lasted, on and off, until the 11th century.
In the 12th century, a few famous martyrs gave their lives for Christ and His Church: St. Thomas à Becket in England, Blessed Charles the Good in Bruges, Flanders, St. Botvid in Sweden, and St. Henry, bishop of Uppsala.
From the 11th to the 15th century the Cathari or Albigensians infected parts of Europe. St. William Arnaud was among the 12 Catholics murdered by those dualist heretics in Toulouse, France, in 1242.
To make a complete list of Islamic persecution of Christians would be endless, tedious, and unnecessary for our educational purposes.
The 16th century saw the great navigations, to the Americas and Asia. St. Francis Xavier was the great apostle of India and Japan, where a vast number of people were baptized. But soon the persecution began. St. Paul Miki and his 12 companions were crucified in Nagasaki, Japan.
In 1622 the great persecution took place in that country, where tens of thousands of people were put to death by a variety of means, and small children were not spared. It is estimated that Japan, as an individual country, has given the greatest number of martyrs to the Catholic Church, more than any other country!
The Protestant Revolution was not centered on the Bible alone, as they claim: It also centered on the persecution of Catholics who refused to belong to their new religion.
Thus, Lutherans martyred Catholics in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and Denmark, destroying churches, confiscating their goods and expelling monks and nuns from their monasteries. It was war against the Catholic Church. Calvinists killed Catholics in present-day Holland, Luxembourg, and Belgium. In England, Henry VIII saw to the martyrdom of hundreds of martyrs, including St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher.
The 17th century saw the return to unity with Rome of thousands of Eastern Christians, but their return was costly. Persecution was unleashed against them by the Orthodox, and the Apostle of the Catholic Ukrainians, St. Josaphat, was beaten by a mob and shot dead in 1623. His body rests at the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
St. Andrew Bobola, who helped great many Orthodox to return to Rome, was murdered by Cossacks in 1657. The French missionaries, St. John Brebeuf and his companions, who were martyred by the Algonquin Indians, became legendary.
In the 18th century the French Revolution murdered countless Catholics faithful to Church and king. In Vietnam the sovereign decreed the death of all priests, and the people were given the choice of trampling on a crucifix or being put to death.
In the 19th century, Africa gave her martyrs, especially in Uganda. Paul VI canonized 21 of them, St. Charles Lwanga and his companions.
The 20th century alone requires a number of volumes. Together Nazism and Communism killed millions of Catholics. Among the most famous martyrs under Nazism were Saints Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe. In Poland the figures are very precise: six bishops, 2,030 priests, 243 nuns, 173 brothers, and 127 seminarians.
Under Communism, and in Ukraine alone, ten bishops, more than 1,400 priests, 800 nuns, and tens of thousands of Catholics altogether laid down their lives for their faith in Christ.
That’s enough. Islam today continues the sad saga of persecuting those who follow Christ in His Holy Church.
A reader or two may ask, “What is the purpose of this long list?” The answer is simple: We are called to know, love, and serve God here on Earth in order to enjoy the eternal Beatific Vision in Heaven.
In The Wanderer columns we get to know much about the faith, and are encouraged to love what we learn. But service is necessary, too.
When we see our hard-earned tax money going to fund Planned Parenthood, which kills preborn Americans and sell their body parts; when we see Christianity being demolished by Islamic fanatics in the Middle East; when we see sodomitic “marriage” being imposed upon the nation, we must ask ourselves how we are doing in the service of God and neighbor.
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Priest and the Levite walked away from the man in need — they didn’t want to be involved; they could not miss the fund-raising meeting and the subsequent coffee and doughnuts at the local parish. . . .
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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