the lessons of the colonial exhibition in paris. i: the missionaries

Irish Jesuit Province

The Lessons of the Colonial Exhibition in Paris. I: The MissionariesAuthor(s): Sophie O'BrienSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 59, No. 700 (Oct., 1931), pp. 634-638Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20513116 .

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634

THE LESSONS OF THE COLONIAL EXHIBITION IN PARIS.

I.-THE MISSIONARIES.

T HE Colonial Exhibition in Paris is a marvellous success. It will rejoice Irish Catholics to learn that in all the Exhibition the spot that attracts

most is the Pavilion of the Missions. The missionary exhibits tell a tale of heroism and

religious enthusiasm that warms all hearts. The pavilion is always full. A sileint crowd studies with deep emotion the glorious story of religious self-sacrifice. Pore Lhande, the most eloquent of French preachers of the present day, described in stirring sermons by wire less the self-sacrifice of French missionaries. His ser

mons are now appearing in book form, and the book is

one of the best sellers. The author is on the ocean on the way to distant lands, where lonely missionaries are

working and suffering for the honour of God. Martyrdom and cruel treatments i-e less dreaded by

those heroic men than the solitude and the helpless feeling of not being able to win souls, as is the case in

certain countries like Japan. Japanese missionaries at the presernt day have not to

fear persecution, or even dislike, but the numbers won to religion are very small indeed. One of the young

men who came to Japan with great longing for active

work was sent to a town where the Christians numbered twenty. After some months he had lost all hope of real

progress. He went to ask his Bishop to send him to a

post where he would not feel so useless. " Is it use

less," replied the Bishop, " that the holy sacrifice of

the Mass is celebrated in another spot on earth?" The

young priest was cheered, and went back to his work,

which he took up in a different spirit. M. Bellessort, one of the able writers of the day, went to Japan in 1898 and in 1914, and met all the French missionaries. He describes what he saw in a moving article of the Revue



COLONIAL EXHIBIU'QON IN PARIS 635

des Deuxc Mondes for July. He tells that the absence of danger is a trial to the missionaries in Japan. One day he was lunching at Kyoto with Father Aurientis, who had been thirty years in Japan, and some younger priests. The paper brought the news that one of Father Aurientis' fellow stuidents at the Seminary of Foreign Missions had become a martyr in China. The lucky

fellow," called out the old priest, and the otlher mis sionaries who were present shared the feeling.

If in Japan t'here is no persecution to be dreaded, the missionaries face other dangers. Leprosy is very fre quent, and the leper settlements are numerous. A Freilch priest, Father Drouart de Lezey, devoted his life to the lepers in as generouis a spirit as Father Damnien.

He was a nobleman by birthl, and an apo,ostle who gave

his lepers his devoted care. In 1887 he cfaine to look after the Japanese lepers,

who were left to die in awfull misery. l-ie exercised oni the poor creattures hiis power of consolation. " As leprosy cannot be cured," he used to say, " a leper settlement is not like a, sinple hospital, and, as leprosy is not a crime, a leper settlement should not resemble a prison." He gave the lepers the taste of gardening and field work. But they settled how they should work. No one ordered them about. They looked on themselves as the owners of the property, wbich they wished to make successful. Their greatest pleasures were tlheatri cals. The priest encouraged them. They made the cos tumes and the stage scenery; they were the actors. The

Fathier used to send snapshots of the plays to France, and it was hard to realise that the a.ctors were lepers.

Onie day Father Dronart had the visit of la Japanese

and a pretty young girl. The Japanese said that his niece had leprosy, and asked the priest to keep her. The girl burst out crying. She belonged to a good famlly. She wa a Protestant, and had been well educated.

The priest visited her in her little roomi. She did not cry any more, but her look of silent misery told of a

resolve to end her life. The priest watched her closely, and for two months dreaded what she might do in her



630T ETH IRISH MONTHLY

despair. But the influence of happy resignation he created around him had its effect. She asked to be in structed in the Catholic religion. She nursed her brothers and sisters in misery. After a year the Father, surprised not to see any sign of disease sent the girl to consult a great specialist. She brought back the declaration that she had never been a leper. "Return to the world," said the priest. But she threw herself at his feet. "K Keep me as a nurse," she pleaded.

"What of the danger of contagion?" he said. If God wishes me to catch the disease,"I she replied,

"His will be done." She has cared for lepers for years and been a marvellous help to the devoted priest. Ile worked for his lepers to the end. A week before his death he wrote to a nun in Tokio:

" Rev. Mother,-What joy, what sweet joy! The doctor only gives me six or eight days to live. Before dying I want to thank you for the last time for the con stant kindliness, the delicate charity, the maternal affection, you have shown to my poor lepers. I thank all your pupils for their generosity. Many a time they were charitable. Thanks. Thousand thanks.

"I allow myself to give you a last advice. Be joyous always and everywhere whatever happens. The least feeling of sadness before God has always displeased me. Let us offer to Him the homage we owe Him, the enthusi astic homage of a soul which is full of the feeling of an ardent, confiding, filial, and, tbove all, joyous love."

The noble-hearted olil man died November 3rd, 1930. He was tall and sturdy. He seemed a crusader or a

knight of the heroic ages. His voice was soft with warm accents, and the sweetness of his smile was not forgotten by those who, like M. Bellessort, had the joy to meet him, nor the clear flame that burst from his eyes.

He sleeps after his life of self-sacrifice. Other mis sionaries are carrying out his blessed task of mercy.

As to us, who cannot do such glorious deeds, we can at least strive to carry out the lesson of " an ardent,

confiding, filial, but, above all, joyous love of God.'"



COLONIAL EXHIBITION -IN PARIS 637

rI.-TuTE MEDICAL PROPESSION AT THE PARIS COLONIAL

EXHIBITION.

The Paris Colonial Exhibition put on a high pinnacle the missionaries and the good work they carry out in

distant lands. Next to those devoted workers for God, the doctors shine at the Colonial Exhibition. We all know the good work accomplished by doctors at home. Next to the priests, the doctors go more deeply into the depth of human misery, and help to relieve it. In the colonies their power for good is tenfold multiplied. Among savage tribes a white man has singular influence. He is looked on as a kind of magician. Among white men, doctors have the most mysterious power. The native witches witl their magical curee become very insignificant beings compared to the white doctor, who goes about healing diseases that used to sweep whole families away. The influence of the scientific doctor

was shown in 1900, in the midst of the Boxer Rising, when Professor Jeanselme was allowed to travel unhurt all over Southern China, accompanied by a guide and two hiogs, because he vaccinated against smallpox, the scourge of the country he was visiting.

Missionaries often make their way among wild nations by beginning to cure the body in order to reacll the soul. At the Colonial Exhibition one can see in Africa, in Asia, in Oceania, all thatt is achieved by missionaries in creating dispensaries, sanatoria, creches, as well as their self-devotion in the care of lepers. The same blessed: work is carried on by doctors on a large scale.

In the Congo Exhibition there are amusing descrip tions of the witchcraft used by native sorcerers to heal the poor wretches, who died in great numbers, until the

white men came and used scientific means of curing. In Morocco many an unfriendly tribe was won over

by French doctors. Here is one incident. A French doctor was sent to a hostile tribe to give his care to the sick. He was well received by the chiefs. But the native healer was naturally hostile. He used to make his patients swallow pieces of paper on which he had



638 THE IRISH MONTHLY

written prayers. The Frenchman won over his col league. They came to an understanding. The native

doctor continued to distribute his pieces of paper, but in each he allowed the Frenchmian to put a dose of quinine for the victims of fever.

During the insurrection of Morocco French doctors were sent to look after thle prisoners, with the permis sion of Abdel Krii. The doctors attended a11 patients, friends and foes. They ran risks to cure the Moroccan victims of typhus. This conduct made such a deep imn pression on the Rifains that it helped greatly in bringing about peace.

But once peace has come, and iminense spaces have to be looked after, the problemn becomes a mrlatter of organisation. Hospitals, dispensaries, health centres have to he created on a great scale. This has been done in all the French colonies in a manner that has some thing magical abouit it. In 1905, in French West

Africa, 56 medical consultations were given; in the year 1930 there were more than three millions. In Indo China one-thirKd of the native population will have none but French doctors.

As things improve, the aim of true colonisation is to raise the natives. There are in Indo-China, in Mada gasear, native schools for doctors, midwives, nurses, who render immense services. Some of the students come to Europe to get their degrees. To judge of the progress, figures are most eloquent.

Doctors who come to the colonies are often victims of their zeal. They often lose their health, if they do not find death in their campaigns in the wilderness, in their struggles with disease in hospitals and laboratories.

The great Colonial of France, Marshal Lyautey, one of the great figures of our generation, pays a tribute to doctors that is worth remembering:

" After more than thirty years of Colonial life, I can affirm that ina no other profession have I foun{d more generous souls, more active and convinced men, than among the doctors."

SOPHIE O'BRIEN,



the lessons of the colonial exhibition in paris. i: the missionaries

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