Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus (Google Books version)
by Dr. Orestes Brownson
Our Holy Father Pius IX, gloriously reigning, though despoiled by liberal Catholics and a prisoner in the Vatican, has told France and other countries that their calamities are due to so-called liberal Catholics. We are not wholly free from their influence in this country, either in politics, or in theology. We have Catholics, or men that call themselves Catholics, who, without knowing it, defend in politics, pure secularism, only another name for political atheism, and - not always the same individuals indeed - who defend in theology what, to our understanding, is a most destructive latitudinarianism. It is seldom we meet a Catholic, man or woman, priest or layman, who will permit us to say that “out of the Church no one can be saved,” without requiring us to qualify the assertion, or so to explain it as to make it meaningless to plain people who are ignorant of the subtilties, nice distinctions, and refinements of theologians.
How many of our Catholics, though holding Protestantism to be an error against Faith and antagonistic to the Church, hold that the mass of Protestants are out of the way of salvation, and can never see God in the beatific vision, unless before they die they become Catholics, united to Christ in the Church, which is His Body? If we assert the contrary, are we not met with theological distinction, logical refinements, subtle explanations and qualification, which place us altogether in the wrong? We are told and told truly, that all validly baptized infants, by whomsoever baptized, dying in infancy or before arriving at the use of reason, are saved, enter the kingdom of heaven; next, we are told, not so truly, that all persons remaining in false or heretical sects, not knowing that they are false or heretical and invincibly ignorant of the True Church, may be saved; and finally, that those who are prevented from seeking for and accepting the True Church by the bitter prejudices against her, instilled into their minds by parents and teachers, are to be reputed invincibly ignorant.
The Church teaches, as we have learned her doctrine, that the infant validly baptized, by whomsoever the baptism is administered, receives in the sacrament the infused habit of faith and sanctity, and that his habit (habitus) suffices for salvation till the child comes to the use of reason; hence all baptized infants dying in infancy are saved. But when arrived at the use of reason, the child need something beyond this infused habit, and is bound to elicit the act of faith. The habit is not actual faith, and is only a supernatural facility, infused by grace, of eliciting the actual virtue of faith. The habit of sanctity is lost by mortal sin, but the habit of faith, we are told, can be lost only by a positive act of infidelity. This is not strictly true; for the habit may be lost by omission to elicit the act of faith, which neither is nor can be elicited out of the Catholic Church; for out of her the credible object, which is Deus revelans et ecclesia proponens, is wanting. Consequently, outside of the Church there can be no salvation for any one, even though baptized, who has come to the use of reason, The habit given in baptism, then, ceases to suffice, and the obligation to elicit the act begins.
We may be told that it may not be through one’s own fault that he omits to elicit the act, especially when born and brought up in a community hostile or alien to the Church. Who denies it? But from that it does not follow either that the habit is not lost by the omission, or that the elicitation of the act is not necessary, in the case of every adult, to salvation. Invincible ignorance excuses from sin, we admit, in that hereof one is invincibly ignorant, but it confers no virtue, and is purely negative. It excuses from sin, if you will, the omission, to elicit the act, but it cannot supply the defect caused by the omission. Something more than to be excused from the sin of infidelity is necessary to salvation.
To us there is something shocking in the supposition that the dogma, Extra ecclesiam nulla salus , is only generally true and therefore not a Catholic dogma. All Catholic dogmas, if Catholic, are not only generally, but universally true, and admit no exception or restriction whatever. If men can come to Christ and be saved without the Church or union with Christ in the Church, she is not Catholic, and it is false to call her the only holy Catholic Church, as in the creed. The latitudinarianism which explains away the dogma of exclusive salvation, and which is so widely prevalent, is a denial, in principle, of the Catholicity of the Church, and of the Faith she holds and teaches, and seems to us to grow out of forgetfulness of the relation of the Church to the Incarnation, her office in the economy of salvation, the teleological character of the Christian order, the religion of the end, and the disposition of the modern world to mistake liberality of charity. The Church grows, so to speak, out of the Incarnation, of which she is, as Moehler well says in his Symbolik, in some sort, the visible continuation on earth, and from which she is inseparable. Saint Paul calls the Church “the body of Christ.” She lives in Christ, and He in her; His life is her life, and individuals are joined to Him and live His life by being joined to her and living His life in her. To be separated from her is to be separated from Him, is to be separated from the incarnate Word Himself, the one Mediator of God and men and from our end, as well as the medium of its attainment.
One thing is certain, namely, that no one can be saved, enter into the kingdom of God, or attain to beatitude, without being regenerated or born again of the incarnate Word, or if not united to regenerated humanity in Christ. One can no more be a Christian without being born of Christ, begotten anew by the Holy Ghost in Christ Jesus, than one can be a man without being born of Adam by way of natural generation. Without the Incarnation or union with it, there is never any salvation, for without it there is no regenerated humanity, no teleological order, no fulfillment of man’s existence. But the Church grows out of the Incarnation, and is inseparable from it. Under one aspect, she is herself regenerated humanity, or the human race propagated by the election of grace, as humanity in the initial order is propagated or explicated by natural generation. Without being united to regenerated humanity, men remain forever in the initial order below their destiny, inchoate existences, with their nature unfilled, devoured alike by an everlasting want which cannot be supplied, and an everlasting selfreproach for having by their own fault neglected the means of salvation once within their reach. Hence the never-ending sufferings of those who die unregenerate. Even infants dying unbaptized, that is, in the initial order, unregenerate, the holy Council of Florence defines, go to hell - in infernos; though they will not suffer for any actual sins of commission or omission, of which they were incapable. Some tender-hearted theologians think they will not suffer at all, but no rational creature can remain forever below his destiny, with the purpose of his being unfilled, without experiencing a want, and therefore not without a greater or less degree of suffering.
Under one aspect, the Church consists of the regenerated race, as we have said of all who have by the election of grace been born again, begotten anew by the Holy Ghost in Christ Jesus. Out of the Church, in this sense, no one can pretend that there is any salvation. But the Church, under another aspect, is the body of Christ, and is the medium through which the Incarnation reaches and practically instructs, regenerates, elevates, sustains, guides and directs the soul in the palingenesiac order, or in reference to the end for which man is created and exists. In a word, the Church is the medium by which the soul is elevated above the natural order, introduced into the teleological order, united to Christ, and therefore to God, its final cause. Without the Church, in this sense, the Incarnation, it seems to us, would be to the soul, to mankind, as if it were not. There would be no dialectic reason for it in the Creator’s plan. Indeed, in all Protestant sects, the Incarnation is either denied outright, or serves no purpose. The Word could not have died to redeem us, or to make satisfaction for us, if He had not assumed human nature to be as really and as truly His nature as is the divine nature itself; for God could not die in His divine nature, since in the divine nature He is immortal. He could die only in His human nature, hypostatically united to the divine person of the Word. But even as incarnate, He could make satisfaction for us only as our head, and therefore, in actu, only for those who are actually His members, or who become so by regeneration. He is potentially the head of every man, and therefore is said to have died for all men, but He is actually the head only of those who are joined to Him as His members. The atonement is sufficient for all, but to receive its benefits, it must be applied and it is applied, only to those who are born of Him; for they only participate in it through their Head as members. Those who are separated from Him do not suffer in His sufferings, or satisfy in His satisfaction; for they are not members of which He is the Head, and His merits neither are nor can be theirs while they are separated from Him, or until they are joined to Him by the new birth, and made one with Him. They have no connection with Him as their head; He is not their progenitor - has not begotten them; and they are simply natural men, children of Adam, in the order of generation, initial or inchoate existences, infinitely below the plane of their destiny.
If, as every Catholic must hold, or deny all office or significance to the Church in the economy of salvation, the Church is the medium by which men come to Christ, and by the Holy Ghost, Who dwells and operates in her, are united to Christ as their Head, and participate, through the Union of the Head and the members, in His sufferings, His work of atonement and His merits as living members participate in whatever is suffered or done by their living head, how then can we conceive the possibility of salvation out of the Church? To admit it would deny her catholicity: would, it seems to us, deny the living connection of the Church with the Incarnation, and in fact the Incarnation itself, and the whole teleological or palingenesiac order which it founds, or the God-Man creates. We do not pretend that the doctrines of the Church are demonstrable by natural reason from principles evident by the light of nature, for they are known only by divine or supernatural revelation, and are held only by faith; but we do contend that the Creator’s works are strictly dialectic; that His plan or design in creation and redemption, though known only as revealed, is logically coherent in all its parts, and that the several parts are mutually related as parts of one complete and uniform whole. To admit salvation to be possible to any not joined to Christ in His body, the Church, breaks, as it seems to us, the logic or dialectic consistency of the divine plan or design as revealed to us in the written and unwritten word of God and reduces Catholicity to the level of the sects, all of which are founded on compromise, and are incoherent, made up of heterogeneous elements, like the feet of the image in Nabuchodonosor’s dream. Hence the theologians, who by their explanations open wide the door of salvation, labor with all their might to prove that those who apparently die outside of the Church, and whose salvation, they tell us, is not to be despaired of, do not really die out of her communion, but, in fact, in it and as Catholics. That is, men may be in the communion of the church while apparently out of it, and adhering to sects hostile to it, being excused through invincible ignorance.
Yet, if there is any truth in what we have said of the teleological character of the Christian order, and that it is and can be entered only by the new birth, or “new creation,” as Saint Paul calls it, this invincible ignorance, even if really invincible, which it rarely is, though it excuses from the sin of heresy or infidelity, does not of itself leave the soul in a salvable state, for it confers no positive virtue, elevates not the soul to the teleological or supernatural order, nor places it on the plane of its destiny. Else, why are not unbaptized infants dying in infancy saved? Why can they never see God in the beatific vision? They are incapable of actual sin, and are assuredly invincibly ignorant. The reason is that the teleological or supernatural order, though it presupposes the initial or natural order, is not developed or evolved from it. We are not placed by our birth from Adam on the plane of our beatitude, but to reach it must be born again, crated anew in Christ Jesus; a new and a higher life must be begotten in us, the life which flows out from the Incarnation, a life of which the Word made flesh is the author and fountain. Salvation, or what is the same thing, heaven, beatitude, is not reached by any possible natural progress for it does not lie in the plane of nature, or the natural order, that is, the order of generation, as the rationalists pretend. They recognize no teleological order, no end or final cause of man’s existence, and their heaven is no higher than the Christian’s hell.
Now it is clear that one may be excused from the sin of infidelity, or the guilt of heresy, and yet not be in the way of salvation, for he may lack the positive supernatural virtues which place him on the plane of his supernatural end or beatitude, and which can neither be acquired nor lived without Faith. What we wish to impress upon the mind of the reader is, that the simple negation of sin does not suffice for heaven. We do not say that, if man had not sinned, God would have become incarnate, but we do say that man cannot attain to his end without being not only discharged from guilt, but reconstituted in the supernatural justice in which Adam was originally constituted. The two, the discharge from guilt and the restoration to justice, are, in hac providentia, coincident and inseparable, if we speak of original sin, and the one is never without the other; yet are they distinguishable, and the former does not suffice for glorification in heaven. For that, the adult must be raised to and live a supernatural life.
In the case of poorly instructed or misinstructed Catholics, yet really in the visible communion of the Church, who involuntarily err even in regard to very important matters, but are docile and willing to be set right, we not only regard them as inculpable, but as in the way of salvation; for they have or may have the positive supernatural virtues required. The seed is in them. But we are unable to extend the same rule to persons in communions, or sects rather, notoriously separated from the Church and under anathema. To them the principle of invincible ignorance, it seems to us, does not apply, any more than it does to open and avowed infidels, pantheists, or atheists. These have not the seed in them, and if they die as they are, must go in infernos, however invincibly ignorant. If they received the seed in baptism, it has been lost, as we have seen, by their omission, or even inability to elicit the act of faith, on coming to the use of reason. The seed is choked and prevented from germinating, or the fowls of the air - evil spirits - gather it up as soon as sown. The invincibly ignorant may not be doomed to so severe a punishment as the vincibly ignorant, but ignorance itself is always either a sin or the penalty of sin, and is, as Saint Augustine says, “just cause of damnation.”
With regard to the several Protestant sects in whose good faith we know them too well to believe, we do not judge individuals, for judgment has not been committed to us; and we dare not say when a Protestant dies that he is assuredly lost, for we know not what passed between God and his soul at the last moment when the breath left the body; but this we do dare say, that, if one dies a Protestant, and the presumption, if he remains an adhering Protestant up to the last moment, is that he does so die, he is most assuredly damned, that is, forever deprived of heaven and will never see God as He is. Protestantism is an open and avowed revolt against the church of God, a total rejection, in principle, of Christ and His authority, therefore of Christianity itself and Protestants exhibit in their lives no virtues of a supernatural order, or that strength. If, in infancy, they have been elevated above the natural order, they have fallen back to its level, and not seldom below it. If they can be saved in their heresy, or apostasy, the divine plan, as we have learned it, is false and delusive.
St. George.
July 27.
SPAIN was honored by the martyrdom of many Christians under the Moors, in the ninth century. Among these was Aurelius, who was born in Corduba, of an opulent and noble family. His father was a Mahomedan, and his mother a Christian; but having been left an orphan very young, he was reared by his aunt in the Christian religion. The Mahomedan books which the Moors made him read served only to convince him of the falsity of their sect, and to make him more enamoured of the religion of Jesus Christ. Urged by his relatives to marry, he espoused Natalia, a Christian virgin, remark able for her piety.
...
All the misfortunes of unbelievers spring from too great an attachment to the things of this life. This sickness of heart weakens and darkens the understanding, and leads many to eternal ruin. If they would try to heal their hearts by purging them of their vices, they would soon receive light, which would show them the necessity of joining the Catholic Church, where alone is salvation. My dear Catholics, let us thank the Divine goodness, who, among so many infidels and heretics, has given us the grace to be born and live in the bosom of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and let us take heed and not be ungrateful for so great a benefit. Let us take care and correspond to the Divine grace, for if we should be lost (which God forbid), this very benefit of grace conferred on us would be one of our greatest torments in hell.
"Brothers, you must know that the most ancient belief is the Law of God, and that we all bear it written in our hearts; that it can be learned without any teacher, and that it suffices to have the light of reason in order to know all the precepts of that Law. That is why even the barbarians hid when they committed sin, because they knew they were doing wrong; and they are damned for not having observed the natural law written in their heart: for had they observed it, God would have made a miracle rather than let them be damned; He would have sent them someone to teach them and would have given them other aids, of which they made themselves unworthy by not living in conformity with the inspirations of their own conscience, which never failed to warn them of the good they should do and the evil they should avoid. So it is their conscience that accused them at the Tribunal of God, and it tells them constantly in hell, "Thy damnation comes from thee." They do not know what to answer and are obliged to confess that they are deserving of their fate.
Now if these infidels have no excuse, will there be any for a Catholic who had so many sacraments, so many sermons, so many aids at his disposal? How will he dare to say, "If God was going to damn me, then why did He create me?" How will he dare to speak in this manner, when God gives him so many aids to be saved? So let us finish confounding him.
You who are suffering in the abyss, answer me! Are there any Catholics among you? "There certainly are!" How many? Let one of them come here! "That is impossible, they are too far down, and to have them come up would turn all of hell upside down; it would be easier to stop one of them as he is falling in." So then, I am speaking to you who live in the habit of mortal sin, in hatred, in the mire of the vice of impurity, and who are getting closer to hell each day. Stop, and turn around; it is Jesus who calls you and who, with His wounds, as with so many eloquent voices, cries to you, "My son, if you are damned, you have only yourself to blame: Thy damnation comes from thee.' Lift up your eyes and see all the graces with which I have enriched you to insure your eternal salvation. I could have had you born in a forest in Barbary; that is what I did to many others, but I had you born in the Catholic Faith; I had you raised by such a good father, such an excellent mother, with the purest instructions and teachings. If you are damned in spite of that, whose fault will it be? Your own, My son, your own: "Thy damnation comes from thee.'
The Curé of Ars had an interview one day with a rich Protestant. The servant of God did not know that he had the misfortune to belong to a sect, and spoke to him, as he was accustomed to do, of our Lord and the saints with the warmest effusion, ending by putting a medal into his hand. The other said, on receiving it: "M. le Curé, you are giving a medal to a heretic — at least, I am a heretic only from your point of view. Notwithstanding the difference of our belief, I hope we shall both be one day in heaven."
The good Curé took his hand, and fixing on him his eyes, which expressed his lively faith and his burning charity, he said, in a tone of deep compassion and tenderness: "Alas, my friend, we shall be united above only inasmuch as we have begun to be so upon earth; death will make no change. Where the tree falls, there it lies."
"M. le Curé, I trust in Christ, who said, 'He who believeth in Me shall have eternal life.'"
"Ah! my friend, our Lord also said other things. He said that whoever would not listen to the Church should be regarded as a heathen. He said that there was to be but one flock and one shepherd, and He appointed St. Peter to be the head of that flock." Then, speaking in a more gentle and insinuating voice, "My friend, there are not two ways of serving our Lord — there is only one good way; and it is to serve Him as He wishes to be served." Thereupon the good Curé disappeared, leaving that man penetrated with a salutary uneasiness, the forerunner of divine grace, by which he was afterwards happily overcome.
Blessed Caius of Korea (1571-1624) is the 128th of the 205 martyrs of Japan[1] that Pope Pius IX beatified in 1867, after he had canonized 26 martyrs of Japan in 1862. A 19th century French Catholic missionary, Charles Dallet, wrote of him: "His history proves, in a striking way, that God would rather make a miracle than to abandon an infidel who follows the lights of his conscience, and seeks the truth with an upright and docile heart."[2]
Contents[hide] |
Caius was born in Korea and was given to a Buddhist monastery by his parents. He left the monastery because he could not find the peace that he wanted there. He went into a mountain to live as a hermit, and found a cave of a tiger, which he lived with. The tiger did not harm Caius, and later went away to find another dwelling.[3] Caius exerted himself all kinds of mortification; he only ate what was necessary to preserve his life.[4] One night, while in meditation, a man of majestic aspect appeared to him[5], and said to him:
"Take courage; within one year you will traverse the sea, and, after much work and fatigue, you will obtain the object of your desire."
The same year, in 1592, Japan invaded Korea, and Caius was made a prisoner.[6] While going to Japan, they suffered a shipwreck at Tsushima island,[7] and Caius escaped to the shore. Allured by the austere life of the Buddhist monks, he thought he found what he sought for many years, and withdrew himself in one of the most famous pagodas of Kyoto. It didn't take long until he felt that he could not find the peace that he wanted there. This caused him a so great sorrow that he became ill. During his illness, it seemed to him that he saw the pagoda all on fire, then a child of a charming beauty appeared to him and comforted him[8], saying,
"Fear no more, you are close to obtaining the happiness you desire."
He found himself cured of his illness after the dream[9] and left the temple and went back to his master, who introduced him to a Christian, who in turn introduced him to the Jesuit priests. He was converted and received baptism immediately. While he was instructed, one of the Fathers showed him a tableau representing Our Lord, at which Caius exclaimed[10],
"Oh! Voila! Here is who appeared to me in my cave, and who foretold all that happened to me."
He served the sick, especially the leprous.[11] In 1614, he went to the Philippines with a general of an army of Japan who was exiled for the faith, in order to work as a servant for the general. After the death of the general, he went back to Japan, and began again his functions of catechist. He was a great help to the missionaries by preaching in his native language to the Koreans who were brought to Japan after the war.[12] In November 15th, 1624, he was burned at the stake with James Coici, a Japanese Catholic.[13][14]
"Caius the Korean could have stayed in Japan, but he volunteered to be banished with the feudal lord to work as his servant. Born in Korea at 1571, his adopted parents gave him to a temple. While living as a Buddhist monk and then a hermit in a cave, in 1592 he was made a captive and brought to Kyoto. His master was a compassionate person, allowing Caius enter a temple of Kyoto. But in here Caius could not find peace of soul and consequently fell into distress and became ill. Caius went back to his master, was introduced to a Christian and was baptized at the Church of Kyoto. Afterwards he worked as an exemplary novice brother at the Society of Jesus. He preached not only to the Japanese, but also to the many Koreans--who are here by the war that ended three years ago--in his native language, which was a great blessing for us." 이 조선인 가이오는 일본에 머물 수도 있었지만 스스로 자진하여 영주의 봉사자로 추방되는 길을 택하였다」. 이어 「가이오는 1571년에 조선에서 태어났는데 양친은 그를 사원에 바쳤다. 불승으로서, 은둔자로서 동굴생활을 하고 있던 중, 1592년 포로가 되어 교토에 끌려왔다. 그의 주인은 애정 깊은 사람이어서 교토의 어느 사원에 들어갈 수 있게 하였다. 그러나 그는 여기서도 결코 영혼의 안식을 얻을 수가 없어 고뇌에 빠져 병에 걸렸다. 가이오는 다시 전 주인을 찾아가 기리시탄을 소개받아 교토의 교회에서 세례를 받았다. 그 후 예비수사로 예수회 수도원에서 생활의 모범을 보였다. 일본인 뿐 아니라 3년 전에 끝난 전쟁으로 많은 조선인이 있어 그들에게 자국말로 설교를 하여 우리들로써는 큰 행복이었다」라고 말하고 있다. 가이오는 예수회의 전도사로서의 일을 오사카에서 시작하여 사카이와 가나자와에서 봉사하다가 추방의 무리에 합세하였다. 그 후 가이오는 다시 일본에 잠입하여 순교하게 된다. http://www.catholictimes.org/news/news_view.cath?seq=27387
St. Alphonsus Liguori, Victories of the Martyrs (1954) pg. 393-395
I REFRAIN from speaking of those martyrs whose combats resemble one another too much, so that the narrative may not become irksome to the reader. I cannot, however, pass over in silence those whose history contains certain particular circumstances. Such is the martyrdom of James Coici and of Caius, both having been burnt for the faith at Omura in 1625 [1624].
James was arrested for having lodged a missionary. Caius, on learning that James, his friend, was in prison, went thither to speak to him; and as the guards opposed his entrance, he opened a passage for himself by main force. In punishment for this insolence he was held a prisoner, and the lieutenant of the governor had him punished so severely that his face was black and blue. The lieutenant then told him that he could not save him from the chastisement that he merited unless he would promise to teach no more the Christian doctrine, as he had been in the habit of doing. Caius pleaded in excuse that he had consecrated his life to the instruction of his neighbor. The lieutenant nevertheless, as he took a liking to him, wished to set him at liberty; but Caius said to him while leaving the prison: " Do not think that I shall stop coming here; I will come to serve the prisoners, cost what it may." At these words the lieutenant changed his mind, and ordered him to be put in irons.
The governor having arrived at Omura from Nangasaki, ordered Caius to be brought before him; he promised that the past would be forgotten if he would bind himself no more to instruct the Christians. Caius again protested that it was a work of charity, which he could not give up. Thereupon the governor remanded him to prison, threatening that he would have him burnt alive. In fact, a short time afterwards he, with his friend James, was condemned to death by fire. They gayly walked to the place of execution, singing the litany of the saints. When they arrived, Caius broke away from the hands of his guards, and ran to embrace the stake that was destined for him; James in his turn did the same. They were then tied, and fire was set to the funeral pile, Caius knelt down in the middle of the flames, and while thanking God in a loud voice for having found him worthy to die as he had desired, he expired. James was also kneeling in the middle of the fire; when his cords had been consumed he arose as if he wished to speak to those present, but as his strength failed him he again knelt down, and died while invoking Jesus and Mary.
I must relate here the conversion of Caius. He was a native of Corea. Although brought up in paganism, he conceived so ardent a desire for the salvation of his soul that he retired into the woods so as better to think of the means to attain it.
Corea having fallen into the hands of the Japanese, our young solitary was made a slave and transported to Japan, where he begin to examine what sect of bonzes he should embrace. In the mean time he retired to their principal house at Meaco. One day during sleep it seemed to him that the house was on fire: a little while afterwards a young child of ravishing beauty appeared to him, and announced to him that he would soon meet what he desired; at the same time he felt himself quite well, though he had been sick. Desparing of seeing among the bonzes the light for which he was longing, he resolved to leave them. Scarcely had he left the house when he met a Christian, to whom he made known his mental troubles. The Christian having explained to him some truths of our faith, he was filled with admiration, and went to the house of the missionaries to become more thoroughly instructed. After receiving baptism Caius consecrated himself unreservedly to the service of GOD and to the instruction of the idolaters, and martyrdom put him in possession of the sovereign happiness which he was seeking."
Dallet, Charles. Histoire de l'Église de Corée 1874. p. 6
"The young Korean Caius was burned at the stake at Nangasaki. His history proves, in a striking way, that God would rather make a miracle than to abandon an infidel who follows the lights of his conscience, and seeks the truth with an upright and docile heart. Born some time before the invasion of the Japanese, he as a youth had an extreme desire to arrive at the true happiness, i.e. with a happiness which did not have an end. He withdrew into solitude to meditate with more ease on this happiness which he sought. He had as a dwelling only a cave, which he shared with a tiger, which occupied it before him. This wild animal respected its guest; it even yielded the cave to him some time after, and withdrew elsewhere.
The young recluse in the single view of preserving his innocence, exerted all kinds of mortifications; he abstained from all that was not absolutely necessary to life. One night in which he was in meditation, a man of majestic aspect appeared to him, and said to him:
"Take courage; within one year you will pass the sea, and, after many work and fatigues, you will obtain the object of your desire."
This same year, the Japanese entered Korea, and the young recluse was made a prisoner. The vessel which transported him to Japan having been shipwrecked close to the Tsushima island, Caius escaped to the shore; those who led the vessel probably perished in the floods. At all events, he recovered his freedom. Allured by the austere life of the bonzes, he believed to have found what he sought since so many years, and withdrew himself in one of the most famous pagodas of Kyoto.
But it didn't take a long time for him to realize his error; these idolatrous monks were certainly something less than perfect men. This mistake caused him a so great sorrow that he fell sick from there. During his illness, it seemed to him to see the pagoda all on fire, then a child of a charming beauty appeared to him and comforted him:
"Fear no more", he told him, "you are close to obtaining the happiness you desire."
He was not yet cured when he abandoned the Buddhist monastery. The very same day, he met a Christian with whom he told his sorrows and his adventures; this one brought him at once to the college of Jesuits, where one informed him of the mysteries of the religion. As his heart was already prepared to receive the divine inspiration, he believed without hesitating, tasted without sorrow holy morality of the Gospel, and asked for baptism immediately. They did not think it fit to subject him to a longer test, and the grace of the sacrament produced in a soul laid out so well of the admirable effects. While he was instructed, one of the Fathers showed him a tableau representing Our Lord:
"Oh! here, he exclaimed, here is who appeared to me in my cave, and who predicted all that happened to me"
He was put to the missionaries and was devoted to the care of the patients, especially the leprous ones. There is no virtue in which this predestined soul has not set an example: mortifications almost excessive, charity for the unhappy ones, eager care for the missionaries, whose works and dangers he shared, zeal for the salvation of souls, etc... Nothing was above his powers when needed to testify for the recognition of a God who had conferred on him so many graces, even before he could know and appreciate His gifts. In 1614, he followed to the Philippines, Ukandono, a general of the armies of Japan, who was exiled for the faith. After the death of this great man, he went back to Japan, and took again his functions of catechist.
Persecution taking everyday a more alarming character, he believed himself obligated to redouble his fervor; he multiplied his austerities and his prayers. God rewarded him so much for his virtues by a glorious martyrdom. The neophyte having gone one day, according to his habit, to visit the confessors of the faith, declared himself Christian and catechist; he was stopped at once and led in the prisons of Nangasaki, where he had to suffer much. He submitted with admirable constancy."
"...le jeune Coréen Caïo fut brûlé vif à Nangasaki. Son histoire prouve, d'une manière éclatante, que Dieu ferait un miracle plutôt que d'abandonner un infidèle qui suit les lumières de sa conscience, et cherche la vérité d'un cœur droit et docile. Né quelque temps avant l'invasion japonaise, il éprouva dès son jeune âge un désir extrême de parvenir au vrai bonheur, c'est-à-dire à un bonheur qui n'eût point de fin. Il se retira dans une solitude pour méditer plus à son aise sur cette félicité qu'il cherchait. Il n'avait pour habitation qu'une caverne, qu'il partageait avec un tigre qui l'occupait avant lui. Ce féroce animal respecta son hôte ; il lui céda même la caverne quelque temps après, et se retira ailleurs. Le jeune solitaire dans l'unique vue de conserver son innocence, s'exerçait à toutes sortes de mortifications ; il s'abstenait de tout ce qui n'était pas absolument nécessaire à la vie.
Une nuit qu'il était en méditation, un homme d'aspect majestueux lui apparut, et lui dit :
« Prends courage; dans un an tu passeras la mer, et, après bien des travaux et des fatigues, tu obtiendras l'objet de tes désirs. »
Cette même année, les Japonais entrèrent en Corée, et le jeune solitaire fut fait prisonnier. Le vaisseau qui le transportait au Japon ayant fait naufrage près de l'île Tsoutsima, Caïo se sauva à la côte ; ceux qui le conduisaient périrent probablement dans les flots. Quoi qu'il en soit, il recouvra sa liberté.
Séduit par la vie austère des bonzes, il crut avoir trouvé ce qu'il cherchait depuis tant d'années, et se retira dans une des plus célèbres pagodes de Méaco. Mais il ne fut pas longtemps san s'apercevoir de son erreur ; ces religieux idolâtres n'étaient rien moins que des hommes parfaits. Cette méprise lui causa un si grand chagrin qu'il en tomba malade. Pendant sa maladie, il lui sembla voir la pagode tout en feu, puis un enfant d'une beauté ravissante lui apparut et le
consola :
« Ne crains pas, lui dit-il, tu es à la veille d'obtenir ce bonheur tant désiré. »
Il n'était pas encore guéri, qu'il abandonna la bonzerie. Le jour même, il rencontra un chrétien à qui il raconta ses peines et ses aventures; celui-ci l'amena sur-le-champ au collége des Jésuites, où on l'instruisit des mystères de la relion. Comme son cœur était déjà préparé à recevoir la divine menée, il crut sans hésiter, goûta sans peine la sainte morale l'Évangile, et demanda aussitôt le baptême. On ne pensa pas levoir le soumettre à une plus longue épreuve, et la grâce du sacrement produisit dans une âme si bien disposée des effets admirables.
Pendant qu'on l'instruisait, un des Pères lui montra
un tableau représentant Nôtre-Seigneur:
« Oh ! voilà, s'écria-t-il, voilà celui qui m'a apparu dans ma caverne, et qui m'a prédit tout ce qui m'est arrivé. »
Il se mit à la suite des missionnaires el se consacra au soin des malades, surtout des lépreux. Il n'est point de vertu dont cette âme prédestinée n'ait donné l'exemple : mortifications presque excessives, charité pour les malheureux, soins empressés pour les missionnaires, dont il partageait les travaux etles dangers, zèle pour le salut des âmes, etc... Rien n'était au-dessus de ses forces, lorsqu'il fallait témoigner de la reconnaissance pour un Dieu qui l'avait prévenu de tant de grâces, avant même qu'il pût connaître et apprécier ses dons. En 1614, il suivit aux Philippines, Ukandono, général des armées du Japon, qui était exilé pour la foi. Après la mort de ce grand homme, il retourna au Japon, et reprit ses fonctions de catéchiste. La persécution prenant tous les jours un caractère plus effrayant, il se crut obligé de redoubler de ferveur; il multiplia ses austérités et ses oraisons. Dieu récompensa tant de vertus par un glorieux martyre. Le néophyte étant allé un jour, selon sa coutume, visiter les confesseurs de la foi, se déclara lui-même chrétien et catéchiste ; il fut arrêté sur-le-champ et conduit dans les prisons de Nangasaki, où il eut beaucoup à souffrir. On le condamna à être brûlé à petit feu, supplice horrible, qu'il subit avec une constance admirable."
