To this residence are annexed, besides other charges, the care of two great and populous districts, which give surest proof of their virtue by clean morals and by obedience. We are informed by letters that, at the feast of the Nativity, in one of them eight hundred infidels pledged themselves to the Christian faith; and that the believers do not yield to España in frequenting the sacraments of confession and communion.
There was found in one little village an old man leading the life practically of a hermit; and when our father asked him about his manner of life, he answered so wisely that the father was greatly surprised. Among other things he said that though his bodily life was passed on earth, yet his soul lived in heaven. He had no dreams at night except about the other life, and he was accustomed to see the blessed surrounded with great splendor, and one among them who excelled them all. And when the father gave him a picture of the Last Judgment to look at, in which was expressed the glory of paradise, he asked him if his dreams agreed with this picture of the blessed life. The wonderful old man answered: "Should I see nothing but this, my father? Much more! much more!" The father was amazed to find such a treasure of spiritual riches laid up in this man; for he afterward said that his meditation and the occupation of his mind would be of nothing else than of Jesus and Mary, until he had exchanged this life for the eternal one.
Two of Ours, happening to enter a wretched rustic hut, found a man more than eighty years old lying upon some reeds. He was deprived of all his senses and his whole body was so worn out that the skin scarcely adhered to his bones—a living image of death. Our fathers pitied the man, and prayed to God for him that He would not deny His compassion to this most pitiable of men. Soon after, the dying man revived, and with great joy received baptism. As soon as he had received it he was again deprived of his senses, and, gently calling on the names of Jesus and Mary, he rendered up his soul to God.
Information was brought that there was a man lying grievously ill in the most distant part of the district. Although we were not a little deterred from the journey by the darkness of night and the great number of serpents, as well as by the necessity of crossing a river full of crocodiles; yet we did not regard all these things as of so much consequence as the value of a single soul redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. One of the fathers, therefore, went thither, and with a medicine healed the sick man in the name of Jesus. On the father's return, something more extraordinary happened to him. He came upon a sick woman, who, although she did not seem to be dangerously ill, yet departed to the better life as soon as she had received baptism. As two of Ours were making their way over a sandy soil at noon, under the dreadful heat of the burning sun, being without any food or drink, they laid this their affliction before the Lord God; and behold! suddenly, at this most unusual time, there was a man sitting on the ground, who showed himself most kind and courteous. He ungrudgingly offered to the hungry and thirsty men fresh fruit from his basket. When they accepted it readily, he not only took great pleasure in that, but also urged them, with a certain strange earnestness, to feed upon it as if it were their own. Strengthened with this little meal they went on, which they could hardly have done otherwise, and offered great thanks to God that He had come to their assistance in their extremity. Afterward, when they had considered all the circumstances of the fact, and of the place in which the man was found with the fruit, and had reflected that no Indian was in the habit of going on a journey alone in the heat of the day, and again that, although they were unknown to him, he had shared the fruit with them so kindly and generously, they came directly to the conclusion that he was an angel of God. At least it was a proof of the singular providence of God; and it is well worthy of belief, that God in this manner had been willing to show His bounty to them, inasmuch as the said two fathers had exercised their ministry with great spiritual fruit in that place from which they had set out on that day.
Residence of Alangala
In this residence four priests and three brethren give their energy to cultivating the vineyard of the Lord. They go afoot through the rivers, the pools, and the marshes, the water often reaching to their navels, and the sun burning above them. But since their labor is wrought through the love of God, He, in His unmeasured kindness, never deprives them of His solace in the utmost perils. They write that, from the end of last year up to the present time, more than fourteen hundred have received the sacred washing of regeneration. They give diligent attention to the divine offices, which are celebrated in this residence with greater magnificence than elsewhere, on account of the convenience of three Indian chapels, which far surpass the Spanish. They follow the practice of singing Salve Regina, in honor of our Lady the Virgin; and, throughout Lent, of singing the psalm Miserere to accompany the discipline.
Several missions have been established in various places, with manifold increase of baptisms and other spiritual fruits. I will give an account of some. While a father was living in one little district, an Indian, crippled in both hands and feet, made his way straight to the father by boat, and that alone, to the astonishment of all—God and his guardian angel doubtless impelling the boat. He begged the father for baptism, and declared that the author of his request had been a certain Spaniard who had told him that all those who did not accept the Christian law would be carried off to hell.
The greatest results have been obtained from the schools, for the pupils have each of them become teachers in the paternal homes of all the domestics; and by the good example of their lives they incite others to accept the true doctrine. A boy, a cantor in church, being solicited by a Spaniard to perpetrate a foul deed, answered: "Sir, I know well by what remedy you should drive away that temptation of yours. Let us recite together a rosary in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, and instantly all these wicked thoughts will vanish in smoke." Thus by the newly converted Christian he was instructed who ought rightly to have been the teacher and master of others.
In the island Leita there were counted last year above five hundred and twenty-nine thousand souls; and they have the instruction of our priests only, who are six in number. By their hands the most holy waters of baptism have, in the course of a year, in this and other islands, been sprinkled upon at least ten thousand nine hundred heads. And this, in brief, is the harvest of this vice-province.
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