Joseph Vaz apostle of Sri Lanka:

Catholicism was under siege!

The beatification of Fr. Joseph Vaz - the Apostle of Sri Lanka on January 21, 1995, by His Holiness Pope John Paul II at Colombo's Ocean front Galle Face Green, Sri Lanka, is a glowing tribute to the Church of Asia.

In the seventeenth century when the island of Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon and its capital was Kandy (not Colombo, as today), Dutch settlers arrived there. They were staunch Calvinists and did their utmost to extinguish the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka.

All European Catholic missionaries were expelled, all Portuguese forts destroyed. Churches were desecrated.

Tough laws were decreed against Catholics who were compelled to send their children to Dutch Calvinist schools to save their homes from ruin.

The Holy Spirit stirred the heart of a young priest of Goa, Fr. Joseph Vaz, to leave India and enter Sri Lanka at the risk of his life. The strong presence of the Catholic Church in this island today owes its gratitude to this Apostle of Sri Lanka.

A true Sanyasi

Joseph Vaz was born on April 21, 1651, the third child of Christopher Vaz and Maria de Miranda, under whose care Joseph grew up in the love of God. His father's house was at Sancoale, a picturesque village not far from the estuary of the River Zuari, with its fringe of palm trees, as in so much of beautiful Goa, silhouetted against the sky much like the delicate lace of a lady's petticoat.

It was to her mother's house at Benaulim, in the Province of Salcette, that Maria went for her confinement. At an early age, he started looking after the poor and backward children in the village so as to merit the title of 'my little saint' from his mother.

Persecution of Catholics in Sri Lanka

It was around this time that he learnt of the plight of the Catholics in Sri Lanka. This Church, traces of which go back to the 6th century AD, took roots towards the beginning of the 16th century, thanks to the evangelising work of Portuguese missionaries.

When the Calvinist Dutch began to assert their power over Sri Lanka in their campaign to oust the Portuguese they tried every means to destroy Catholicism in the island. The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka was decimated. Churches, colleges and schools were razed to the ground or changed to Calvinist centres of cult or education. Priests were expelled, when not put to death.

Joseph approached his Superiors for permission to go to Sri Lanka to the rescue of the Catholics there. His request was turned down, and, instead he was sent as Vicar Forane to Kanara. During the time there was a jurisdictional dispute between the Archbishop of Goa and the Vicar Apostolic of Bijapur in Kanara. Joseph was used as a pawn in this unholy ecclesiastical power game.

On fire for the faith

On September 25, 1685 Joseph Vaz joined a community of priests at the Church of the Holy Cross of Miracles who were seeking to live an ascetical life. He helped them to adopt the Rule of the Oratorians founded by St. Philip Neri. He was elected superior and became the founder of the Institute of the Oratory in India.

Fr. Joseph Vaz could not make his intention of going to Sri Lanka public, as he would be a ready target for the Dutch bullet. He obtained his permission and the approval of the Archbishop of Goa. He then took with him the two latest members of the Community, Fr. Paul de Souza and Bro. Stephen Sequeira and also a faithful family servant, Joao (or John) Vaz from Sancoale.

The four of them set out on foot in March 1686, Joseph Vaz as usual on barefoot, on the long trek southwards through Kanara and Malabar (Kerala), onward to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as it was then called. En route he revisited and ministered unto the Catholic he had earlier brought back to the faith.

In January 1687, full nine months later, he reached Tellicherry. There for the first time he disclosed to his two companions his real intention of travelling further southwards into Dutch territory. It was not surprising that the two remained behind on some pretext, abandoning him and the young Joao (a Goan gawda boy) to go on ahead 'into the jaws of death'.

Fr. Joseph Vaz and Joao decided to disguise themselves as coolies (porters) and enter Sri Lanka, which was the stronghold of the Dutch. But in Tuticorin he was persuaded to take part in Holy Week services.

His identity as a Catholic priest was disclosed. When the Dutch Officer at Tuticorin heard that a priest disguised as a coolie was probably trying to enter Sri Lanka, he put out a red alert. Joseph Vaz was in deep distress.

To his relief, quite unexpectedly, only three days later, the Dutch Officer took ill and died. His successor not knowing the reason for his predecessor's order had no hesitation in granting passage to two poor labourers who had applied for permission to sail to Sri Lanka to earn an honest living there. They smuggled in sacred vessels for Mass and an altar stone.

On December 25, 1689, the 'Christian' High Commissioner of Jaffna, Hendrick Adriann van Rheede, had the Catholics of Jaffna and other places paraded before him. While he let off the already degraded women and their children with a warning. Eight men were kept back for "refined treatment".

One of them, Don Pedro who was a lapsed Catholic turned heretic, but who had returned to the faith of his fathers inspired by the apostolic zeal of Fr. Joseph Vaz, was singled out for exemplary treatment.

He was severely scourged in the very presence of the High Commissioner. Two days later he succumbed to his wounds, the first Catholic of the new fledgling Church of Sri Lanka to lay down his life for his faith. Imprisoned for life, flogged and ill-treaded in every atrocious way four of them died before the end of the year (1689) and the rest shortly afterwards.

Kandy was the capital of the Sinhalese Kings since the seventeenth century. When de la Nerolle, who was violently anti-Catholic, heard that a Catholic priest was at Veuda, he went slyly to King Vimaladharma's palace and alarmed the King by telling him that a Portuguese spy had entered the kingdom in the guise of a Catholic priest. The King ordered his men to bring the priest, his host Antonio, and Joao to him bound in chains. For five days, Joseph, Joao and Antonio were subject to the harshest form of imprisonment.

The King had a watch placed on the behaviour of the trio. Antonio was soon released because of his influential friends. The priest seemed a harmless enough ascetic while his companion was truly just a devoted and reverential servant of the holy man.

The King convinced that Joseph was no spy permitted him and Joao to quit their prison, but on no account to move out of the city of Kandy. He got people to build a simple Church with a thatched roof which he dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Joseph Vaz was concerned about the Catholics outside the town on the other side of the river which he was forbidden to cross. But soon he had already crossed the river eight times to assist the sick and the dying.

The impious de la Nerolle could not stomach the return to the Faith of those whom he had converted to his heresy. He incited the Buddhist monks to hostility against the Catholics.

Joseph, Elijah of Old

There was at this time a long continued drought in Kandy. Not only was the earth parched and thirsting for rain, there would be no rice crop.

This would bring about a terrible catastrophe. The usual superstitious practices for rain-making produced no results; the prayers and chanting of monks, proved sterile. An anxiety-ridden monarch, Vimaladharma Surya, recalling the holiness of the Indian Christian ascetic conceived the idea of testing Joseph's power of intercession.

He asked Joseph Vaz to pray for rain. Like Elijah of old, Joseph set about raising an altar in the public square facing the palace, placed a cross upon it and humbly but fervently called upon the Father to have pity upon His children-all His children! Rain drops fell, first gently, then thick in abundance all around him on the whole country side but the Altar and his person were completely dry!

Did this actually happen or was it a legend which grew in the telling? It doesn't matter. What did happen as a consequence of this extraordinary incident, which could have passed into folklore, was no legend. This incident proved to be the "greatest and the most striking turning point in the career of Fr. Joseph Vaz.