“The violent take it by force”: The Little Brothers of St. John the Baptist

Fr. Vincent Lebbe (center) with the Little Brothers of St. John the Baptist

Father Vincent Lebbe

The cradle of one of the Catholic Church’s most austere religious communities stood in Northern China. Its founder Father Vincent Lebbe (1877–1940), a Vincentian missionary from Belgium with a deep love for China and the Chinese, envisioned a monastic foundation that was “truly Chinese”. This vision gave birth to the Little Brothers of St. John the Baptist, whose charism reflects both his ideal of a native Chinese Church and of a monastic order that followed the spirit of the Beatitudes.

As a great advocate of a native Chinese hierarchy at the beginning of the 20^th century, Fr. Lebbe championed the consecration of the first six Chinese bishops in almost 300 years. He also had a deep appreciation for Benedictine monasticism, which developed through visits and letters to the famous abbey of Maredsous, where his brother Adrien had entered religion as Dom Bède. In one of his letters from 1906, Fr. Vincent outlined that any Benedictines coming to China should be “monastic apostles” who worked above all in education and were at the same time deeply embedded in Chinese society. In the early 1920s, he encouraged Fr. Jehan Joliet, O.S.B. of St. Andrew’s Abbey in Bruges to found an inculturated Benedictine monastery dedicated to study in Xishan.

Fr. Lebbe with Bishops Melchior Sun Dezhen 孫德楨 and Zhao Huaiyi 趙懷義.

The final impetus for making a foundation of his own came when Fr. Lebbe visited the Apostolic Prefecture of Lixian in southeastern China along with Bishop Melchior Sun Dezhen, C.M. at the end of 1927. Local priests told him about the difficulties of finding “educated and virtuous” teachers while at the same time not overburdening the mission financially. Fr. Lebbe suggested the foundation of a religious community which would fulfill for free the services hitherto provided by salaried auxiliary personnel. Bishop Sun approved of this idea, and so the Monastery of the Beatitudes was born. Lebbe wrote: “The society to be founded by Bishop Sun would appeal to every adult celibate who desires to render service to the church under the protection of holy vows and community life. (…) Every skill can be used; everyone would be admitted. (…) One essential point: they would form a lay congregation, and all would be absolutely equal. They would have only one community house for the entire prefecture and would return to it whenever their work would not summon them outside”. The community did not remain a lay foundation for long as clerics asked to be admitted as well, but radical equality was maintained nonetheless. No priest was to be served by lay brothers and the hierarchy within the monastic family was based strictly on seniority, not on belonging to the clerical or lay state.

An austere foundation

Soon, six aspiring monks presented themselves to Fr. Lebbe, under the condition that their rule of life be austere. Most of them had desired to enter the Trappist Order at Our Lady of Consolation Abbey, so their idea of the religious life matched the new foundation well. On 16 December 1928 Bishop Sun blessed the Monastery of the Beatitudes in Anguo, situated in his Apostolic Vicariate in northern China. The habit worn by the novices consisted of a grey robe of coarse material, a leather belt and the traditional black Benedictine scapular on which a small cross was embroidered. The furnishing of the religious house breathed the spirit of evangelical poverty and matched the order’s later rule which stipulated that all superfluous adornments be avoided. The monastery buildings resembled “the houses of the farmers around them; the roofs are flat and the walls made of bricks (…) Even during the harshest winter cold there is no heating, for economy’s sake.” The monks’ diet consisted strictly of cereals, vegetables and fruits, excluding all animal products, and thus their table was arguably even more austere than that of the rural communities surrounding them, whose farmers rarely ever ate meat. This life of abnegation is reflected in the order’s motto “the violent take it by force”, referencing Christ’s words in the Gospel of Matthew regarding St. John the Baptist and all those who are striving for the kingdom of Heaven. The monks were to sustain themselves by agricultural work, crafts and lending a helping hand to their neighbors.

A Little Brother carrying vegetables

Just as they followed their patron saint in his mortifications, the Little Brothers of St. John the Baptist also imitated him by announcing Christ to the people through their catechetical work. The monks were to be “Carthusians in the house, apostles outside”, sanctifying themselves at their monastery so they could fruitfully announce the Gospel, as teachers in schools, as catechists, in the ministry among prisoners or in the services of Catholic Action.

Little Brothers pronouncing their vows

The Divine Office in Chinese

Following his Benedictine influence, Fr. Lebbe wanted the opus Dei to be “above all else”. To make the Liturgy of the Hours more accessible to his Chinese religious, he started by translating the little Office of Our Lady and the Office of the Dead into Chinese (recordings can be found here). Parts of the texts were taken from the Chinese Missal authorized by Paul V in the 17^th century, but which had never been used in practice. His death in 1940 prevented him from sinicizing the entire Divine Office, yet Lebbe had still put together a choir book of seven hundred pages containing the Offices for the principal feasts of the year. It was masterfully bound and decorated with Chinese-style miniatures, a product of the monastery’s print shop.

The Ave maris stella in Chinese written by Fr. Lebbe

The Little Brothers in the crucible of war and persecution

By 1933 the community numbered 110 members and the first daughter houses were founded in other vicariates. That same year Fr. Lebbe left the Vincentians with the approval of his superiors and officially became a professed member of the Little Brothers. Rome had been watching the developments in China and encouraged Fr. Lebbe and his disciples in their efforts.

When Japan invaded Northern China in 1937, Fr. Lebbe appealed to the patriotic spirit of his religious to help their people as medics at the front. The brothers soon became very popular with wounded soldiers and maintained their monastic life even in the turmoil of the battlefields, observing all rules, praying the Divine Office and keeping the silence as strictly as any Trappist would. Twelve little brothers were killed by Communists in early 1940, while another monk was beheaded by the Japanese at the monastery in Anguo. Fr. Vincent himself was captured by Communists in 1940 and subjected to weeks of torture. He was released on 13 April and died on 24 June of the same year, the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

Fr. Lebbe on his death bed with Bishop Paul Yu Bin leading the prayers

When World War II transitioned into the Chinese Civil War, the brothers had to leave their motherhouse in Anguo and move to the Monastery of the Beatitudes in Peking. The Chinese priest Alexander Cao became “Brother Servant”, the superior of the Little Brothers. The motherhouse was moved south to Hong Kong, where 13 brothers ministered to the many refugees fleeing the mainland. According to Alexander Cao, there were still over 50 religious behind “the bamboo curtain” in 1956, persecuted and in several instances killed by the Communists. These Little Brothers followed in the footsteps of the Chinese martyrs, the secondary patrons of their order. Like many other Catholic orders, the Little Brothers moved to Taiwan, establishing their motherhouse in Taichung in 1954. The Little Brothers are currently present in Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and America.

If you would like to take a deeper dive into the history of this fascinating order, I warmly recommend Christian Monks on Chinese Soil by Matteo Nicolini-Zani. It was my main source for this article and contains a draft of the original rule as well as a chapter on the Little Sisters of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, the female counterpart of the Little Brothers, also founded by Fr. Lebbe.

(All pictures from Whitworth University)

Auch wir können Weihnachtsengel sein

 „Ich verkündige euch eine große Freude, die allem Volke zuteil werden soll“ (Lk 2, 10)

So schaut auf die Hirten. Sie sind schlicht, erstaunlich schlicht, einfacher als wir alle. Ohne Bildung, ohne Einfluss, ohne Beziehungen zur großen Welt, warten sie ihrer Herden. Und sie sind Weihnachtsengel geworden. Gott lobpreisend kehren sie zu ihren Herden zurück. Sie bleiben die alten. Es empfängt sie das Geschrei der Tiere, und sie begeben sich an ihr gewöhnliches Hirtenwerk. Und doch sind sie Weihnachtsengel geworden. Wenn irgendwo ein frommer Mensch ist, der nach Gott verlangt, dem erzählen sie die Engelsbotschaft. Und wenn sich die übrigen Israeliten erzählen von dem Messias, der bald kommen soll, dann lächeln sie, und ihr Antlitz wird verklärt, und sie sprechen mit großem Ernste: Er ist schon da!

(…) Ihr geht jetzt auch hinaus, liebe Christen, in eure Wohnungen, und bald heißt es wieder rüstig arbeiten. Ihr bleibt die alten. Und doch sollt ihr als Weihnachtsengel zum Gotteshaus hinaustreten. Denkt an die Nacht des Unglaubens, die sich draußen über dem Erdball ausbreitet. Betet für die armen Heiden. Opfert euer Scherflein. Weckt den Missionsgedanken in den Herzen der Mitmenschen. Sprechet von der großen Engelsbotschaft und begeistert die anderen für diese Botschaft. Dann strahlt es aus euren Augen, wie es den Weihnachtsengeln aus den Augen gestrahlt hat. Die Herrlichkeit Gottes umleuchtet euch; denn es ist ein Engelswerk, das ihr vollbringt. Engelslohn wird euch zuteil werden durch die Gnade des süßen Kindleins von Bethlehem.

P. Bernhard Langer O.M.I.

When Don Bosco named a Trappist monastery in China

 

Our Lady of Consolation monastery, Yangjiaping (early 1900s)

In 1880, the bishops of northern China met in a synod in which they expressed the desire to establish in China a Trappist monastery or that of another austere order, “so that authentic monastic life may be known in this region and at the same time the salvation of all may be advanced through the prayers and example of the religious”. Two years later, the Congregation of the Propaganda encouraged Bishop Delaplace, Vicar Apostolic of Peking, in his desire to invite the Trappists to his mission. These were the first steps in the foundation of the Trappist monastery of Yangjiaping, known under the title of Our Lady of Consolation.

How did the monastery receive its name? Dom Éphrem, prior of Tamié in Savoy and one of the founding monks of Yangjiaping, was friends with Saint John Bosco. Shortly before leaving for China in 1883, he met Don Bosco in Turin and asked him about a name for the Trappist’s first monastery in the Celestial Empire. The saint replied “Our Lady of Consolation” and wrote a message on a holy card of the image of the Consolata of Turin that read: “May God bless you, your work, and may the Holy Virgin always protect you!”

The picture with the saint’s encouragement was preserved until the Communists burned down the monastery, destroying the image. Thirty-three monks of the abbey died as martyrs in the Communist persecution.

(Source: Matteo Nicolini-Zani: Christian Monks on Chinese Soil)

Upcoming missionary trips of the Omnes Gentes Project

 I recently spoke to Fr. Federico Highton about the upcoming missionary trips of the Order of Saint Elias / Omnes Gentes Project. They are planning to translate the works of Fr. Ippolito Desideri, S.J., one of the first missionaries to Tibet. But they do not stop at the theoretical level: they have an introductory course of the Tibetan language offered by a former Buddhist monk to prepare volunteers for a trip to Tibet next year. And that's not all. Please especially keep the "Fatwa mission" in an undisclosed country in your prayers.

If you or anyone you know would like to participate in a missionary trip to Tibet or elsewhere in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, you can check out the schedule and apply here: Mission Special Force

Great articles on the missions at Unam Sanctam Catholicam

My friend Boniface over at Unam Sanctam Catholicam has a number of excellent articles on the missions on his Blog and website, all of them shedding light on lesser known episodes of missionary history. Here are some of my favorites:

Thanks for the homily, Father — about a rare homily on the missions by a missionary priest

The Manila Synod of 1582 — about the issues that an early synod in a missionary territory had to deal with

Archbishop Poblete’s Missionary Journey to Cavite — about the attempts of the Archbishop of Manila to end local slavery

The 1775 Burning of San Diego de Alcalá — about wayward converts attacking a mission founded by St. Junipero

Segregated Catholic Schools in New Orleans — about Black Catholic schools

The Martyrdom of Salvatore Lilli — about the martyrdom of Blessed Salvatore Lilli, O.F.M. at the hand of the Turks

Sung Catechism in the Jesuit missions  — about the catechetical use of song among the Indians

There's Always a Priest Shortage in Missionary Areas — on viri probati not being a solution to an age-old problem in the missions

In honor of Old Cow-Thomas

Naligen or Thomas, as he would be called after his baptism, was an Aborigine of the Nyulnyul people in Northwestern Australia. It seems he was born sometime in the 1860s near Beagle Bay. As a young man, Naligen was blackbirded on a guano ship off the Australian coast, getting to know white people in the worst possible way as he and his fellow natives were basically treated as slaves by the European crew.

Upon returning home after some months, he heard of other Europeans who settled in Beagle Bay. At first, he wanted to avoid them at any cost, but a friend told him they were laib wamba, good men who let the blacks live in freedom, treated them well and instructed them. They were the French Trappists of Beagle Bay. At first he did not have any desire for the white man's religion, but the example of the monks won him over, especially as he was told that God loved the Aborigines just as much as the Europeans. After his baptism, Thomas received the sacraments faithfully, despite still spending much time away from the mission hunting in the bush or scavenging the beaches. The Trappists had to leave in 1901 as their lifestyle wasn't compatible with the mission, but the employment Thomas had found on the mission as a handyman continued under the Pallottine Fathers from Germany. He took care of their cattle, for which he was affectionately nicknamed "Old Cow-Thomas".

Thomas died a victim of the Spanish Flu that arrived in remote Beagle Bay in December of 1919, making him one of many Aborigines who fell victim to the disease. Thomas welcomed death serenely, fortified by the holy sacraments, as he went to his Creator who loves the Aborigines just as much as the whites.

Did Canadian missionaries exterminate Indian languages?

In the wake of the Kamloops Residential school scandal of 2021 surrounding supposed mass graves on the premises of the Catholic school for Indian children in British Columbia, I wrote two Facebook posts on the topic of the alleged “cultural genocide”. I would like to offer them here as a commentary of a contemporary event whose sensationalist media coverage and Justin Trudeau's imprudent public comments led to multiple arson attacks on churches across Canada. To this day, no conclusive evidence of any mass graves in Kamloops has been presented.

Introduction to the Wawa shorthand developed by Fr. Lejeune, O.M.I.

Post from 4 July 2021:

“Here goes my take on Indian residential schools in Western Canada run by the Catholic Church, or rather one aspect, which is nonetheless important.

The media often repeat how residential schools run by the Canadian government and staffed by various Christian denominations prohibited the use of Native languages by students. It is hard to come up with any legislation or rules of individual institutes; rather all texts only seem to agree that “Indigenous languages were suppressed, sometimes violently”. If anything, such an approach by Catholic missionaries, especially the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.) was probably rather ill-advised pedagogics rather than a deliberate “cultural genocide”. Fr. Jean Lejeune, O.M.I., who was based in Kamloops, the center of the recent controversy, was one of the most important linguists of Western Canada. From 1894 to 1923, he published the multilingual newspaper “Kamloops Wawa” (Talk of Kamloops), which in addition to English and French, was written in Chinook Jargon using a French shorthand system and occasionally in Nlaka'pamuxtsin, Secwepmectsin and St'at'imcets. It contained religious texts such as liturgical translations as well as community news. Msgr. Émile Grouard, O.M.I. was another talented linguist who published several books in Cree, Chipewyan and the Beaver language, all of which he spoke. He also composed hymns in Inuktitut.

Venerable Vital Grandin, O.M.I. is now considered the disgraced architect of the Catholic residential school system and quoted as writing to Public Works Minister Henri Langevin: “To become civilized they should be taken with the consent of their parents & made to lead a life different from their parents and cause them to forget the customs, habits & language of their ancestors“. At the same time, this saintly missionary bishop admonished all young missionaries who thought they could perform their duties without knowing the Indian languages or without proper dedication to their study (see “Proclaiming the Gospel to the Indians and the Metis” by Raymond Huel). He also recommended that missionaries associate themselves with the children to learn the proper accent and intonation of their language (idem).

Bishop Vital Grandin

If indeed the use of Indian languages was absolutely banned at residential schools, it was wrong of the missionaries to do so. At the same time, it is hard to reconcile how those very missionaries who were the first Whites to systematically analyze Indian languages and put them into written form would deliberately engage in a “cultural genocide” after having dedicated themselves to such an arduous task. It becomes clear from the writings of Msgr. Grandin that he desired his students to find their place in the general Canadian society as tradespeople and housewives rather than following the nomadic lifestyle of their parents and ancestors, a lifestyle which in the long run would have left them at a great disadvantage in the face of a growing European population.” Post from 12 July 2021:

“I would like to revisit the topic of Canadian residential schools, looking more at the question of languages being suppressed as part of a purported "cultural genocide" as the media and Native rights advocacy groups call it.

It is evident that learning English was one of the benchmarks of a successful education for Indian children in residential schools, so the use of Native languages was either discouraged or forbidden. At the same time, one has to consider that many of these languages had a very low number of speakers in geographically isolated areas, often most likely not reaching more than 10,000 speakers in total, so being monolingual in such a language would put anyone in a rapidly changing society that used English as its vehicular language at a serious disadvantage.

The Oblates themselves realized that there were abuses in regard to the severity with which this language policy was enforced, as Volume 1 of the Truth and Reconciliation Report points out when referring to how the missionaries at the end of the 19th century were often fluent in native languages, an ability that decreased in the following decades, also due to the fact that the Indian children were now required to speak English in the schools:

“The degree to which the government policy came to override the missionary practice is perhaps best expressed in the report of Oblate Superior General Théodore Labouré. After an extensive inspection of Oblate missions and schools in 1935, Labouré expressed concern over the number of Oblates who could not speak Aboriginal languages, and the strictness with which prohibitions against speaking Aboriginal languages were enforced. He wrote:

“The ban on children speaking Indian, even during recreation, was so strict in some of our schools that any failure would be severely punished—to the point that children were led to consider the speaking of their native tongue to be a serious offense, and when they returned home they were ashamed to speak it with their parents.”

In what may have been a response to Labouré’s criticism, in 1939, the Oblate Fathers’ Committee on Indian Missions adopted a resolution that First Nations people be taught “to read in their own language and in syllabic characters or Roman characters,” and that nuns and religious teachers “learn to read and understand the languages of those who are in their charge.””

The same report also points out how Msgr. Ovide Charlebois, O.M.I. intended to open a French-only school in northern Saskatchewan, but met with the resistance from Indian Affairs as they would have liked to impose English on the Natives, although many of them spoke French and threatened to withdraw their children from the school if English was imposed. One chief observed that English was of no use to them as they would communicate in French with the people of their region.

We see that the case is far from being clear-cut. We have the missionary tradition of learning native languages, we see that the Oblates recognized that English was enforced too severely, and then there were Indians who wished their children to be taught French instead of English.”