St Joseph Vaz
This week we celebrate the feast day of Saint Joseph Vaz, known as the Apostle of Sri Lanka, who was both a Son of St Philip and a great missionary. The idea of an Oratorian missionary may seem rather strange to us. Usually, Fathers of the Oratory are thought of as “fishers and not hunters” of souls, quietly winning individuals for Christ. After all, Saint Philip had a deep desire to travel to India to preach the Gospel, but was told by the holy monk Agostino Ghettini that St John the Evangelist had appeared to him and said that it was the will of God for Philip to remain in Rome and that “Rome was to be his Indies”. In humble submission to the will of God, he never once left the city for the rest of his life.
Almost a century later, Saint Joseph Vaz spent his whole life travelling around those very Indies that Saint Philip had renounced, converting thousands of people to the Catholic Faith.
There were great miracles that accompanied his missionary work. To give just one example: in the region of Kandy, the rainy season failed one year and there was a severe drought. The staple food of the people was rice, which they were unable to grow. Magicians had offered sacrifices to the devil and the aid of Buddha had been called upon, but still the rain did not come. The King then called upon Father Vaz to pray for rainfall since “he preaches that his is the true God”.
Having erected an altar in a prominent place in the town, Father Vaz prayed that the people may be saved from famine. As he was praying, rain fell for several hours until all of the reservoirs of the town were full again, though the altar at which the Saint was praying remained completely dry. This miracle wrought a huge conversion amongst the people of Kandy and many were baptised. The King, astonished at so great a miracle, allowed Father Vaz to travel wherever he wished in the surrounding regions, which he had so far not been able to do and this was hugely advantageous to his mission.
Impressive miracles such as these were nevertheless no replacement for the chief tools of his apostolic work: prayer, administering the Sacraments and preaching. Here we see what made his missionary work distinctly Oratorian.
Fr Francesco Agnelli of the Savigliano Oratory reminds us that there is no vocation “more sublime than the one to which the sons of St Philip are called; for their vocation consists in three things, the highest and holiest which adorn Holy Church: prayer, the administration of the sacraments, and feeding the people with the daily Word of God. Even the Apostles themselves were not called to a nobler end.”
From letters of Saint Joseph Vaz towards the very end of his life, we get a sense of the particularly Philippine approach on which he modelled all of his missions. The Saint, writing in December 1710 to one of his great comrades in Sri Lanka, Fr Menezes, to hand over his duties as Vicar General and as Superior of the Oratorians, says: “Take no attention of the fact I am still alive; I cannot celebrate Mass nor hear confessions; what therefore is life to me?” And again one week later, on the eve of his death, he writes: “I will pray as long as my strength lasts, for I am no more good for anything else.”
The Saint’s priorities could not be laid out to us more clearly. He had a great love of the Holy Mass and even when he was no longer able to say Mass, he still received Holy Communion every day. When he was too weak to preach Christ to the people of Sri Lanka, he did not cease to turn to God in prayer for their souls.
We may not be called to preach the Gospel in far-flung lands but we are each called to spread the message of Jesus Christ, not by any heroic means but by performing well the daily duties of our state of life. The example of Saint Joseph Vaz, himself following the pattern of Saint Philip, gives to us the means to achieve this: prayer, frequent reception of the Sacraments and study of scripture. May we, through the intercession of St Joseph Vaz, be attentive at prayer, deepen our love for the Holy Mass and meditate more fervently on the Word of God. St Joseph Vaz, pray for us!