Beheaded for the Faith in Corea, 
 March 8, 1866 
 
FOR THE FAITH 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 JUST DE BRETENIERES 
 
 Martyred in Korea 
 March 8, 1866 
 
 LIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 JAN 1 6 20D8 
 
 THEOLOGICAL 
 
 ,F.Y 
 
 Adapted from the French of C. Appert by 
 
 FLORENCE GILMORE 
 
 CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 
 MARYKNOLL. OSSININQ, NSW YORK 
 
Jîibîl <©b»tat: 
 
 ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, S. T. D., 
 
 Censor Librorum 
 
 ^mprhnatur: 
 
 PATRICK J. HAYES. D. D„ 
 
 Archbishop of New York 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE 
 CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 
 OF AMERICA 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface. 
 
 Chapter I. Page 
 
 Birth and Early Childhood i 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Boyhood lo 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 The Seminary at Issy 24 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 The Foreign Mission Seminary 36 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 Ordination and Last Good-byes 58 
 
 . Chapter VI. 
 
 The Long Voyage 74 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 A Winter in Manchuria 95 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 Korea at Last 106 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 Life in Korea 121 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 Persecution 133 
 
 Chapter XL 
 
 Martyrdom 150 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 
 The Rendezvous 160 
 
 Appendix 161 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Opposite Page 
 
 Where Just Discovered His Call 8 
 
 College of St. Francis de Sales, Dijon 20 
 
 Just’s Mother and Brother 32 
 
 Church of St. Michael, Dijon 44 
 
 At the Paris Foreign Mission Seminary .... 58 
 
 v7hoir Boys in Taikou 72 
 
 Hongkong, the Gateway of China 88 
 
 Mukden, Manchuria 98 
 
 Koreans in Mourning Garb . 106 
 
 • Under the Thatches of Quelpaert 114 
 
 Little Ones of Korea 126 
 
 Korean Types 134 
 
 Christian and Pagan Seoul 144 
 
 Vhe Cathedral of Seoul 154 
 
 A Workroom in the Benedictine Trade School . . 162 
 
 The Much-Loved Bishop of Seoul 174 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Shortly after Mônsignor John J. Dunn of 
 New York began his epoch-making work for the 
 cause of foreign missions he published a Life 
 of Just de Bretenières under the title of “A 
 Martyr of Our Own Day.’^ Several thousand 
 copies were printed and found interested readers 
 in many sections of the English-speaking world. 
 No plates were made and the edition is now out 
 of print. 
 
 In the meantime, Father Appert, a professor 
 at the College of St. Francis de Sales in Dijon, 
 France, prepared under the direction of his Super- 
 ior, Father Christian de Bretenières, the young 
 martyr’s brother, a new and more complete Life. 
 
 In a letter which I received from France while 
 the work of Father Appert was in preparation, 
 Father Christian de Bretenières wrote: 
 
 “As to the new Life of my reverend brother, 
 
 I would say to you that it is coming slowly. 
 
 “The author is most of all anxious to get 
 together some new and interesting documents. 
 
 He is in correspondence with many persons, in- 
 cluding important witnesses and especially the 
 Bishop of Seoul and his missioners in Korea. 
 
 “The work promises to be new from many 
 points of view.” 
 
 It is this Life which Miss Gilmore has trans- 
 lated; and as one who has been privileged to 
 meet the martyr’s brother in France and later to 
 visit, in Korea, the scene of the martyrdom, I 
 desire in this foreword to express my apprécia- 
 
tion of the present volume and the hope that 
 it will fulfill its purpose — to raise up Catholic 
 souls who will push the Standard of the Cross 
 further into the regions now held by the hosts 
 of Satan. 
 
 James Anthony Walsh, 
 
 Maryknoll, Ossining, N. Y. 
 
 '‘Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall 
 he saved. How then shall they call upon him, in whom 
 they have not believed? Or hoiv shall they believe 
 him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall 
 they hear without a preacher? And how shall they 
 preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beau- 
 tiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of 
 peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things T 
 —Rom. X, 13^15. 
 
FOR THE FAITH 
 
 JUST DE BRETENIÈRES 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth and Early Childhood. 
 
 A young priest, passing St. Peter’s church in 
 in Chalon-sur-Saône on the morning of July first, 
 1829, was surprised to see a crowd gathered 
 about its doors, and stopping he asked the reason 
 for the excitement. A great wedding was being 
 solemnized within, the people told him: Anna de 
 Montcoy was marrying Edmond de Bretenières,^ 
 son of the first chairman of the Royal Court of 
 Appeals of Dijon; and the villagers vied with one 
 another in telling him of the exalted dignity of 
 both families and the extent of their fortunes. 
 As for Mademoiselle de Montcoy, one and all 
 loved her and could not say enough in her praise. 
 The young priest was not greatly interested in 
 the information showered upon him, and the im- 
 pression he received was of a marriage richer in 
 the things of earth than in those of heaven. He 
 entered the church to say a little prayer for the 
 young couple, and left it convinced that their 
 
 1 Pronouncea Bret-on-yair. 
 
2 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 union would be signally blessed by God. Some 
 years afterwards this priest was made pastor of 
 St. Peter’s in Chalon-sur-Saône. He became the 
 friend, confident, and spiritual director of M. and 
 Mme. de Bretenières, and later of their sons. 
 
 Mademoiselle de Montcoy had wealth, beauty, 
 and social position; she had, also, ideals so high 
 that, as a very young girl, she had thirsted for 
 sacrifice and penance, and longed for a life given 
 to God and Him alone. To become a Carmelite 
 had been the dearest wish of her heart. Mme. de 
 Montcoy, a good woman and a wise one, under- 
 stood her daughter thoroughly, and she doubted 
 the reality of her religious vocation. Following 
 her mother’s advice the girl become engaged to 
 Edmond de Bretenières. 
 
 In mind and soul the young man was worthy 
 of her. On leaving college he had obtained his 
 father’s permission to study art. At Dijon, and 
 later at Paris, in the studios of well known mas- 
 ters, he ‘had been faithful to the traditions of a 
 family unfalteringly loyal to the Faith and true 
 to its teaching. Kind, courteous, high-minded, 
 reserved in his friendships, devoted to his work: 
 such was young Edmond de Bretenières. At the 
 desire of his father he had laid aside the artistic 
 work he loved and accepted a political position 
 which had taken him successively to Vassy, Cha- 
 tillon-sur-Seine and Chalons-sur-Saone, where he 
 met and learned to love Anna de Montcoy. 
 
 Their marriage was blessed by a son, but while 
 they were rejoicing over his birth he slipped away 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 3 
 
 from them to heaven. Shortly afterward the Rev- 
 olution of 1830 placed Louis Philippe on France’s 
 unsteady throne, and unwilling to serve under a 
 government which he did not like M. de Breten- 
 ières resigned his office, and he and his fair young 
 wife travelled through Switzerland, Italy, Ger- 
 many and Greece. The political troubles of the 
 day weighed lightly on their young hearts, but 
 that the passing years brought them no other 
 child was a sorrow deep and ever present. 
 
 Mme. de Bretenières prayed without ceasing 
 that God would send a little one to fill their empty 
 cradle and lonely hearts, and eight and a half 
 years after the death of her first child, on Febru- 
 ary twenty-eighth, 1838, a second son was born 
 to her at Chalons-sur-Saone. He was baptized on 
 the same day, receiving for patrons our Blessed 
 Mother and Saints Just, Simon, and Anthony. 
 
 As he developed little Just showed himself to 
 be straightforward, obedient, and natural, affec- 
 tionate but undemonstrative, master of himself 
 to a degree unusual in a child, and remarkably 
 thoughtful, tender, and sympathetic. Fond of play 
 as are all healthy children, he deeply loved prayer 
 and the things of God. His grandfather, a victim 
 of rheumatism, was confined to his chair and often 
 suffered excruciating pain. Sometimes when his 
 mother was called from the old man’s side Just, 
 little as he was, would interrupt his play to take 
 her place. He would sit silent and motionless, 
 watching to turn his grandfather’s page at the 
 proper moment, if he chanced to be reading, or 
 
4 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 if he was in pain would very gently wipe from his 
 brow the sweat of agony, as he had seen his 
 mother do. 
 
 A portrait of Just, painted when he was four 
 or five years of age, has been preserved and is 
 very winsome. The little face is sweet and smil- 
 ing. The eyes are dark and bright, and the fore- 
 head high. The cheeks, destined to be thinned in 
 youth by fasts and penances, are round and very 
 rosy. 
 
 In August, 1840, a third son was born to M. 
 and Mme. de Bretenières, and received the name 
 Christian. Just was no longer lonely in his fath- 
 er’s big, well-ordered chateau. Throughout their 
 childhood and youth the brothers were close com- 
 panions, and so happy together that they did not 
 feel the need of association with other boys of 
 their own age, of which they were deprived by 
 their father’s conviction that it was best for them 
 to be educated under his eye by private tutors. 
 Whatever the ordinary drawbacks of this system 
 they were offset in the case of Just and Christian 
 by advantages so unusual that the carefully iso- 
 lated boys grew to be men of broad culture. Sterl- 
 ing principles and fervent piety prepared one to 
 become a saintly priest and the superior of a col- 
 lege, the other early to shed his blood in the cause 
 of the Lord and Master for whom he had un- 
 hesitatingly sacrificed “all save the sweetness of 
 treading where He first trod.” 
 
 The family spent part of every winter at Dijon 
 in the beautiful old home of the Baron de Bre- 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 5 
 
 tenières, their grandfather, whose learning and 
 worth were so well knawn that the government of 
 the Restoration had named him first chairman 
 of the Court of Appeals. His life had been a 
 checkered one. Obliged to emigrate during the 
 Revolution, he went to Italy where he supported 
 himself as best he could by giving lessons in paint- 
 ing. More of the children’s time was spent with 
 the Baron de Montcoy, father of Mme. de Bre- 
 tenières, a courtly old gentleman, whom much suf- 
 fering of body, mind and heart had chastened and 
 made strong. To the boys he was a hero, and 
 they listened with rapt attention to his stories of 
 the dangers through which he had passed, and of 
 brave deeds that he, himself, had witnessed and 
 whose memory was enshrined within a heart too 
 noble ever to forget the nobility of others. Doubt- 
 less his tales made heroic self-devotion seem beau- 
 tiful and almost commonplace to the little boys 
 listening open-eyed at his knee; doubtless, too, 
 they formed part of the remote preparation for 
 the sacrifices which were one day to tear Just 
 from all that he loved and to lead him, step by 
 step, to the Foreign Mission Seminary, to Korea, 
 and to martyrdom. 
 
 Young at the time of the Revolution the aged 
 Baron had seen its perils at close range and had 
 drunk deep of its horrors. Forced into the army 
 of the Republic that was charged with chastising 
 recalcitrant Lyons, he had deserted to offer his 
 services to the valiant city. The history of its 
 defence is one long tale of heroism crowded with 
 
6 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 such incidents as children love and never forget; 
 for instance, at a certain point in the city the artil- 
 lerymen lay huddled about one of the batteries, 
 w'ounded or discouraged. All but one of their 
 guns had been silenced when Marie Adrian, a 
 girl thirteen years of age, dressed like a boy that 
 she might do her work more easily, began to fire 
 the remaining gun, indifferent to the bullets that 
 fell on every side. She did not stop until her 
 ammunition was exhausted. After the surrender 
 of the city she was dragged before a tribunal 
 set up by the conquerors. “How did you dare 
 to fight against your own country?” she was 
 asked. “On the contrary, I was defending it,” 
 she replied. She was sentenced to death, and 
 went bravely to the scaffold. 
 
 When Lyons fell the Baron succeeded in mak- 
 ing his escape. He wandered about the woods 
 of Forez until he was arrested by two soldiers. 
 Their prisoner seeming to be meek and quiet they 
 took no special precautions to guard him, and 
 suddenly he threw one of them from his horse, 
 snatched his pistol, and shot the second. Free 
 once more he resumed his wandering life, tak- 
 ing refuge, at last, in the hut of a poor laborer. 
 Soon two soldiers came upon him there, took 
 him captive, and dragged him back to Lyons 
 where he was thrown into prison, there to await 
 execution as a deserter and an enemy of the Re- 
 public. One day when the names of those to be 
 guillotined were called the doorkeeper cried out, 
 “Plantin de Montcoyl” No one went forward 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 7 
 
 and he repeated the words. “The prisoner’s 
 name is Lantin,’’ his associate said, and as that 
 name was not on the list insisted that they had 
 no right to take the Baron. That day Robe- 
 spierre fell, and on the next all the prisoners 
 were set free. 
 
 Nor was their grandfather the only hero whom 
 the children revered with boyish whole-hearted- 
 ness. The Abbé Pagnier, a friend of the Baron’s, 
 a virile old man of strong and simple piety, had 
 also proved himself fearless in the days of the 
 Terror. ' One morning he was taking Holy Viat- 
 icum to a poor man in a farm house. Reaching 
 a river he saw two Revolutionary spies stationed 
 at the end of the bridge. To save his life it 
 was necessary to get the better of them — which 
 he promptly did. Having carefully hidden the 
 Blessed Sacrament, bare-handed he seized one, 
 threw him into the river, and quickly sent his 
 companion after him. Calmly taking the Sacred 
 Host from Its hiding place he- then crossed the 
 bridge without waiting to see how his enemies 
 made their way to land. Another old man, also 
 a friend of the family, had been closely associ- 
 ated with the unfortunate Louis XVI. He had 
 great affection for Just whom he always greeted 
 with the words, “Justus ut palma florebit.”^ 
 
 Of Just’s early childhood there is little to tell. 
 He was pious, but so arc many children. He was 
 studious and docile and loving. Only one inci- 
 dent of his first years has been preserved, prob- 
 
 1 The just shall flourish like a palm tree. 
 
8 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 ably because it is the only one that marked him 
 as in any way different from other children sur- 
 rounded by every care and naturally devout. The 
 spot on which it occurred is now marked by a 
 wooden cross. One day when Just was six years of 
 age and Christian four they were playing together 
 under the watchful eye of a German governess. 
 To amuse themselves they dug into the earth with 
 little sticks. Suddenly Just said to his brother, 
 “Be very quiet for a moment;” and bending low 
 over the hole which he had made, he cried joy- 
 fully, “I see the Chinese! I see the Chinese! 
 Let’s dig deeper and we’ll soon come to them!” 
 Christian looked into the hole but could see noth- 
 ing. Just stoutly insisted that he did, and digging 
 excitedly described to his brother how the Chinese 
 looked and what clothes they wore. Some, he 
 said, were on horseback, some afoot. And he de- 
 clared that when he put his ear close to the hole 
 he could hear their voices. After a few minutes 
 the children went back to their ordinary play and 
 the incident was not mentioned between them or 
 to their parents. 
 
 Years passed, and one day the two brothers, 
 both in ecclesiastical dress, were seated under a 
 tree in the forest of Meudon. There were tears 
 in their eyes and their voices often trembled as 
 they talked. Just had been ordained only a few 
 days before and was waiting to be told what for- 
 eign land was to be the field of his apostolate, 
 and perhaps — though he hardly dared to hope for 
 such joy — perhaps of his martyrdom! At last 
 
THE CHATEAU AT BRETENIÈRES WHERE JUST DISCOVERED HIS CALL TO THE MISSIONS 
 
 (See Page 8) 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 9 
 
 Christian’s voice failed him, and Just said very 
 tenderly, “Don’t imagine that it does not cost me 
 dear to go. It is hard, terribly hard, Christian, 
 for me to leave all whom I love, but God’s call is 
 irresistible, and ever since the day — ” He went 
 on to recall the morning on which he had seen and 
 heard the Chinese in his little hole. He had a 
 vivid remembrance of the whole scene; Christian, 
 too, he found, had cherished every detail of it. 
 
 Only once in all the intervening years had Just 
 ^ ever referred to the incident. He and one of his 
 fellow students of the Foreign Mission Seminary 
 had gone to see a poor child whom Just had 
 been instrumental in placing in an orphanage. 
 To make conversation he asked his protégé what 
 he was going to do when he grew to be a man. 
 The child declared so positively that he intended 
 to be a missioner that the other seminarian was 
 surprised. Just said, “I am not. My own voca- 
 tion manifested itself earlier than this boy’s.” 
 And he told his friend of the vision of his child- 
 hood. 
 
 It would be easy to see in the incident no more 
 than a childish fancy had it not so deeply im- 
 pressed both brothers, and so providentially in- 
 fluenced Just’s whole life. Besides, Just, calm 
 and thoughtful, even as a child, was not one to 
 be carried away by his imagination. 
 
10 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Boyhood. 
 
 During their childhood the boys occupied ad- 
 joining rooms, and every evening after their 
 mother had embraced them and gone down-stairs 
 to rejoin their father, Just preached a little ser- 
 mon to which Christian listened attentively. “You 
 see,” Just said one night, “we ought to aim at 
 perfection; but perfection isn’t easy. It’s like a 
 high mountain whose summit is hard to reach, 
 but if we try for a long time we can get to the 
 top, and then God wdll reward us.” Christian 
 never forgot these words though he was only 
 four years old when they were uttered and it 
 was many a year before he understood them. 
 
 It was about this time that Just made his first 
 confession, and afterwards made the following 
 resolutions, remarkable for a little child, however 
 pious and intelligent: “I wdll try to be good al- 
 
 w’ays and everywhere in spite of the temptations 
 of the devil and bad example. Every morning I 
 will ask God to give me grace to be good during 
 the day, and wTen evening comes I will try to 
 remember whether I have done my duty. I will 
 often talk to my Guardian Angel and beg him to 
 help me, and I will always remember that I am 
 in the presence of my Creator. Every Sunday I 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 11 
 
 will read these resolutions, and if I forget them 
 I hope that Father arid Mother will remind me 
 of them.” 
 
 Naturally modest and retiring, Just kept him- 
 self in the background except when there was 
 question of the services of the Church. He was 
 eager to serve Mass, but the first time he tried 
 was so overcome with shyness, and consequently 
 made so many mistakes, that when all was over 
 he burst into tears and only the kind curé could 
 console him. 
 
 Even as a child he loved to pray. The boys 
 said their morning and night prayers with their 
 tutor, and for two or three years, on the pretext 
 that the teacher was frail and needed all the rest 
 that he could get. Just rose before anyone else, 
 made the fire, put the school room in order, and 
 then passed in prayer the time remaining before 
 the others joined him. However tired and sleepy 
 he might be, he never went to bed without saying 
 his beads slowly and fervently. Each spring he 
 and Christian built an altar in honor of our Blessed 
 Mother in one of the rooms of their father’s house 
 and kept it covered with flowers throughout her 
 month. Day after day they held short May de- 
 votions before it, at which little Just always 
 officiated and Christian played the part of con- 
 gregation. After a time, with the curé’s permis- 
 sion, the boys did even better. They built their 
 altar out-of-doors, and every evening they rang a 
 bell to announce the beginning of devotions. 
 Soon the old women, young girls, and children of 
 
12 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 the neighborhood joined them, and Just sweetly, 
 gravely, and rev^erently read a page from a devo- 
 tional book: such, for two years were May devo- 
 tions in the village of Bretenières. One of the 
 old peasants used proudly to exclaim, “Master, 
 Just is the makings of a saint!” 
 
 His piety w^as not the fruit of lively sensibility, 
 or of an imagination inclined to mysticism. It 
 was born of a calm, well-balanced mind, enlight- 
 ened by faith as logical as strong, and proved 
 its genuineness by kindness to all and tenderest 
 love for those bound to him by ties of flesh and 
 blood. He was devoted to his brother, his little 
 brother, as he always felt Christian to be, and 
 whom he treated accordingly. To forgive him 
 everything, to find excuses for him under all cir- 
 cumstances, to efface himself in his favor, this was 
 Just’s policy in regard to Christian. There were 
 seldom any contentions betw^een them, but w’hen 
 one did arise Just nearly always yielded wdth 
 perfect good humor. One day, after a very 
 heavy fall of snow, the boys built a snow house 
 tw’elve feet in height. They were sitting on the 
 top of it, admiring their work and planning some 
 sort of ornamentation, wTen a dispute arose as to 
 just what it should be. Christian insisted that his 
 idea should be follow^ed. Just liked his own better, 
 and in a sudden burst of anger Christian snatched 
 a tool which his brother held in his hand. Not 
 prepared for the jerk Just lost his balance and 
 fell to the snow-covered ground below\ For a 
 moment he was stunned, but as soon as he could 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 13 
 
 rise laughed good-naturedly over the mishap, 
 which he attributed to his awkwardness, and the 
 two boys amicably resumed their discussion. To 
 the end their brotherly love was deep and tender. 
 The last letter that Just wrote before he left 
 France forever was his farewell to Christian. 
 
 Towards the servants he was particularly 
 gentle, never asking special service unless he was 
 obliged to, and then always politely. Only once 
 did his mother hear him give an order imperi- 
 ously. Reproved and told to make some sort of 
 reparation. Just instantly went in search of the 
 man to whom he had been rude. Finding him in 
 the midst of the other servants of the household 
 he said bravely, “I beg your pardon for having 
 spoken so brusquely.” 
 
 In 1848, when Just was ten years of age, the 
 great Père Lacordaire preached the Advent ser- 
 mons at Dijon and during his stay there called 
 upon M. and Mme. de Bretenières. Just chanced 
 to be in the room at the time of the visit and his 
 mother made him a sign to come forward and ask 
 the famous preacher’s blessing. Instead of giving 
 it Père Lacordaire took the boy into his arms, 
 saying, “This child is already blessed.” 
 
 The love of work which became one of Just’s 
 marked characteristics manifested itself at an age 
 when most boys must be driven to their tasks. 
 Even his play usually took the form of some use- 
 ful occupation. He was only six or seven years 
 of age when he cultivated a little garden, with all 
 the ardor of which he was capable; at eight he 
 
14 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 began to collect specimens of minerals and in 
 time learned to judge fossils with unusual accur- 
 acy. One by one, and almost unaided, he learned 
 several trades and arts; he became carpenter, 
 joiner, sculptor, doing each kind of w^ork ex- 
 ceptionally well. 
 
 Everything about their father’s household was 
 made subservient to the boys’ best interests. Their 
 parents put aside all that might have interrupted 
 their lessons or in any way interfered with them. 
 The house became like a college, almost like a 
 monastery. Study hours and classes succeeded 
 each other in unvarying routine, and recreations 
 were as systematically arranged. For a few years 
 M. and Mme. de Bretenières kept the children’s 
 education almost entirely in their own hands, but 
 in 1849 they engaged as tutor a French priest — 
 Father Hilaire — who w^as witty, learned, and de- 
 vout, but very frail. The delicacy of his health 
 gave Just innumerable opportunities to exercise 
 his thoughtful kindness. For many months he 
 hurried to Father Hilaire’s room early every 
 morning to help him to dress, and in many other 
 w’ays showed a sympathy and tenderness unusual 
 in a boy of his years. 
 
 When, at length, the state of his health obliged 
 Father Hilaire to give up all work M. de Bre- 
 tenières chose the Abbé Gautrelet to replace him. 
 At first sight the new preceptor was impressed by 
 the gentleness and candor of the boys and the 
 extreme simplicity with wTich they were dressed. 
 It was in the garden that he met them. After a 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 t5 
 
 few minutes they led him to the house, talking 
 of a trip which the family had taken a short 
 time before. When they reached the library Just 
 spread a map, on one of the tables and pointed 
 out the way over which they had traveled, charm- 
 ingly relating little incidents which had occurred 
 during the trip. Suddenly interrupting himself, he 
 said, “It’s your turn now, Christian; I am tired.” 
 And his brother continued the story as interest- 
 ingly as it had been begun. 
 
 The boys were delighted to have a young 
 teacher, full of life and fun, and the Abbé Gau- 
 trelet was charmed by his new pupils. Just he 
 described as having an attractive face, framed 
 by light brown, waving hair, and he admitted 
 that the extreme fineness of temperament be- 
 trayed by his voice, his manner, his features, had 
 troubled him. “All through the first night that I 
 spent in the house,” he related, “I lay awake 
 trying to foresee Just’s future, but my dreams, 
 bright as they were, were far surpassed by the 
 glory destined to be his.” 
 
 “From that day,” the Abbé Gautrelet wrote, 
 years later, “there began for me a joy which 
 lasted for several years. I determined from the 
 first to do all in my power to keep those dear 
 boys, as I found them: gentle, and good, and very 
 close to God.” In notes which he wrote at the 
 request of Just’s first biographer the Abbé Gau- 
 trelet said that the boy was attractive and love- 
 able, and so even-tempered that during the nine 
 years which he spent with the family only two 
 
16 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 or three times did Just become irritable. He 
 habitually considered the comfort and conven- 
 ience of others before his own; he played all 
 games willingly, but more often from a desire to 
 give pleasure than because he cared for them. 
 For a time both boys found a certain game of 
 cards very amusing and played it frequently. 
 One day their game was postponed because a 
 trifling incident interfered with it. Just com- 
 plained, and cried a little, saying that there was 
 no reason why they should not play as usual. As 
 a punishment the boys were not allowed to play 
 that game again. 
 
 Intellectually Just was richly endowed. He 
 seemed to have a special aptitude for every 
 branch to which he applied himself. He studied 
 w^ell, but as a child was subject to rather long 
 periods of distraction. He would lose himself 
 and dream — probably of the priesthood, the goal 
 of all his desires — until his attention was called. 
 He would blush then, and disarm reproof by ad- 
 mitting that he had forgotten himself and by 
 promising to try to do better. 
 
 It would seem that a pupil so pious, docile, 
 studious, amiable would have won the affection 
 of a master who could find in him no fault ex- 
 cept a too great shrinking from suffering. But, 
 though appreciating his remarkable qualities of 
 mind and heart the Abbé Gautrelet grew to feel 
 a sort of antipathy for Just and did not hesitate 
 to show it. He thought — mistakenly — that M. 
 and Mme. de Bretenières favored Just above 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 17 
 
 Christian, and resolved to balance the prefer- 
 ence by giving his to the younger brother. He 
 feared that Just’s rapid progress would discour- 
 age Christian, less gifted and of less even dis- 
 position, so to the boys themselves and to their 
 parents he spoke only of Just’s mistakes and of 
 Christian’s successes. His intention, originally 
 good, if a little unwise, developed into a real pre- 
 judice against Just, who never complained and 
 never resented it. 
 
 “Christian’s affection for me,” the Abbé Gau- 
 trelet wrote, “was very demonstrative, and I re- 
 turned it. Just, as willing as his brother to be 
 friendly, I repulsed so often that at last the child 
 understood and held himself aloof. He said 
 nothing, but in the course of time a trifling incident 
 showed me that he keenly felt my coldness. One 
 day I was walking up and down reading a book. 
 Just came close to me and thinking he was Chris- 
 tian I put out my hand and pressed his affection- 
 ately. As quick as a flash he threw his arms 
 around my neck, crying, ‘Oh, thank you! Thank 
 you! Do you love me a little, too?’ The incident 
 made a deep impression upon me, and from that 
 hour I changed my manner towards him. 
 
 “I confess that during my first years with the 
 family I did almost nothing to stimulate Just’s 
 progress, spiritual or mental, but he had so strong 
 a sense of duty that he worked steadily despite 
 my negligence and my rebuffs. It is true that I 
 knew his rich nature and relied on his excellent 
 dispositions, and acted as I did in the interests of 
 
18 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 his brother. I feared the too rapid progress of 
 the elder boy whose future gave me no uneasiness. 
 For him I dreaded success, for Christian discour- 
 agement. This is my only excuse.” 
 
 The boys made splendid progress under the 
 Abbé Gautrelet’s tuition, and the watchful care 
 of their parents who took a deep interest in their 
 studies. “I am certain that from the time they 
 were mere children neither Just nor Christian 
 was ever idle for a quarter of an hour,” the Abbé 
 Gautrelet testified. By way of recreation from 
 their studies and other duties, the boys made col- 
 lections of minerals, birds, and fossils. Every 
 year excursions, taken during their vacations, gave 
 them opportunities to enlarge these collections, 
 and the winter evenings were spent in classifying 
 their finds, labeling the fossils, and analyzing the 
 minerals. Just became expert in stuffing birds. 
 Christian told in later years how they had had 
 but one gun between them. “Of course,” he said, 
 “Just left for me the pleasanter part in our hunt- 
 ing expeditions. He pretended not to see well 
 enough to take accurate aim, so the gun was 
 nearly always in my hands, and he carried our 
 provisions and our booty. However, on the rare 
 occasions that he did shoot he was very success- 
 ful, so I knew that he had other motives than 
 those he gave for leaving the better part to me.” 
 
 Thus did the boys grow up, most carefully 
 guarded and guided, protected from idleness and 
 all its dangers, and stimulated by good example. 
 They responded admirably to their training, be- 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 19 
 
 coming strong of mind and body, tender of heart, 
 pure of soul, the joy and comfort of their pa- 
 rents, and the edification of the parish. Their 
 piety was pra"ctical, undemonstrative, deep. Of 
 Just the Abbé Gautrelet said, “Unless I am 
 greatly mistaken he never lost his baptismal in- 
 nocence.” And among notes made by his mother 
 the following was found: “One of the great sor- 
 rows of Just’s life was that he once told a lie. 
 He was accused of a great fault which he had 
 not committed. Seeing that his accuser was con- 
 vinced of his guilt and determined that he should 
 avow it, and in his purity not even understanding 
 the nature of the fault. Just said that he had 
 committed it. It cost him dear to refrain from 
 speaking of the matter to me, as he was told to 
 do. It was only on the eve of his ordination to 
 the sub-deaconate that he talked to me about it. 
 He was still inconsolable over having been un- 
 truthful.” 
 
 In 1851 began a series of excursions which for 
 nine years filled the boys’ vacations, and made 
 them familiar with every corner of Switzerland, 
 Savoy, and parts of the surrounding provinces. 
 These journeys were made afoot, with a sack 
 strapped to each one’s back and a geologist’s 
 hammer in his hand. Their father and some- 
 times even their mother took part in the excur- 
 sions. Rain, heat, cold, fatigue, hunger, and 
 thirst were often the portion of the travelers, 
 and more than once they saw danger at close 
 range. Recreation and instruction were not the 
 
20 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 only ends M. de Bretenières had in view. He 
 wished to strengthen the bodies and the charac- 
 ters of his sons by accustoming them to hard- 
 ship. Just loved the wandering life of these 
 vacations, not because of an intense interest in 
 their collections or from a thirst for adventure: 
 he considered it a novitiate for his future labors 
 as a missioner. He made a point of bearing 
 gaily fatigue, heat, and thirst. He never even 
 showed that he was tired. No matter how great 
 the heat he did not drink at the springs which 
 the others hailed with delight. Whether the 
 day’s walk was through a hot valley or over the 
 snow of some mountain-top he made no differ- 
 ence in his clothing, and was ingenious in manag- 
 ing to get for his share the greater part of 
 their specimens and provisions. He never al- 
 lowed his father or Christian to be burdened, 
 but for hours would carry a very hea\^^ load, 
 smilingly, merrily; and even if it was late when 
 they reached the end of the day's march he did 
 not go to bed until he had sorted whatever spec- 
 imens they had found. So deeply did he appear 
 to be interested in these things that more than 
 once his father said to Mme. de Bretenières, 
 “You see Just no longer thinks of becoming a 
 priest.” But year after year when they reached 
 home and the winter’s work was about to begin 
 Just would whisper to his mother, “Don’t worry 
 about my future. You know my Intentions.” 
 
 His first reason for the ardor with which he 
 entered into the family excursions was, undoubt- 
 
THE COLLEGE OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES AT DIJON, FRANCE 
 (Formerly the city residence of the family de Bretenières) 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 21 
 
 edly, a desire to accustom himself to hardships 
 such as fall to the lot of every missioner. After 
 his entrance into the seminary he said, when 
 Christian recalled the fact that he had always 
 refused to make himself comfortable by taking 
 off his coat or vest, “I wished to see how a priest 
 suffers who cannot remove his cassock however 
 intense the heat. Was it not well to accustom 
 myself in advance to the little discomforts of the 
 state I longed to embrace?” He wished, too, to 
 nourish in Christian a love for pleasures which 
 would be a safeguard after he was gone. Shortly 
 before he left home he admitted to a priest who 
 was a close friend of the family that he had 
 never had any interest in their collections except 
 for his brother’s sake. 
 
 In the autumn of 1857, when Just was nine- 
 teen years of age, by the advice of his director 
 he spoke to his parents of his intention of be- 
 coming a priest. They made no objection, but 
 believed that they did well to ask him to wait 
 for two years and to say nothing of the matter 
 to Christian. Just submitted. For two years 
 more he continued to be his brother’s constant 
 companion and devoted friend. Their studies 
 were continued together; their usual trips were 
 taken, and others which secured for them glimp- 
 ses of the world to which their social position 
 gave them entrance. 
 
 When the appointed time had passed Just- 
 begged his parents’ permission to leave home, 
 arguing that he was twenty-one years old and 
 
22 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 would not be ready for ordination at the per- 
 mitted age if he waited longer, and reminding 
 them of the crying need for priests. M. and Mme. 
 de Bretenières gave their consent and it remained 
 only for Just to decide what was his exact voca- 
 tion. He longed for the most entire sacrifice 
 possible and felt that perfection pointed to a 
 union of religious life with work in a foreign 
 land. The missions held first place in his heart. 
 For years his favorite reading had been the his- 
 tory of the cruel persecutions of the Orient and 
 the lives of martyrs and confessors in China, 
 which had strengthened ever more and more his 
 love for the foreign apostolate. The Dominican 
 Order, with its high ideal of the religious life 
 and the precious treasure it possessed in the mis- 
 sions confided to its care would, he believed, sat- 
 isfy all his longings. Because he knew, loved, 
 and revered many Dominican Fathers his direc- 
 tor, as well as NI. and Mme. Bretenières, feared 
 that his devotion to the great Order had its roots 
 in mere natural feeling, so they advised him to 
 go to Paris and consult some one entirely dis- 
 interested. Just made some objections to the 
 plan, but did as he was told, Christian all of 
 this time knowing nothing of the momentous in- 
 terviews which were being held between Just and 
 their parents, nothing of the proud but lonely 
 tears of the old people nor of Just’s tremulous 
 joy. 
 
 The superior general of the Sulpicians, whom 
 he consulted in Paris, advised at least one year’s 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 23 
 
 sojourn in the seminary of Issy, during which 
 time Just could prayerfully consider his vocation 
 to the Dominican Order. Just prepared to fol- 
 low this advice, though in his own heart there 
 was no doubt that he was called to the religious 
 life. 
 
 On the first day of October Christian and he 
 were together in what had been their school 
 room. Christian outlined an elaborate course of 
 study for the coming winter. Just said nothing. 
 “Well, shall we begin it?” Christian asked. “For 
 me all this is over,” his brother replied, and he 
 explained that he intended to enter the seminary. 
 Christian was deeply moved, deeply grieved, and 
 much surprised. Many things in regard to his 
 brother which he had not understood before be- 
 came clear to him at that moment. Just’s sweet- 
 ness, his spirit of mortification, his whole man- 
 ner of life were explained. Not for an instant 
 did he doubt the reality of his brother’s vocation. 
 He saw plainly evidence of God’s call on the one 
 side, and on the other of constant fidelity to 
 grace. Instead of trying to hold the brother 
 who was his best, almost his only friend, he did 
 what he could to strengthen his resolution. 
 
24 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Seminary at Issy. 
 
 On the nineteenth of November, 1859, Just 
 entered the seminary at Issy. From the first joy 
 overflowed his heart in his new surroundings. 
 He was more completely at home than he had 
 ever been before, reveled in the spirit of the 
 place, and laughed at the little privations that 
 fell to his lot. The discomforts of his cell, 
 which had an unsatisfactory grate and was in- 
 credibly small, he found extremely amusing. “I 
 should be miserable with a big room and an 
 antechamber,” he told his grandfather. His 
 fellow students edified him, and of the profess- 
 ors he could not say enough in praise. To the 
 Abbé Gautrelet he wrote, “Here a newcomer is 
 received like an old friend. He finds himself in 
 the midst of a hundred brothers who do all in 
 their power to make him feel at home, and 
 simply load him with kindness.” And in a letter 
 to one of his relatives, he said rapturously, “Pic- 
 ture to yourself our big household where the pro- 
 fessors are fathers rather than masters, where 
 we students kindly point out to one another our 
 little faults and treat one another with a gentle- 
 ness, charity, and affability which remind me of 
 what one reads of the early ages of the Church 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 25 
 
 — picture all this, and you will have an idea of 
 the atmosphere in which I am living.” 
 
 Class work was new to him and he found it 
 delightful. “I had imagined,” he wrote, “that 
 nothing could be graver than a professor of 
 philosophy in his chair. I was greatly mistaken. 
 Our classes are so attractive that even if it were 
 not of rule to assist at them, we should do so 
 voluntarily. Two or three of us recite, and if 
 we say something ridiculous the rest laugh — but 
 no one minds that. Discussion of the subject 
 matter follows, then explanations, given with so 
 much spirit and gaiety that the hour passes all 
 too quickly.” 
 
 Richly endowed and very studious Just did 
 remarkably well in his classes. To the work re- 
 quired he added the study of harmony, and he 
 volunteered to give a German lesson each week 
 to one of the professors. “Often,” as this pro- 
 fessor afterwards related, “we began to talk 
 of God, and Just would tell me of his desire 
 for the Foreign Missions. It filled me with ad- 
 miration to hear him speak of holy things. Many 
 a time German was forgotten, and at the end of 
 our hour we laughingly put off the lesson until 
 the following week.” 
 
 Appointed to serve in the refectory, Just loved 
 his humble work and was greatly amused over 
 his difficulties. It was customary to feed the 
 poor after dinner time, and he was overjoyed 
 whenever his turn came, and eagerly replaced 
 anyone who was prevented from doing duty on 
 
26 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 his appointed day. It pleased as v/ell as amused 
 him, to hear the beggars call him Father. 
 
 Soon after he entered the seminary several 
 of his fellow students received their cassocks, 
 and envying their lot he wrote to his parents, 
 “This is a day of days for some of my compan- 
 ions who have the joy of wearing their cassocks 
 for the first time. How I envy them I Father 
 Superior, who is very kind, so kind that not 
 knowing him you have no idea how kind he is, 
 says that I may ask your permission to receive 
 mine on the Feast of the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion. May I do so? What a day the Eighth 
 will be for me if you consent ! Do not fear that 
 this would separate me from you. Quite the 
 contrary! — I think of you constantly, and if 
 there were no dear Lord and no Blessed Mother 
 to replace you I should regret having left home. 
 I find it very hard to fill dear Christian’s place. 
 I am always on the watch among the new broth- 
 ers whom God has given me for those who are 
 most like him; but no friend, however dear, can 
 make me forget him. I shall be so happy when 
 I see him again.’’ 
 
 Just, inured to mortification, had expected to 
 be required to practice it rigorously at Issy, and 
 at first was scandalized to find the meals so plen- 
 tiful and so appetizing. “I wished to fare like a 
 Capuchin and I am indulging in sweetmeats!’’ he 
 exclaimed. “I tell it in a whisper, for it is shame- 
 ful, is it not, for a seminarian? But I repeat to 
 you what I heard one of my new brothers say 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 27 
 
 the other day: ‘It isn’t my fault that I dine so 
 well.’ ” 
 
 At his advancement in the spiritual life Just 
 worked with intense earnestness, convinced that 
 before his entrance into the seminary he had 
 done nothing. This, indeed, was his life work. 
 One who knew him well at Issy said, “Just told 
 me that it was at this time he really learned to 
 pray. God began to draw him very close to Him- 
 self by the prayer of simplicity. He prayed with- 
 out distractions. His director, not quite under- 
 standing the way in which God was leading him 
 and wishing to be certain that he was not de- 
 luded, told him to commit to writing some of his 
 prayers. Having examined them he gave Just 
 entire liberty to continue in the way he had be- 
 gun.’’ 
 
 Meanwhile Just was trying to learn God’s will 
 in his regard. Undoubtedly the union of the 
 religious life with the foreign apostolate was his 
 ideal, but the missions had first place in his heart 
 and if he entered a religious order he could not 
 be certain that he would ever be a missioner, for 
 his work would be what his superior assigned 
 to him. Little by little, after much prayer, much 
 thought, much suffering of mind and heart, he 
 came to believe that it was to the Foreign Mis- 
 sion Seminary in Paris that God was directing 
 him. The way he trod before reaching his de- 
 cision was long, rough, and difficult, and at the 
 time his studies were unusually exacting because 
 he had entered the classes two months after they 
 
28 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 opened. The strain was too great and affected 
 his health. He became subject to violent head- 
 aches, he slept poorly, and his appetite failed. 
 Given permission to go home for a rest he 
 availed himself of the privilege only when he 
 was too miserable to do his work, and always 
 returned as soon as he felt better. During the 
 days spent with his family he and Christian re- 
 sumed their long walks in search of specimens 
 and worked among their collections. 
 
 Shortly after Pentecost Just received tonsure. 
 He had fallen ill with an acute attack of rheu- 
 matism and to the day of the ordinations it was 
 uncertain whether he would be able to go to 
 the chapel. But when the hour came he had re- 
 covered sufficiently to move about without in- 
 tense pain, and with angelic fervor he took his 
 part in the long ceremony. Six weeks later the 
 seminary closed for the summer vacation and 
 he returned to his family, to carry out at home, 
 as nearly as possible, the regulation which he 
 had learned to lean upon and to love. Every 
 morning he gave the hours from five until eight 
 o’clock to prayer and the hearing of Mass, 
 after which he and Christian hunted, walked, 
 or worked among their treasures. Every day, 
 too, he devoted some time to letter writing, be- 
 lieving that seminarians can more easily keep 
 their fervor if they are closely united during 
 vacation-time. As to choice of correspondents 
 he did not consult his natural affection for some 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 29 
 
 of the students, but wrote to those whose names 
 had been given him by his director. 
 
 A letter written to the Abbé Gautrelet during 
 a trip which the family made relates the follow- 
 ing incident, with the charming gaiety which 
 characterized Just: “Without preamble I am 
 
 going to copy for you a passage in the Gazette, 
 a paper printed here three times a week, which 
 you are not at all likely to see. ‘The day before 
 yesterday three men, suspected of the robbery in 
 the church of Tresse-en-Comte, were arrested in 
 the railway station of our city. Evidently they 
 were attempting to escape to Switzerland. One 
 of them, who said he is the father of the others, 
 is of medium height, has gray hair, and a short 
 gray beard. He looks to be fifty-five or sixty 
 years of age, but is hale, erect, and full of en- 
 ergy. The second is tall and thin. He had 
 probably stolen his clothes in an attempt to 
 disguise himself, for his coat is much too small 
 for him. The third,^ who appears to be the 
 youngest of the party, wears ecclesiastical dress 
 as his disguise. They carried hammers, scissors, 
 and other tools which told against them. Of 
 course all three feigned to know nothing about 
 the robbery, but five policemen took them in 
 custody and conducted them through the crowded 
 streets of the city to the police station and from 
 there to the court house where they were closely 
 questioned. The eldest of the party insisted on 
 telegraphing to the mayor of Dijon whom he 
 
 1 Just looked younger than Christian. 
 
30 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 claims to know. They were all allowed to re- 
 turn to their hotel for the night under the sur- 
 veillance of two policemen. The case was to 
 be trie'd in Lure, and on the follow^ing day they 
 w^ere taken there by railroad, instead of on foot, 
 as they offered to pay the fare. At Lure a num- 
 ber of policemen awaited them and the party 
 could hardly make a way through the excited 
 crowd which had gathered to see the criminals. 
 Our correspondent in Lure has not yet sent his 
 account of the sequel of the affair, so our read- 
 ers must wait for the next issue to learn the end 
 of the story.’ ” 
 
 Just broke off at this point to admit laughingly 
 that there was no such paper as the Gazette, and 
 that his father, Christian, and himself were the 
 three men who had been arrested and dragged 
 before two judges and from one town to an- 
 other before they were able to prove their inno- 
 cence. Aferwards, he told some one at the semi- 
 nary that it had cut him to the quick to see his 
 ecclesiastical dress share in humiliations which 
 otherwise would have filled him with joy. 
 
 In October, 1860, Just returned to Issy for 
 his second and last year there. He was ap- 
 pointed organist and infirmarian, so his hands 
 were full indeed. As he wrote, in one of the 
 few letters for which he found time, “I have 
 just passed my half yearly examinations and we 
 have very little sickness now, so I have a few 
 free hours on my hands. This year we have been 
 through a siege of fevers, grippe, sore throat, 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 31 
 
 and all known maladies. The strangest part of 
 it all is the blind confidence my fellow students 
 have in me simply because I am infirmarian. 
 They are so good-natured that I gain no merit 
 in waiting on them. I am afraid that at first I 
 grieved a little over this, but I do so no longer. 
 I see that God fits the burden to my back in 
 giving me only good patients.” By nature Just 
 had no aptitude for nursing. Careless of physical 
 comfort for himself, he was not ingenious in pro- 
 viding the little devices which help so much in 
 the sick' room. But charity is a good teacher, and 
 his kindness, gentleness, and willingness were 
 powerful helps. 
 
 On a certain day in May he spent some 
 hours at home, and afterwards his father ac- 
 companied him to Issy. On their way Just told 
 him that he wished to enter the Foreign Mis- 
 sion Seminary. Soon he spoke of the matter 
 again to both his parents. The interview was 
 heartrending. M. de Bretenières foresaw for 
 his wife, himself, and Christian a future over- 
 shadowed by the pain of separation with no hope 
 of a return; for Just, the hard life of a mis- 
 sioner, perhaps a cruel death; and he felt that 
 he could not bear so great a trial. The mother 
 was braver. She was able to thank God for 
 having given her son so sublime a vocation, and 
 heroically and promptly m.ade her sacrifice. 
 
 Just explained his plans with no trace of emo- 
 tion in his face or voice. When he was done 
 and his parents made no reply he was discon- 
 
32 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 certed, and fearful of giving way, said with en- 
 ergy: “Nothing will ever turn me from the path 
 God is pointing out. I know a young student 
 who, unable to obtain his parents’ permission, 
 secretly set sail for the East, after having spent 
 a few months at the Foreign Mission Seminary.” 
 Later, Just bitterly regretted having spoken thus. 
 He misjudged his father and mother in fearing 
 that they would put obstacles in the way of his 
 vocation, and they were cut to the quick by his 
 lack of trust. So willing were they to accept 
 God’s will that in the evening of that same day 
 M. de Bretenières went with his son to the sem- 
 inary and introducing him to the superior beg- 
 ged that he might be admitted as an aspirant 
 for the missions. 
 
 Just had two months more to spend at Issy, 
 and with characteristic tranquillity continued his 
 ordinary life there as if nothing of importance 
 were pending for him. After his martyrdom 
 Father Maréchal, superior of the seminary and 
 Just’s director, wrote to M. and Mme. de Bre- 
 tenières, “My recollections of the two years 
 which Just spent with us are sweet with the per- 
 fume of his virtue, but they offer few incidents. 
 His life was without display or ostentation, but 
 beautiful and attractive. The following is the 
 entry which I made in our register when he left 
 us: ‘Just de Bretenières for two years the edifi- 
 cation of the seminary by his piety and amiabil- 
 ity. His good qualities, the fruit of an excellent 
 education received entirely at home, fit him for 
 
CHRISTIAN DE BRETENIÈRES MADAME DE BRETENIÈRES, THE CHRISTIAN DE BRETENIÈRES 
 AT THE SORBONNE MOTHER OF A MARTYR AS A STUDENT AT ROME 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 33 
 
 great things.’ Several times I thought of chang- 
 ing the last words, thinking them out of place in 
 reference to the painful and hidden work of a 
 missioner. Now I understand them.” 
 
 Just would have liked to go to the Rue du Bac 
 immediately on leaving Issy, thereby sparing him- 
 self and his loved ones the trial of sad last days 
 at home. But his director counseled otherwise, 
 and he went with his family to Bretenières to 
 pass the last vacation he could ever have with 
 them, as students of the Foreign Mission Semi- 
 nary spend their holidays together at a country 
 place called Meudon. During this difficult time 
 Just was so calm, even gay, that M. de Breten- 
 ières was hurt, believing that his son had lost all 
 love for home. Even his mother did not fully 
 understand the soreness of the tender heart that 
 deeply loved her, his father and brother, the old 
 servants, the house, the grounds where he had 
 played as a child, and the little church in which 
 he had made his First Communion. During 
 those days his affection clung to every old as- 
 sociation with a tenderness such as many never 
 feel. But though he could be calm he did not 
 trust himself to talk of the coming separation, 
 and whenever Christian mentioned it would turn 
 the subject with a little joke or some remark 
 about the collections at which they worked to- 
 gether to the last. 
 
 Poor Just! He was trying unselfishly, though 
 perhaps not very wisely, to make the parting as 
 easy as possible for his father and mother. To 
 
34 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 know that he was breaking their hearts was al- 
 most more than he could bear. To one of his 
 •friends he WTote, “Help me by your prayers to 
 take this step that I find so painful. I hope by 
 it to learn my first lessons in detachment and 
 abandonment of all things to God. My own de- 
 sire is to return to Paris in ten or twelve days, 
 but I feel that I ought to give more time than 
 that to my poor parents. I would a thousand 
 times rather have to combat opposition. As it 
 is, I see my father pine in silence, and my mother 
 grief stricken. Christian talks constantly of the 
 things we used to do. God grant me grace to be 
 firm! It is hard to make others suffer so much. 
 But it is a joy to know that I am doing God’s 
 will. Do pray for my parents.” 
 
 The end of the vacation came, and accom- 
 panied by IVl. and Mme. de Bretenières Just 
 passed for the last time between the gates of 
 the magnificent home of his childhood. For a 
 moment his sorrow slipped beyond his control 
 and with a. deep sigh he exclaimed, “At last it 
 is done!” On the nineteenth of September the 
 family knelt side by side at Mass in the church 
 of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, built on the site of the 
 chateau in wTich St. Bernard was born, and that 
 evening they started together for Paris. To the 
 end Just’s courage never failed. Long after his 
 parents had fallen into silence and began fur- 
 tively to wipe their eyes. Just talked calmly and 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 35 
 
 encouragingly to them, trying to share with their 
 hearts the deep peace that reigned in hisd 
 
 1 Father Walsh, the Superior of Maryknoll, recalls in connection 
 with the departure of Just from his home an incident mentioned by 
 a saintly Marist priest, Father Barbier, who died in Boston a few 
 years ago. 
 
 Father Barbier happened to be at the station when Just de Breten- 
 ières stepped out of his family carriage to take the train for Paris. 
 
 “That young fellow is a fool!” said the driver to a bystander as 
 the young apostle passed out of hearing. “He is giving up a fine 
 home and everything worth living for to go out to China and get 
 killed. He is certainly a fool!” 
 
 And so he was— for Christ’s sake, and of such is the kingdom 
 of heaven. 
 
36 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Foreign Mission Seminx^ry. 
 
 Just’s reception at Rue du Bac was most cor- 
 dial, but to one accustomed to the atmosphere 
 of an aristocratic home and the quiet refinement 
 of Issy it seemed unceremonious to a degree that 
 was a little embarrassing. The students gathered 
 around him, laughingly saluted him as “Father 
 de Bretenières,” and clapped their hands on 
 his shoulders or fairly hugged him. Discon- 
 certed at first. Just was quick to see what treas- 
 ures of virtue were concealed by the free and 
 easy manner of his new friends. As he wrote 
 to the Abbé Gautrelet, “I thought in the be- 
 ginning that I was in the midst of a happy, easy- 
 going crowd who take things as they come and 
 trouble themselves but little about their inner 
 lives. I was greatly mistaken. Soon I under- 
 stood that a house from which men are sent 
 forth to do battle with the devil in his own 
 strongholds must be the object of God’s special 
 favors. If you come to see me this winter I 
 shall tell you things that may astonish you and 
 will surely convince you that the day of saints 
 has not passed.” 
 
 But having come to regard his fellow-students 
 as saints Just felt himself unfit to be their asso- 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 37 
 
 ciate. As he expressed it, he dared not raise 
 his eyes to them, and he really suffered from a 
 sense of his unworthiness, until he learned to 
 think not of what he was but of what he wished 
 to be. By this road he went forward rapidly 
 and courageously, accepting without flinching the 
 conditions imposed by Our Lord on those who 
 would follow Him closely: complete detachment 
 and entire renouncement of their own will. Con- 
 scious of his inexperience in the spiritual life he 
 took the simplest possible means of overcoming 
 the difficulty and made a vow of obedience to his. 
 spiritual director. In spite of this safeguard he 
 often went to extremes in his mortifications and 
 acts of humility. He was young and lacked the 
 balance which only time could give. Still, taken 
 all in all, his life at the seminary, even in its 
 earliest days, was admirable; it was earnest, gen- 
 erous, ardent. 
 
 The words of Almighty God to Abraham, 
 “Leave thy country, thy family, and the house 
 of thy father and go to the land which I shall 
 show you,” were often put before the students 
 of the Foreign Mission Seminary to remind them 
 that perfect detachment was necessary if they 
 were to become exemplary missioners. Just took 
 them a little too literally. In some notes, written 
 by Mme. de Bretenières, she says, “In the be- 
 ginning of his stay at the Foreign Mission Semi- 
 nary Just tried to break entirely with his family 
 that he might belong solely to God. This was 
 
38 For The Faith 
 
 very painful to us. Soon he, himself, understood 
 that the thing was impossible.” 
 
 He Vvas in love with poverty. “All my life,” 
 he wrote, “I have intended some day to embrace 
 a life of poverty not merely in my affections but 
 effectually. Day by day my longing for poverty 
 increases. It seems to me that everything I 
 .read, everything I see, everything I hear tells 
 me, ‘You are meant to be stripped of all things; 
 keep only what is indispensible and deprive your- 
 self of all else.’ They tell me that affective pov- 
 erty suffices, but in the bottom of my heart I 
 feel that I must go farther, and all that I hear 
 does not convince me. However, I am resolved 
 to follow exactly and unquestioningly whatever 
 Father Albrand tells me in regard to this, which 
 is the only way I can be content. Probably I 
 am talking foolishness of things which I do not 
 understand at all.” Certainly Just wore the liv- 
 ery of the Lady Poverty. His hat became a 
 by-word at the seminary; one pair of stout, un- 
 sightly shoes served him for five years; sun and 
 rain and long wear did their worst for his cas- 
 sock. His rabat became so ragged that at last 
 even he became convinced that it had had its day, 
 and he secured another — out of the sweepings! 
 He was obliged to wear glasses at his work and 
 rejoiced to find old Iron frames of archaic de- 
 sign. 
 
 His love of mortification was not less ardent. 
 Finding his bed luxuriously comfortable he put 
 his straw mattress on top of the upper, softer 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 39 
 
 one, and used his shoes for a pillow. Perhaps 
 some day on the missions he would have no 
 other: so he reasoned. It would be well, he 
 thought, to accustom himself to rest without un- 
 dressing and to sleep from time to time on the 
 floor. Knowing that in the years to come he 
 might often be soaked with rain and unable to 
 change his clothes he tried to accustom himself 
 not to do so in Paris. An imprudence of this 
 kind cost him a serious illness. After an ex- 
 cursion during which on tv/o successive days he 
 had been drenched to the skin and had refused 
 the coverings which his companions offered him 
 for his bed, he had a severe attack of inflam- 
 mation of the lungs. 
 
 To reassure his relatives, who were greatly 
 alarmed when they learned of his illness, he 
 wrote, “Experience has taught me a little pru- 
 dence, so I am going to follow all the doctor’s 
 directions. I am drinking the water he pre- 
 scribed, going to bed a little earlier than usual, 
 and getting up a little later. I am trying to be 
 good to my throat by keeping silence, or at least 
 talking less than usual. But all this does not in- 
 terfere with my ordinary work.” Nevertheless, 
 Christian, who stopped in Paris on his way home 
 from a trip through Belgium, found Just in such 
 miserable health that he wrote at once to his 
 parents, who begged the family physician to take 
 their reckless son under his care. 
 
 “After this illness,” Mme. de Bretenières 
 wrote sadly, “Just lost whatever remained to 
 
40 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 him of the appearance of vigorous youth. His 
 cheeks, until then round and full of color, be- 
 came thin and pale; his body became thin and 
 the bones in his hands very prominent. He 
 looked more like an anchorite than a twenty- 
 four year old seminarian. But his gaiety re- 
 mained to testify to the joy and peace of his 
 soul. The mortifications which he practiced cer- 
 tainly caused the change in his appearance.” 
 
 Meanwhile Just’s soul was ever reaching for 
 higher and higher things. From St. John of the 
 Cross, whom he deeply loved, he learned that 
 the man of God should renounce spiritual as 
 well as earthly joys. And promptly did he re- 
 nounce them. On the days that the students 
 were free to leave the seminary he had become 
 accustomed to go to the chapel of some religious 
 of Perpetual Adoration where amid a wealth of 
 flowers and lights Our Blessed Lord was always 
 to be seen under His Eucharistic veils. To Just 
 the place was almost heaven. Perfectly happy 
 he would kneel for hours in a corner of the 
 chapel. “How easily one prays here!” he ex- 
 claimed more than once. He acquiesced readily 
 when asked to say one of his first Masses there, 
 but as the time approached excused himself. To 
 his mother he confided the reason for his re- 
 fusal. “I should have had too much happiness 
 in saying Mass in that lovely place. A missioner 
 should not be on the w^atch for spiritual joys.” 
 
 In his desire for humility Just learned to seize 
 every opportunity of lowering himself in the 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 41 
 
 eyes of others, and as far as possible stripped 
 himself of all that in gesture, manner, or way of 
 speaking would betray the refinement and ele- 
 gance of his early surroundings. He endeavored 
 to conceal his accomplishments, and to hide him- 
 self in the crowd. Often he stole noiselessly 
 behind the priests as they prayed alone in the 
 chapel and falling on his knees kissed the hem 
 of their cassocks. The most menial tasks were 
 his choice : he swept the corridors, he cleaned 
 the lamps, he waited upon all. On the streets of 
 Paris his shabbiness and pretended awkwardness 
 sometimes called forth joking remarks that de- 
 lighted him. It must be admitted that in his 
 pursuit of humiliation Just more than once went 
 to an extreme that bordered on eccentricity. 
 After all he was little more than a boy: a defect 
 more easily and more quickly remedied than any 
 other. 
 
 At least one incident greatly troubled Just’s 
 peace of soul at this time. He expected to be 
 called to Minor Orders at the close of his first 
 year of theology, as was the custom at St. Sul- 
 pice, and when the time approached and the 
 subject was not mentioned he suffered cruelly, 
 believing that his superiors had found him unfit 
 for the work for which his soul yearned with 
 ever growing intensity. He thought it best to 
 say nothing to his director, but to await in pa- 
 tience the awful sentence which, he became con- 
 vinced, was hanging over him; but he spoke of 
 the matter to Christian. “For two days,’’ he 
 
42 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 said, “I have been in anguish. Before speaking 
 to my director I wish to give God this sacrifice, 
 if he wishes^ it of me, and to place myself en- 
 tirely in His hands. It seems impossible to me 
 not to become a missioner. I have not been able 
 to sleep these last nights, but when I was too 
 much troubled I sang softly some hymn to the 
 Blessed Virgin. I have put the matter in her 
 hands, which gives me courage and makes me 
 better disposed to accept whatever God wills.” 
 
 It was only after he had reduced his suffering 
 soul to indifference, or at least to perfect resig- 
 nation, that he decided to speak to Father Al- 
 brand who reassured and consoled him. The 
 rule of the Foreign Mission Seminary did not 
 permit any student to receive Minor Orders as 
 soon as Just was expecting it. He could not 
 hope for ordination for several months. 
 
 Just suffered, also, from time to time, from 
 the discouragement and disgust that may assail 
 even the strongest souls. Two or three times at 
 Issy community life had seemed to him an in- 
 supportable burden, and he had longed with all 
 his heart to return to his own people. But the 
 trial had passed quickly. At the Foreign Mis- 
 sion Seminary, also, he felt for a time an intense 
 disgust for his work, his surroundings — every- 
 thing. Thinking one day that he could bear it 
 no longer, he went to Father Albrand and told 
 him that he could not remain in the seminary, 
 that he had no vocation and was obliged in con- 
 science to return to the ordinary walks of life. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 43 
 
 Father Albrand heard him to the end, then 
 asked, smiling, “Is that all you wish to say to 
 me?” “Yes, Father,” Just replied. “Now go 
 back to ' your room and think no more of the 
 matter.” Instantly the temptation lifted. Speak- 
 ing of the matter afterwards Just would laugh 
 heartily. 
 
 Ordinarily he was radiantly happy. His ex- 
 uberant gaiety w^as proverbial. The merest trifle 
 sent him into peals of laughter even in class and 
 in the refectory where more than once he was 
 reproved for what was deemed unseemly merri- 
 ment. This light-heartedness was to serve him 
 well during the long, painful journey to Korea 
 and amid the hardships of the life that followed. 
 
 In the woods that surrounded Meudon Just 
 found a retired spot greatly to his liking. There 
 he often went to pray for the success of the 
 missioners already at work and to seek close 
 union with God; and there his prayer was so 
 blessed that it became a foretaste of heaven. 
 On the pretext of accustoming himself to the 
 hardships awaiting him he obtained permission 
 occasionally to pass a night there. One morn- 
 ing a seminarian who had risen very early sur- 
 prised him in his retreat. Just was kneeling 
 with his forehead against the trunk of a young 
 oak, completely wrapt in prayer and so motion- 
 less that rabbits were frolicing close beside him. 
 
 It was under this tree that Just and Chris- 
 tian had their last visit together, and after their 
 son was gone M. and Mme. de Breteniè.res 
 
44 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 loved to go there to weep and to pray. A cross 
 cut in the bark now marks what to this day the 
 seminarians call “Just’s tree.” Every Friday 
 they gather around it to sing the Passion of 
 Our Lord on the spot where one of His friends 
 found courage to follow Him unto death. 
 
 While Just w^as at the Foreign Mission Semi- 
 nary he began to hope that Christian, too, had 
 a vocation for the priesthood. He did all in his 
 power to encourage it and was overjoyed when 
 at last his brother’s hesitation and trouble of 
 mind ripened into a resolution to enter the semi- 
 nary at Issy. When Just’s vacation came he 
 went there with Christian, both of them being 
 eager to make a retreat. ~ They had parted to 
 begin their days of prayer wdien Just, thinking 
 of the temptations and trials certain to beset 
 Christian during the long hours of solitude, 
 hastily wrote him these lines: “Don’t be sur- 
 prised, dear Christian, to receive this little word 
 from me. I am writing so soon after leaving 
 you to say once more, do not be afraid if during 
 this retreat and your first days as a seminarian 
 the devil tries to conquer you by temptations to 
 ennui and regret for the past. Don’t let such 
 feelings get the upper hand. Offer all the pain 
 to God, and be joyous always, however trying 
 the feelings that may assail you.” Henceforth 
 he and Christian were closer to each other than 
 ever before. Their natural tie had been strength- 
 ened and elevated. Just could open his whole 
 heart to his brother, and no longer hesitated to 
 
(The city where Just was born) 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 45 
 
 urge him to a sanctity satisfied only with per- 
 fection. 
 
 Nor did Just forget his parents. Realizing 
 that God had required tremendous sacrifices of 
 them in taking both their sons for His special 
 service, he tried to help them to bear their lone- 
 liness by raising their hearts ever higher and 
 higher until they would seek nothing but His 
 love and His grace. Sometimes his exhortations 
 were playful in tone, as when he wrote, “Per- 
 haps, Father, you will call me preachy, but I re- 
 peat that the day will come when you will clap 
 your hands over having made of your sons, not 
 daring cavaliers, but — God willing — good fathers 
 of families. For we aim, Christian and I, at 
 being nothing less than fathers of families, after 
 a fashion which does not require much house- 
 keeping.” 
 
 In his desire to prepare them for the complete 
 separation to come he so arranged his time that 
 they saw him but seldom and then only for a 
 little while; and believing that they should know 
 the dangers awaiting him he sometimes repeated 
 to them stories of the missions that came to his 
 ears in the seminary. “We have just learned,” 
 he wrote one day, “that a ship bearing six priests 
 who left us last March took fire near Hong- 
 kong and was entirely destroyed. They say that 
 every one was saved, but we are not yet certain 
 of this.” In another letter he was able to tell 
 more: “I am going to give you the details — 
 some of them funny, some tragic — of the wreck 
 
46 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 of our priests. On the evening of July twenty- 
 fourth they were preparing for bed when the cry 
 of fire sounded on all sides. They, ran to the 
 deck and found that in a few minutes the fire 
 had made such headway that the captain — an 
 Englishman — had lost all presence of mind. Ke 
 and all on board knew that there were two hun- 
 dred barrels of powder in the hold. Our priests 
 gave one another absolution. In the confusion 
 two of the life boats were badly damaged. Only 
 two remained, and our six missloners crowded 
 Into the sam.e one, wTich carried twenty men and 
 had room for only ten. Tt was Impossible to 
 take with them more than a little water, some 
 bacon, some crackers, and some live ducks. Af- 
 ter a few minutes the ship blew up making a 
 wonderful display of fireworks. Remember, all 
 this was In the middle of the night, a stormy 
 night, with lightning, thunder, and high waves 
 for setting. 
 
 “By morning the two boats had drifted apart 
 but were headed In the same direction and about 
 two hundred and fifty leagues from shore. For 
 six days, during which the heat Increased hour 
 by hour, all hands rowed, the missoners like the 
 others, on rations of half a glass of water, a 
 little bacon or duck, and a few crackers each 
 day. After the sixth day all except the misslon- 
 ers lost hope and would row no more. The boat 
 was pursued by pirates and escaped only because 
 richer prey came In sight. At last the party 
 reached Macao, worn out with fatigue and hun- 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 47 
 
 ger, especially the priests who during the last 
 two days had been obliged to do all the work. 
 It seems that their landing was really funny: 
 twenty living skeletons, but half clothed, whom 
 the people flocked to see, curious to learn who 
 they were and from v/hat strange country they 
 had come. 
 
 “The governor of Macao received the mis- 
 sioners kindly, provided them with clothes and 
 lodging, and two days later sent them to Hong- 
 kong v/here the procurator of the mission re- 
 ceived them with open arms. Not one of the 
 band was ill, so all prepared to go at once to 
 the various posts assigned them. Everything 
 they had brought from Europe had been lost, 
 but they were delighted to find themselves as 
 poor as the Divine Master who had not a stone 
 on which to rest Elis head. 
 
 “So you see, dear Father and Mother, that 
 the Blessed Virgin never abandons missioners. 
 You may feel very safe about me who longs to 
 be one, since you have placed me in her hands. 
 Don’t be afraid; nothing can happen to me ex- 
 cept by God’s permission.” 
 
 Nor was this the only letter in which Just 
 gave his parents a glimpse of the dangers which 
 might fall to his lot. Later he wrote, “The 
 mandarin who put Father Néel to death has been 
 promoted. It looks as if God wishes to chastise 
 the province in which our brother was martyred 
 for it is in the clutches of a famine so terrible 
 that the people are killing and eating little chil- 
 
48 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 dren and those too weak to defend themselves, 
 and a typhoon made horrible havoc in Canton. 
 From beneath the debris they had recovered fif- 
 teen thousand bodies when our letters were writ- 
 ten, and it was estimated that its toll was at least 
 forty thousand victims in that one city ! But not 
 a Christian perished. In Cochin-China, affairs 
 are going badly for the missions, and again 
 priests are being hunted. Thibet, too, is mis- 
 treating them. In short God still has good things 
 in store for those whom He calls to the for- 
 eign apostolate. 
 
 “Yesterday we had a letter from Tongking, the 
 first for more than a year. Two of our mission- 
 ers had been arrested and put through three 
 inquiries during which they not only received 
 strokes of the bastinado but were tortured in 
 other ways. Thirty times red hot pincers were 
 applied to their bodies; fifteen times cold ones 
 which they say cause more intense pain. We 
 think that by this time they must be in heaven. 
 Since 1858 Tongking has martyred fifty native 
 priests, one of whom during his trial was tor- 
 tured so cruelly on a kind of rack that his arms 
 were almost torn from his sides, and another 
 received seventeen strokes of the executioner’s 
 axe before his head was severed from his body. 
 Bishop Jeanet narrowly escaped arrest. He was 
 hidden not more than two feet from a place 
 which was searched. All this news, so sad in 
 one sense, is consoling in another. It shows 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 49 
 
 how deeply our holy Faith is rooted in these 
 countries.” 
 
 By his fellow students Just was revered as a 
 saint. “When I wished to excite my devotion 
 during the recitation of office I used to look 
 at Just de Bretenières,” one said; and another, 
 “Each verse of the psalms seemed a prayer 
 of love on his lips;” and a third told in later 
 years, “There was not one among us who 
 did not look upon him as a saint. As for me, 
 when I heard that nine missionaries had been 
 martyred, without knowing their names I said, 
 ‘It is impossible that Father de Bretenières was 
 not of the number.’ ” 
 
 Just’s relations with his companions were very 
 intimate. Instinctively they went to him with their 
 troubles and perplexities, and he was able to cheer 
 and to encourage them. The following letter, 
 written to Mme. de Bretenières shortly after her 
 son’s martyrdom, gives an idea of the extent of 
 his influence over many: “It is to Just, after God, 
 that I owe the happiness of having persevered in 
 my vocation. My first day in the seminary passed 
 pleasantly in meeting my new superiors and com- 
 panions, but the following morning my heart was 
 almost broken at the thought of having left my 
 relatives and friends and above all my mother 
 who had been paralyzed for six years. Finding 
 m.yself alone I went to the woods where your son 
 soon joined me. He questioned me kindly, and 
 listened to all I had to say; then by tender, en- 
 couraging words brought peace to my soul. Later 
 
50 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 my trouble returned and with it temptations that 
 gave me no rest, until weary and disgusted, I 
 thought more than once of leaving the seminary. 
 I spoke to Father B — and it was he who ar- 
 ranged that I should be placed in close relations 
 with your son. After that when the thought of 
 home, family, and friends, or the temptations of 
 the devil threatened to get the upper hand I 
 went to his room. Whatever the hour and how- 
 ever busy he might be, Just was always ready to 
 receive me, always cheerful, gentle, kind, and 
 helpful. One day, for instance, he made me sit 
 beside him on his bed, and said, ‘You poor little 
 fool, do you really want to go away? Would 
 you leave the services of so good a God?’ And 
 he spoke so feelingly of the joy of working for 
 our loving Master, of the Missions, and of 
 heaven that I was strengthened and encouraged. 
 Nor did Just forget me after he left us. He 
 not only prayed for me, but letters from him 
 came from the Orient to Anjou where I had 
 been obliged to go to recover from an illness. I 
 treasure two in which it makes me happy to see 
 myself called, ‘Dear little Louis,’ and ‘My very 
 dear little Louis.’ One was written in Man- 
 churia, the other in Korea. He had heard of 
 my ill-health and after some words of encour- 
 agement and sympathy and the promise of his 
 prayers, he said, ‘And pray much for the poor 
 sinner who is writing to you, whose heart is 
 very cold, and who does so little to make Our 
 Lord forget all his ingratitude.’ A few words 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 51 
 
 in the second letter give a glimpse of his love of 
 mortification: ‘Be very careful of yourself. Good 
 health is necessary to a missioner. Mortifica- 
 tions come from every side without giving one 
 the trouble to look for them. So, you see, life on 
 the missions is very beautiful. Good-bye; write 
 to me every year, and may Our Lord live in our 
 hearts I’ ” 
 
 Near the country house at Meudon there are 
 quarries from which quantities of stone are sent 
 to Paris and its suburbs. The men who worked 
 them in Just’s time were irreligious, not through 
 malice but through ignorance, and the directors 
 of the seminary, yearning over their poor souls, 
 permitted some of the students to work among 
 them on holidays and during their summer vaca- 
 tions. Just soon became a leader in this aposto- 
 late and loved it intensely. He deemed his part 
 in it the greatest grace that God had ever given 
 him, apart, of course, from his vocation. He and 
 his associates would make friends with the work- 
 men by showing an interest in their work, offering 
 to help with it, and talking affably to them. Stiff 
 and unfriendly at first, the men’s confidence was 
 quickly won. One and all they liked Just. It 
 did not take them long to discover that the tall 
 seminarian with the distinguished air was easy 
 to talk to, often had sweetmeats for their 
 children hidden in his pockets, and was inter- 
 ested in all their • affairs — in their hardships, 
 their ailments, above all in their families. Many 
 times Just went to the quarries burdened with 
 
52 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 bundles of clothing for the children of some un- 
 fortunate laborer, and more than once when a 
 workman died he found a home for his orphaned 
 little ones. One or two incidents which proved 
 to the men that he was afraid of nothing raised 
 him immeasurably in their regard. Their affec- 
 tion and respect won, it was easy for Just to 
 speak to them of God and His Mother, of the 
 Church and the Sacraments, and he did untold 
 good among them. 
 
 In a letter to his parents he explained his man- 
 ner of approaching the men and his attitude to- 
 - ward them: “First of all I persuade myself — 
 and it is easily done — that those poor fellows 
 are better than I. They are men like ourselves, 
 children of God like ourselves, and we should 
 speak and act as if they were our equals in every 
 way. I am trying to win souls dwelling in bodies 
 broken by hard work, and weary, weary; and I 
 throw aside my hat, roll up my sleeves, slip off my 
 cassock, and seizing a pick-axe or a crow-bar make 
 an effort to help. Sometimes I even suggest bet- 
 ter ways of doing the work. When I have con- 
 vinced one of the poor fellows that, in spite of 
 my cassock, I am a man like himself, little by 
 little I am able to speak to him of God, of the 
 Sacraments, and of his own soul. If I were at 
 Bretenières I should do the same for the work- 
 ing men there, always beginning with the con- 
 viction that I am no better than those whom I 
 long to help. Perhaps, in God’s sight, they are 
 better than I. I should talk to them frankly and 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 53 
 
 very simply, without being afraid of letting them 
 see the interest such splendid fellows arouse in 
 me and the tender charity I feel toward them.” 
 
 One winter night it was past ten o’clock be- 
 fore Just and his companion returned from the 
 quarries to the seminary. While talking to the 
 quarrymen they had missed from their number 
 an old man, always faithful to his work, and on 
 inquiring had been told that he was ill and had 
 crept away to lie down within one of the caves 
 in the rocks. Just and his companion feared that 
 the exposure would cause the old man’s death, 
 and they undertook to find him. The approaching 
 darkness and the immensity of the quarries made 
 their task difficult. They had seached for a long 
 time when, on reaching an abandoned quarry, 
 some one called threateningly to them. It was 
 the old man whom they were seeking. Believing 
 that they were robbers he was trying to frighten 
 them av/ay. Just and his fellow student had taken 
 him on their shoulders to a nearby hospital, only 
 to be told that there was not a vacant bed in 
 the house. From door to door they had then car- 
 ried the sufferer, begging shelter for him, and at 
 last had found an innkeeper who was willing to 
 give their protégé a room for ten cents: all the 
 money they had. 
 
 Just sacrificed everything — time, rest, recre- 
 ation — to his work among the quarrymen. Some- 
 times even his brother suffered through his zeal 
 for it. “I well remember,” Christian told long 
 afterward, “that shortly after the beginning of 
 
54 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 my first year at the seminary I obtained permis- 
 sion to pass part of one of our holidays at 
 Meudon. I had been with Just only a few min- 
 utes when he said that he was obliged to go 
 away for some hours, but would introduce me 
 to several other students whom, he assured me, 
 I should find both agreeable and edifying. It 
 is true that his friends were admirably zealous 
 and devoted; nevertheless, I should have pre- 
 ferred my dear Just. It was nearly evening and 
 time for me to go back to Issy before he re- 
 turned. He had had work to do at the quarries : 
 so did he understand charity! During that year, 
 although he passed the door of our seminary on 
 every holiday, he came to see me only four or 
 five times, and when I complained of the rarity 
 of his visits said, ‘My writing to you and seeing 
 you are two points upon which your ideas will 
 change. We have found Jesus; what more do 
 we desire?’ ” 
 
 But the quarrymen were not Just’s only pro- 
 tégés. He was kind to the old men under the 
 care of the Little Sisters of the Poor, visiting 
 them frequently, instructing them, waiting on 
 them at table. The men became very much at- 
 tached to him and it was a sorrow to them 
 when he said good-bye for the last time. Indeed, 
 to be poor was to have the key of Just’s heart. 
 His parents were often reminded of this — per- 
 haps more often than they relished. His letters 
 to them are full of appeals for his protégés, each 
 one more deserving and more destitute than the 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 SS 
 
 last. “Dear Mother,” he wrote one day, “do 
 not be surprised so soon to receive another letter 
 from me. I have something important on my 
 mind to-day. I am going to give you a chance 
 to place ten dollars at interest in the bank of 
 our Heavenly Father. I would attend to the 
 matter without troubling you, but I lack one 
 thing: the ten dollars. Perhaps you will supply 
 them. And it might be well to give four dollars 
 more, that my poor people may have something 
 to spend for pleasure, as well as for necessities. 
 I trust you to plead this cause well with Father. 
 Many, many thanks ! Always count on the bound- 
 less love of your son. Just.” 
 
 - On another occasion he wrote to tell his pa- 
 rents that four years before one of his fellow 
 Students had burdened himself with the tuition 
 fees of a promising boy at St. Sulpice. He had 
 been a little rash, perhaps, having neither means, 
 nor relatives to whom he could appeal. Just 
 ended his explanation by saying, “Scold me if 
 you like — but give!” Again he begged, not 
 money, but a good, serviceable dress for a coun- 
 trywoman of medium height, and two blouses 
 for her ten and twelve year old sons. “Don’t 
 be afraid to supply the things. Mother; they 
 are really needed,” he said. And his mother 
 sent the clothing, as she sent whatever he asked, 
 never complaining of the generosity of her pen- 
 niless son. 
 
 At Christmas-time, In 1862, Just received 
 Minor Orders. Day by day his fervor was 
 
56 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 deepening and his character maturing. He was 
 no longer timid and uncertain of his way. He 
 saw it clearly and walked in it steadfastly. Let- 
 ters written at this time to a friend, already a 
 missionary in Siam, give glimpses of his beauti- 
 ful soul. In one of them he says ecstatically, 
 “Each time that you speak to me of loving Jesus 
 my heart is deeply moved and my desire to love 
 Him grows stronger. But how fruitless my de- 
 sires are! I see that there is one thing which I 
 must ask for you and for myself: love. In a 
 little more than a year I shall be a priest. It 
 seems impossible that God will raise me so high, 
 I who am so contemptible I I am appalled at 
 the thought, and tremble before the responsi- 
 bilities I shall assume.” A year earlier it had 
 been the thought of separation from those whom 
 he loved that pained him. Now, he scarcely 
 heeds this, so overwhelmed is he at the near- 
 ness of the priesthood of which he feels himself 
 to be utterly unworthy. Shortly before his ordi- 
 nation, which was to be followed almost imme- 
 diately by departure for the mission to which 
 he was assigned. Father d’Hulst asked Just, “Of 
 which do you think most, ordination or leaving 
 home?” “What a foolish question!” Just laugh- 
 ingly replied. “I think only of the priesthood. 
 To think that I — I shall say Mass!” 
 
 In the spring of 1863 he was ordained sub- 
 deacon, and joy overflowed his soul. He had 
 obtained permission to pass the preceding night 
 in the chapel : a never-to-be-forgotten night. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 57 
 
 From that hour until he was raised to the priest- 
 hood he tried to live in entire recollection, writ- 
 ing few letters, talking little, and passing hour 
 after hour before the Blessed Sacrament. “I am 
 alone, all alone with Jesus in my little cell. I 
 see no one. I am very happy,” he wrote to a 
 friend, in one of the rare letters of those days. 
 
 A trial was reserved to him before he was to 
 taste the joys of the priesthood. His old par- 
 ents, who had so bravely given both their sons 
 to God’s special service, lost courage as the day 
 of Just’s departure drew near. They suffered 
 intense agony; they felt that they could not see 
 him go. They believed that he had mistaken 
 his vocation, and foresaw a thousand dangers 
 even for his soul. They pleaded with him and 
 wept over him, almost breaking his loving heart. 
 
 The last time that he saw Christian before his 
 ordination they went together to Just’s favorite 
 retreat in the woods at Meudon. “I could never 
 give an idea of his conversation that day,” Chris- 
 tian told years afterward. “It was full of per- 
 fect peace, and at the same time of a force and 
 energy that I shall never forget. Just’s soul 
 was open before me. He did not know how to 
 express his happiness. It was the last intimate 
 talk I ever had with my brother. After he had 
 given me excellent advice about my own minis- 
 try we knelt beside the tree and prayed together 
 for the missions, particularly the one to which 
 his superiors would assign him.” 
 
58 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Ordination and Last Good-byes. 
 
 On the twenty-first of May, 1864, Just was 
 ordained priest by Bishop Thomines-Desma- 
 zures, vicar-apostolic of Thibet. After the cere- 
 mony M. and Mme. de Breteniéres slipped 
 away, sacrificing their desire to kiss the loved 
 hands freshly hallowed by the holy oils, that 
 nothing might distract their san in the ineffable 
 joy of his thanksgiving. Just’s first Mass was 
 said in a private chapel of the seminary. Chris- 
 tain and the Abbé Gautrelet served, and Father 
 Campian, who for years had been pastor at 
 Breteniéres, assisted him at the altar. His par- 
 ents and a few intimate friends were present. 
 When all was over Christian interrupted Just’s 
 ecstatic thanksgiving by touching him gently on 
 the shoulder and reminding him that their rela- 
 tives and friends were awaiting his blessing. He 
 arose instantly and going to the altar-rail blessed 
 first his father and his mother, then all who were 
 present — and at once returned to his unfinished 
 prayers. “I have just heard Mass in heaven 1” 
 some one exclaimed as he left the chapel. 
 
 Before that day Just had hardly dared to ask 
 of God the grace he desired above all others. 
 “I am not the stuff of which martyrs are made,” 
 
1 
 
 AT THE PARIS FOREIGN MISSION SEMINARY 
 128 Rue du Bac 
 
 1. Just’s Favorite Walk 
 
 2. Preparing for the Corpus Christi Procession 
 
 3. A Bell from the East, used at the Ceremony of Departure 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 59 
 
 he had often said, “only innocent victims are 
 worthy to follow in the footsteps of the Lamb.” 
 But the hope born in his heart when he was but 
 a boy would not die. Two years before his ordi- 
 nation, in a letter which told of the death of a 
 missionary, killed out of hatred for the Faith, 
 he had exclaimed exultingly, “So martyrdom is 
 still possible !” A priest, his timidity vanished. 
 He no longer feared to hope that he might shed 
 his blood for Christ. To die a martyr became, 
 not only the goal of his desires, but a constant 
 plea in his prayers, a hope so sweet that it filled 
 his soul with joy too deep for words. 
 
 When, after the Consecration of his first Mass, 
 he said the words, “And to us sinners, also. Thy 
 servants, who trust in the multitude of Thy mer- 
 cies, vouchsafe to grant some part and fellowship 
 with Thy holy Apostles and Martyrs, . . . not 
 weighing our merits but pardoning our offenses,” 
 the familiar words impressed him as they had 
 never done before. He found in them a meaning 
 inexpressibly dear to his heart. Writing to Father 
 Dubernard, a missionary in Thibet, he said, “Beg 
 of God the grace of martyrdom for me. It is 
 His will that we should implore this great gift. 
 Do we not ask it daily after the Memento for 
 the Dead?” 
 
 While awaiting instructions as to his destina- 
 tion Just was absorbed by the joys of his priestly 
 life. He lived very much alone, prolonging his 
 thanksgiving after Mass far into the day and 
 ending it only to begin to prepare for the next 
 
60 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 day’s Paradise. Sometimes his old father served 
 him, with a pride no words can tell. 
 
 On the thirteenth of June, at the close of a 
 little talk, his superior said to him, laughingly, 
 “By the way, shall I tell you where you are to 
 go? What mission do you prefer?” “I do not 
 prefer any,” Just replied. “If I send you to 
 Thibet will you be satisfied?” Father Albrand 
 asked. “Perfectly,” was Just’s answer. “You 
 are to go to Tongking!” “That will do just as 
 well,” Just replied laughingly. “No, you are to 
 go to Cochin-China,” Father Albrand said next. 
 “Just as you say,” Just agreed. “You really do 
 not care?” “Not at all. Father.” Then, in a 
 changed tone. Father Albrand said, “Let us talk 
 seriously.” Instantly Just threw himself on his 
 knees to receive his destination prayerfully, as 
 from the hand of God Himself. “Oh, if you are 
 in earnest, that is another matter!” he exclaimed. 
 “You are to go to Korea,” Father Albrand told 
 him. “If you had bade me choose I should have 
 said Korea,” Just answered calmly; and without 
 another word he slipped away. 
 
 To the Abbé Gautrelet he wrote, “One little 
 word to tell you where I am to go, for you, as 
 well as Father and Mother, have a right to know 
 at once. My dear new country is to be Korea. 
 Our Lord is giving me the best He has. Just 
 now it is our most beautiful mission, the one in 
 which it is easiest to spend oneself to the last 
 breath in the service of the Master. Hurrah for 
 Korea, land of martyrs! It is true that at the 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 61 
 
 moment there is not open persecution, but sweat 
 is replacing blood. There is a tremendous amount 
 of work to be done. We shall probably leave 
 here on the fifteenth of next month. The date of 
 our arrival is less certain. It can vary as much 
 as five months, so many mishaps are possible, 
 and so many risks will have to be run.^ But the 
 prospect does not frighten me. Provided we are 
 where God wishes nothing else matters much. 
 Pray often for your Korean who will try to re- 
 pay you by mementos in his Masses. 
 
 “Good-bye, dear old teacher! In Korea, as 
 in France, I shall always love you and never 
 forget our eight years together at Dijon and 
 Bretenières. 
 
 “God be with you! 
 
 “JUST.^^ 
 
 Ï Determinofl to i)resorvo the Integrity of their territory, which 
 both China and Japan coveted, the rulers of Korea had forbidden 
 any stranger to enter the country under pain of death, and the 
 same penalty was paid by any of their subjects who tried to leave 
 it. The frontiers were closely guarded by a series of military 
 posts, in the more important of which there lived, as inspectors 
 and custom-house officers, police agents chosen for their clever- 
 ness and long experience. Fierce dogs helped them to keep watch 
 night and day, so it was almost impossible for any one to cross 
 the frontier unseen. 
 
 By land there were but two roads, one from Tartary, the other 
 from China. On another side the country was protected by moun- 
 tainous deserts and impenetrable forests. The only way to enter 
 from this direction was to steal between two forts under cover 
 of darkness, and by scaling the snow-covered mountains reach 
 the interior. It w^as thus that the first missioners penetrated 
 the country, but in times of persecution all the ruses of the Chris- 
 tians had been discovered, and were known, not only to the man- 
 darins, but to custom-house officers, to shepherds, and to farmers— 
 in short, to all the native pagans. Entrance by land was henceforth 
 impossible. Just and his companions were to attempt to find some 
 quiet spot on the coast where they might disembark unobserved: 
 a project beset with difficulties and dangers. 
 
62 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 As soon as he knew his destination Just read 
 everything he could find about Korea/ its his- 
 tory and its people. Fathers Beaulieu, Dorie, 
 and Huin were named as his companions and the 
 four exulted together over their happiness, hop- 
 ing for the gifts which God held in store for 
 them: four bloody deaths, four martyrs’ crowns. 
 They were together constantly, talking in an 
 earnest way or praying side by side in the chapel. 
 Before Father Dorie was told definitely as to 
 his new country he ran through the corridors of 
 the seminary, rapping on each door and announc- 
 ing to his friends that he was to go soon. “But 
 where?” one asked. “I don’t know yet, but I 
 am to be with Just. That’s enough for me,” he 
 replied. 
 
 Poor M. and Mme. de Bretenières were heart- 
 broken when they learned that their son was to 
 go so far and to so perilous a mission. Just tried 
 to soften their grief by being with them as much 
 as possible. In a hundred little w’ays he dis- 
 tracted and amused them, and did his best to in- 
 terest them in all the preparations for the long 
 voyage. He begged his mother to treat his com- 
 panions like children of her own, and to provide 
 them as well as him with whatever was needed: 
 which was little enough, for all were determined 
 to accept as few things as possible and only what 
 might belong to all in common. One day, how- 
 ever, Mme. de Bretenières was delighted because 
 she had persuaded Just to accept a relic of the 
 
 ^See Appendix. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 63 
 
 true Cross as a parting gift from her. He had 
 the precious relic put into a new reliquary and 
 seemed to be very happy over the possession of 
 his treasure. When Mme. de Bretenières told 
 Christian of the matter he laughed a little. “If 
 I know Just, you will have your relic back before 
 long. You have tempted him; that is all.” Half 
 an hour later Mme. de Bretenières went to the 
 Foreign Mission Seminary to see Just. He came 
 hurriedly to the parlor, with the reliquary in his 
 hand. “Take back your relic. Mother,” he said; 
 “I want to have nothing of my own. Do give it 
 to Christian.” 
 
 Just agreed to meet his brother on a certain 
 day at the church of Our Lady of Victory. After 
 Mass they renewed the consecration of their lives 
 to our Blessed Mother, and once more M. and 
 Mme. de Bretenières heroically offered their ’ 
 children to God. The remainder of that day Just 
 and Christian spent with their parents. It was 
 the last time that the family was ever united on 
 earth. In an effort — a mistaken effort, perhaps — 
 to make the hours pass as easily as possible Just 
 showed no sign of sadness and seemed not to 
 see the grief of his parents. He talked of indif- 
 ferent matters, and was perfectly calm, even 
 merry. M. de Bretenières, misunderstanding his 
 son, was deeply hurt and bitterly reproached 
 him. Afterward, when he had the key to Just’s 
 stratagem, he could not forgive himself. 
 
 In some notes which he wrote about Just, he 
 said, “The three years of my son’s stay at the 
 
64 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 seminary were almost over. During all that time 
 he had seldom come to see us. He had tried to 
 prepare us for complete separation from him. 
 His own sacrifice was made; he wished us to 
 share it. From the beginning of his life at Rue 
 du Bac he made an effort to lessen the number of 
 our visits to him. He came slowly and reluctantly 
 when called to the parlor. Often his mother saw 
 him for a few minutes only, and once she came 
 home in tears, not having seen him at all. I 
 spoke severely to Just, reminding him of the 
 fourth commandment. He heard me with the 
 deference and sweetness and calmness habitual 
 to him, which, alas! we were more than once 
 tempted to attribute to a lack of feeling. I knov/ 
 now that I tortured our dear child. Later we 
 learned from letters written at this time to his 
 intimate friends that his heart was bleeding with 
 sympathy for ‘the grief of his poor father.’ 
 Those letters, with all their proofs of the ten- 
 derness of his filial love — which I never really 
 doubted — will give me cause for tears to the 
 day of my death. 
 
 “We went to Paris in July. Just was to have a 
 free day. He arranged to devote a little of it to 
 some work of charity and to give us the remain- 
 der. All day he was perfectly self-possessed. 
 Evening came at last. Sitting beside his brother 
 on the balcony of our apartment, which com- 
 manded a view of a great part of the city, he 
 watched the sunset, knowing that it marked the 
 close of the last day we should spend together 
 
Just de Bretenîères 
 
 65 
 
 in this world. And as he watched it he laughed, 
 and chatted- gaily, and played little tricks on 
 Christian. No doubt he saw our frowns — and he 
 was but trying to make things easier for us ! The 
 moment came for him to leave, that moment 
 which we had dreaded ever since the sad even- 
 ing when he spoke to us for the first time of his 
 desire to enter the Foreign Mission Seminary. 
 Never since that evening had I seen him leave 
 our apartment without thinking sadly, ‘The day 
 is coming when I shall see him go for the last 
 time.’ That day had come. I listened to the 
 sound of his step on the stairs. I followed him 
 with my eyes as far as I could, when he passed 
 down the street. It was the last time.” 
 
 Not having an opportunity to see the Abbé 
 Gautrelet before leaving France, Just wrote him 
 a farewell letter, very simple, very brave, very 
 touching: “A last good-bye before leaving home. 
 It is for good this time that I say adieu. Adieu 
 for this miserable life. We shall meet again in 
 heaven. — Before going so far I wish to beg your 
 pardon for all the annoyance and weariness I 
 ever caused you, and I beg you to give me your 
 blessing. It will bring me happiness during my 
 journey, and later in my mission. 
 
 “On the fifteenth of this month we shall leave 
 this dear seminary. Here I have passed the 
 sweetest years of solitude I shall ever know, but 
 whatever may be my future difficulties they will 
 but pave the way for an eternity of joy. I am 
 sending you a photograph of Christian and my- 
 
66 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 self. Whenever you see it pray for us, and be 
 assured that every time I say Mass you will be 
 remembered at the Memento. 
 
 “Once more good-bye, my dear old teacher. 
 I embrace you with all my heart. 
 
 “JUST.^^ 
 
 The day of departure dawned. As M. de Bre- 
 tenières wrote, “We had been invited to assist 
 at Just’s last Mass in the chapel of the Foreign 
 Mission Seminary. His mother and I received 
 Holy Communion from our child’s hand, and 
 this Divine Food alone gave us strength to bear 
 the last good-byes. I was overwhelmed with 
 grief. Still, in offering my son to God, I always 
 tried to ease my sorrow a little by the thought 
 that perhaps some day Providence would send 
 him back to close our eyes. 
 
 “After Mass we went to the parlor where 
 Just soon joined us. He was perfectly calm and 
 made an effort to entertain us, as if we were 
 soon to meet again. Our conversation was not 
 long. We stood all the time like travelers who 
 meet on their way and are soon to separate. We 
 mastered our emotion, but a word, the merest 
 trifle, would have opened the flood-gates of our 
 tears. We knelt, and for the last time Just 
 blessed us; then, after pressing him to my heart, 
 I hurried out to call a carriage, for Christian 
 was not well. When I returned Just was gone. 
 
 “Thanks be to God our parting was as the 
 partings of Christians should be: without weak- 
 ness and without tears I” 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 67 
 
 To these notes of her husband’s Mme. de Bre- 
 tenières added, “A sad, sad day which I shall 
 never forget. That on which I learned my child’s 
 martrydom was less painful to me, for then I 
 knew that he was happy and would be for all 
 eternity.” 
 
 A friend of the family thus described the 
 Ceremony of Departure: “On the fifteenth of 
 July, 1864, I went to the Foreign Mission Semi- 
 nary to see Father de Bretenières who had been 
 assigned to the mission of Korea. I went to his 
 cell and found the bed dismantled, the mattress 
 rolled in a corner, and his trunk in the middle of 
 the floor, strapped for the long voyage. Father 
 de Bretenières wore a cassock which, though in 
 good condition, was not new, and his rabat was 
 worn. He was pale, and seemed to be deeply 
 moved. I tried to tell him what I felt in seeing 
 him go. He clasped my hand affectionately, beg- 
 ging me to pray for him and saying that he was 
 happy over obtaining what he had asked of God. 
 I replied, ‘What weight will the prayers of a 
 sinner like me have besides yours? You are 
 sacrificing birth, talent, fortune, and home, that 
 you may spread Christ’s kingdom.’ He replied, 
 ‘Pray for me; pray that I may obtain what I 
 desire.’ 
 
 “A bell rang summoning us to the little ora- 
 tory built in a corner of the garden. The mis- 
 sionaries chanted the Litany of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin. At the invocation ‘Queen of Martyrs’ they 
 fell on their knees, and a great wave of emotion 
 
68 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 swept over all of us who were present. Every 
 heart was beating in sympathy with theirs. The 
 Hymn of Departure, composed by Gounod, was 
 sung next. I could see Father de Bretenières; his 
 face was flushed, and his eyes shone. I heard 
 his voice ring out strong and true.” 
 
 Ten newly-ordained priests were leaving that 
 day. They went from the oratory to the church 
 and ranged themselves on the altar-steps, with 
 their faces turned towards their friends, while 
 the choir chanted the verse: “Quam speciosi pedes 
 evangelizatium pacem, evangelizatium bona!” 
 M. and Mme. de Bretenières were kneeling in 
 a dark corner of the tribune; Christian was in 
 the sanctuary. He wrote, describing the scene, 
 “They were truly beautiful, those young men 
 who were leaving all things to set forth for the 
 conquest of souls; and if my love did not blind 
 me Just was most beautiful of all. He seemed 
 to belong to heaven rather than to earth. In 
 my turn I kissed his feet. He took me in his 
 arms saying, ‘Courage, courage! Never forget 
 what I say to you: May Jesus in the Blessed 
 Sacrament be praised forever!’” 
 
 The ceremony over, the visitors left the church. 
 Just was surrounded by a number of priests and 
 students. Reaching over their heads he held out 
 his hand to his brother. “Until we meet in 
 heaven! It Is over here,” he said. 
 
 Meanwhile M. and Mme. de Bretenières stood, 
 hesitating, on the door-step of the seminary. A 
 carriage was awaiting the travelers. Would they 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 69 
 
 wait for a last look, a last word? The father 
 thought that it would be better to go. “We went 
 home in silence, absorbed in our own thoughts. 
 It was about six o’clock in the evening,” the poor 
 mother wrote afterwards. 
 
 As the party got into the carriage a beggar 
 pushed his way through the crowd that sur- 
 rounded them and Just gave him five pennies — 
 all the money he had — and laughingly exulted 
 over being “really poor at last.” 
 
 So ended Just’s days of probation. From the 
 solitude and protection of the seminary he had 
 set forth at last on the difficult way that was to 
 lead to a cruel martyrdom. A beautiful letter, 
 written to M. de Bretenières by his son’s intimate 
 friend. Father d’Hulst, gives a resumé of the 
 years which had closed. “I saw Just for the first 
 time on the day of his entrance at Issy,” Father 
 d’Hulst began. “His gentle, attractive manner 
 impressed me at once. From the first I observed 
 the confidence, I might even say deference, which 
 he showed towards those younger than himself, 
 and I soon understood that it sprang from a 
 degree of humility that astonished and deeply 
 edified me. After a youth so good and pious 
 that it was a fitting preparation even for the 
 dignity of the priesthood he was convinced of 
 his inferiority in every virtue, and looked up 
 to students whom he far surpassed. He quickly 
 attracted the attention of the directors of the 
 seminary and of the students, by his tender piety, 
 fidelity to small duties, great contempt of self, 
 
70 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 and unbounded charity. Just was persuaded that 
 up to that time he had done nothing for God, 
 and the farther he advanced the stronger grew 
 this conviction. 
 
 “His character then lacked the firmness and 
 courage which it acquired in time, but almost 
 timid though he seemed, for six or seven months 
 he was able to hide from you the struggle which 
 he passed through before deciding his vocation 
 and his dread of telling you what w^as his de- 
 cision. The first time that he spoke to me of the 
 missions I saw that his heart was wrung at the 
 thought of the sacrifice he must demand of you 
 and of his mother. The difficulties of his voca- 
 tion he referred to as ‘little trials,’ ‘little sacri- 
 fices.’ He could not imagine himself doing any- 
 thing heroic; besides, to him, all that we weak 
 men can do for Almighty God seems pitiably 
 small. He confided to me that to carry your 
 consent by assault, and later to make the parting 
 easier, he was determined to be calm and matter- 
 of-fact and to avoid all tenderness, which ex- 
 plains the apparent lack of feeling that more 
 than once cut you to the heart, but which helped, 
 perhaps, to prepare you for this day. Only God 
 and our Blessed Mother, confidants of all he 
 suffered, know what it cost him to be always 
 calm and strong. That he was bringing you pain 
 w^as from first to last his own sharpest pain. 
 
 “After Just’s entrance into the Foreign Mis- 
 sion Seminary he had his hours of wavering and 
 of sadness. He never deliberately spoke to me 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 71 
 
 of these, but a word in one of his letters showed 
 me that he sometimes suffered thus. Certainly 
 his tranquillity and firmness made it appear that 
 heroism was easy to him; and in truth his soul 
 was so pure and so habitually turned towards 
 God that it would never have occurred to him 
 to refuse Him anything. This spiritual vigor 
 developed greatly during his three years at Rue 
 du Bac. He admdred and praised it in others 
 without being conscious of possessing it in a 
 higher degree than they. 
 
 “Convinced of his frailty, in proportion as his 
 strength grew, he longed for the help of others’ 
 prayers, and frequently asked for it. One day 
 he begged me to obtain for him a share in my 
 sister’s prayers, and added, ‘Tell her that this is 
 a serious case. It won’t do for her to remember 
 my needs for a few days and then forget all 
 about them. She must keep on and on. The glory 
 of God is at stake.’ 
 
 “He spoke freely of the mortifications prac- 
 ticed by his fellow students, but always to say 
 that he was incapable of imitating them; and all 
 the while we, his friends, were seeing him pitiless 
 towards himself. He braved fatigue, cold, and 
 hunger: the rest is God’s secret. — • 
 
 “In a word, from the day when I first met 
 Just until I saw him leave us for Korea he served 
 God ever more and more faithfully, humbly, 
 sweetly, valiantly. I will close this letter by tell- 
 ing you what he asked of me before he left. 
 
72 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 ‘Pray,’ he said, ‘that I may be martyred, and 
 that no one will ever know it.’ ” 
 
 To return to Just and his fellow travelers: as 
 soon as they were fairly started on their way 
 they chanted the Te Deum; then whispered the 
 prayers which at that hour were being said by 
 the community at the seminary. Afterwards, it 
 was agreed that every one was free to sleep, but 
 all were too happy and too much excited to rest, 
 and they passed the night in sweet, intimate talk. 
 The party reached Boulogne on the following 
 day, July sixteenth, at four o’clock in the after- 
 noon. Four brothers, named Germain, whose 
 lives were devoted to good works, received them 
 with open arms and took them to the house in 
 which they were to lodge. The next morning all 
 said Mass in a convent chapel, and in the after- 
 noon made an excursion to a nearby chateau. 
 
 It was on the nineteenth that the party set 
 sail. After saying Mass that morning in one 
 of the churches of the city they grouped them- 
 selves about the main altar and offered to the 
 Blessed Virgin a medallion on which were en- 
 graved their names and their destinations. It 
 was at three in the afternoon that the Said left 
 port; by four o’clock they were well under way. 
 
 Just had written to his parents on reaching 
 Boulogne, but before leaving France he sent a 
 last word to his dearly loved brother: “Walk 
 without faltering in the way of detachment, 
 which is what Our Lord asks of you. Do not 
 look back after putting your hands to the plough. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 73 
 
 Adieu, dear brother! If you ever come to Mar- 
 seilles remember that the lonely rocks at the feet 
 of Our Lady’s statue offer a splendid place for 
 meditation. I was there alone at sunset last 
 evening, and prayed to our Mother for all whom 
 I love.” 
 
74 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Long Voyage. 
 
 The missioners told the story of their long 
 voyage to the Orient in happy, playful, often 
 witty letters, penned under difficulties, in the 
 midst of hardships and the disappointment of 
 ever-recurring delays. Soon after sailing from 
 Marseilles Just wrote to his family, “Some of 
 us have already learned what it means to be 
 sea-sick, but that is a small matter. We were 
 never happier than we have been since leaving 
 Paris. Every evening we sit in the bow of the 
 boat and sing the Ave Maris Stella and other 
 hymns peculiarly suited to our present needs. 
 Afterwards, we say our beads and our night 
 prayers together, and then talk cosily, usually 
 about our good fortune in being missioners. 
 Truly ours is a sublime vocation! I cannot tell 
 you how happy our evenings are! ... We see on 
 all sides only sea and sky, and know that every 
 moment the hand of the Lord is carrying us 
 nearer and nearei* to our mission. 
 
 “We expect to reach Alexandria this evening, 
 spend the night on board, and at eight in the 
 morning take a train for Cairo and Suez. This 
 morning — it is Sunday — we had Mass on deck, 
 and after having been deprived of the joy for 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 75 
 
 a few days, how we did appreciate it! I have no 
 words to express our happiness — but you un- 
 derstand. You can easily believe that this has 
 been the happiest of all our days on the sea. 
 We foresee that we shall not have time to say 
 Mass to-morrow at Alexandria, but may Our 
 Saviour be praised for all things ! Pray often 
 that I may live for Him alone. This is the grace 
 that a missionary needs and the one I most de- 
 sire; or, at least, that I long to desire. As for 
 you, dear Father and dear Mother, may you, 
 too, live all for Him who tries and blesses you 
 at the same time, and is preparing for you a 
 beautiful recompense in the world to come. 
 
 “I embrace all at home. Father, Mother, 
 Brother. Good-bye. 
 
 “Your son Just. 
 
 “Aboard the Said, eighty miles from Alex- 
 andria.” 
 
 At six o’clock the following morning a boat 
 took the missionaries from the steamer to a 
 train which ran from Alexandria^ to Cairo. The 
 locomotive was of a primitive type, and at first 
 could not be induced to start. The heat was in- 
 tense and the car crowded, so from beginning 
 to end the trip was uncomfortable, but it was 
 strange and interesting. As Father de Bretenières 
 wrote, “At the first station we found a great 
 crowd of Turkish men and women, many of 
 them squatted on the ground and some shrieking 
 
 1 The Suez Canal had not yet been opened. 
 
76 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 in an ear-splitting way. We got out and walked 
 about for half an hour listening to the hubbub 
 and seeing so much misery that I went back to 
 the train with an aching heart. Hundreds of 
 women reduced to the condition of beasts of 
 burden, and thousands of poor people living in 
 the darkness of Mohammedanism! As we con- 
 tinued our journey the roads were literally lined 
 with a procession of Mussulmen, mounted upon 
 asses, horses, or mules, or trudging on foot in 
 a heat far more intense than anything we knew 
 at home. Whenever we passed a tree we were 
 certain to see people crowded about it. Men, 
 women, and beasts would be lying in the shade 
 and children bathing in dirty ponds in company 
 with the cattle. You are probably wondering 
 what was the destination of all this multitude. 
 Not far from Cairo is the village of Tantah — 
 a group of miserable mud houses covered with 
 branches dried in the sun. To the Mussulman 
 the place is sacred, for it contains the tomb of 
 a Mohammedan monk. On the day we passed 
 through a great fair was being held there, which 
 accounts for the enormous and motley crowd 
 which we saw all along our way. The noise and 
 confusion were indescribable. Fortunately we 
 made but a short stop at Tantah. After we left 
 it the pyramids came in sight, mysterious, calm, 
 symbolic. We reached Cairo at half past one.” 
 
 Writing a little later Father de Bretenières 
 said, “I should be lost if I attempted to de- 
 scribe to you this country in which nothing is 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 77 
 
 like our own, neither plants, nor birds, nor beasts, 
 nor men. My heart aches to see these multi- 
 tudes who in all good faith are serving God so 
 strangely, but I love my Koreans better than 
 they and rejoice to know that I am getting 
 nearer and nearer to my own country. This 
 afternoon we visited the mosque of Mohamet 
 Ali.” 
 
 He broke oh without giving any description 
 of the excursion, but Father Beaulieu wrote a 
 very amusing one. ‘‘Towards evening,” he said, 
 “we mounted our asses. Imagine the ten big, 
 hearty fellows whom you know so well seated 
 for the first time on poor, little, long-eared 
 beasts and passing through the crowded, littered 
 streets of the city in the wake of our guides, and 
 followed by other Arabs whose business it was 
 to urge on the laggards of the party. The asses 
 trotted or galloped through streets as crowded 
 as the boulevards of Paris with men who did 
 not take the trouble to get out of our way, with 
 women and children seated in the dust before 
 their wretched cabins, and dogs too lazy even 
 to bark. Thus did we make our way to the 
 great mosque of Cairo. 
 
 “The ascent is easy so we reached Mohamet 
 Ali’s tomb without incident. The same cannot 
 be said for the descent. After a short visit we 
 remounted our asses, and imagining that we 
 had become adepts by this time started off at a 
 trot. Woe unto us! In the most crowded and 
 fashionable part of the city Fathers Huin and 
 
78 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 Lesserteur were unable to check the dizzy pace 
 of their asses, and suddenly they found them- 
 selves passing over their ears with more haste 
 than dignity — to the great amusement of the 
 natives. They landed on a heap of rubbish. Do 
 not think, how^ever, that this little accident dis- 
 gusted us with riding on asses. We made another 
 excursion that same day.” 
 
 It was Father de Bretenières who described 
 the second trip, undertaken at his suggestion. 
 “While we were at supper,” he said, “we decided 
 to make another sort of pilgrimage that evening. 
 In an oasis, three miles from Cairo, there is an 
 old, old tree at whose base, so tradition says, the 
 Holy Family rested as they came into Egypt. 
 You can imagine how eager we were to visit a 
 spot where our dear Lord probably reposed; so, 
 at nine o’clock, we set out accompanied by native 
 guides who carried lanterns. We passed through 
 the streets of the city, looking as strange as we 
 felt, and softly singing hymns all the while to 
 the accompaniment of the trotting of our asses. 
 On reaching the desert they began to gallop.- I 
 assure you that in all your life you never saw 
 as funny a spectacle as we made. I shall not 
 attempt to describe it. Imagine it for yourselves. 
 You cahnot make the picture too ridiculous. 
 We reached our oasis by midnight in spite of 
 tumbles and somersaults, for such trifles were 
 not allowed to interfere with the speed of the 
 party as a v/hole. Whenever anyone fell behind 
 he overtook the rest as quickly as possible to 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 79 
 
 escape the jibes of the Arabs, who had great 
 fun at our expense. We grouped ourselves on 
 one side of' the tree, and twenty or twenty-five 
 natives, drawn by curiosity, ranged themselves 
 on the other. We sang the Ave Maris Stella 
 and recited the prayers we used to say on Satur- 
 day evenings at the oratory in Paris. It was a 
 sweet reminder of that dear seminary of which 
 I can never think without feeling my heart beat 
 fast. You do not know how deeply I love it. 
 I did not know myself until I came away. It 
 enshrines my sweetest memories. Praise be to 
 God!— 
 
 “We reached our lodging place at three o’clock 
 in the morning. I had not fallen once, but some 
 of the others — Father Beaulieu, among them — 
 count their tumbles by the half dozens. No one 
 was hurt, however, although Father Huin had 
 a narrow escape. He would surely have broken 
 some of his bones if his ass had not obligingly 
 landed underneath when they fell into a hole. 
 We had to pull the poor beast out by his tail. 
 
 “At four o’clock we began to say our Masses 
 in the church of the Franciscan Fathers. It was 
 the first time that most of us had had the joy 
 since leaving Marseilles. Note that it was July 
 twenty-sixth, St. Anne’s feast day and yours. 
 Mother. It was your patron which obtained for 
 me this consolation whose rarity, added to our 
 isolation in a pagan land, made it extraordinarily 
 precious. I am sure that our dear Lord gave you 
 a great part of the merit of the Divine Sacrifice, 
 
80 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 offered in that stronghold of Mohammedanism. 
 
 “At seven o’clock that morning we took the 
 train for Suez and passed almost exactly over 
 the way which the Israelites traveled from Egypt 
 to the Red Sea. We can imagine from our short 
 experiences here what the heat of the desert is. 
 That evening, after three or four hours’ delay 
 in Seuz, a boat took us to our steamer, the 
 Cambodia, 
 
 “Suez is a group of huts made of earth and 
 rough stones in which live several thousands of 
 Arabs, Egyptians, Blacks, and Europeans. We 
 saw no vegetation except a few sickly trees in 
 the court of a little hotel built by a European 
 for the accommodation of European travelers. 
 It is a sad, sad place. There is a poor little 
 chapel where Our Lord is adored only by two 
 or three Franciscan Fathers who are alone in 
 the midst of the pagan multitude. We were 
 overjoyed to find their haven of rest where we 
 threw ourselves at Our Saviour’s feet. 
 
 “The Cambodia is one of the largest of the 
 mail boats and has a crew of two hundred men. 
 There are only forty or fifty passengers. About 
 thirty of the sailors are Frenchmen, and the 
 rest Chinamen, negroes, Malays, etc., and each 
 wears the costume of his own country. It is a 
 Babylon where all languages are spoken and 
 many religions practiced. I am writing to you 
 squatted on the steps that lead to the forecastle, 
 and from here I see three negroes beating their 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 81 
 
 hands rhythmically and monotonously singing 
 their prayers to I do not know what pagan god. 
 
 “I told you that we boarded the Cambodia on 
 the evening of July twenty-sixth. It was not 
 until ten o’clock the next morning that her an- 
 chor was raised and we set sail on this sea so 
 rich In associations. We chanted the psalm In 
 Exitu at the spot where the Hebrews are thought 
 to have crossed It, and we had a fine view of 
 Mt. Sinai, so you see how close to the Bible we 
 are living. We are very happy. 
 
 “We are not making good time. It Is Sunday 
 and we have no hope of reaching Aden before 
 Wednesday, when we shall have been eight days 
 on the Red sea. Often we make only five knots 
 an hour. Instead of twelve or thirteen, as we 
 did on the Mediterranean, partly because some 
 of our boilers burst a few days ago. One by 
 one they are being mended, so we shall soon be 
 able to go faster. 
 
 “Our captain and several of the officers are 
 good Catholics. As soon as we came aboard the 
 captain put at our disposal a little room where 
 we may say Mass whenever the weather per- 
 mits; In return, he asked our prayers for himself 
 and the crew, and requested that if the weather 
 is favorable we should have one Mass on deck 
 every Sunday, that all who wish may be present. 
 So, this morning an awning was stretched over 
 one end of the deck, and on a simple but very 
 nice little altar Father Beaulieu offered the Holy 
 Sacrifice. How beautiful it was, that Mass said 
 
82 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 on the sea with only sky and water to be seen 
 in all directions! Many were present, the cap- 
 tain and first mate among the rest, and they 
 knelt devoutly from beginning to end. Gloria in 
 excelsis Deo I 
 
 “Monday, August first. I am anxious to finish 
 my letter to-day. We are making better time 
 now. Our boilers are in order and an English 
 vessel is giving us chase, and our captain does 
 not want it to pass us. The heat is so intense 
 that my paper gets damp as I write, but we do 
 not find it hard to bear. Fans are suspended 
 from the ceiling and little Chinese boys pull 
 strings which keep them in motion. It is funny 
 to see, and the effect is delightful. In fact, with- 
 out the fans we should be in danger of heat 
 prostration. Despite the weather we are all 
 well, thanks to the good Mother who has us 
 in her care. She fills our hearts with joy, and 
 the little sufferings which fall to our lot as we 
 travel are sweetened by the thought that our 
 Divine Savior endured far greater ones. We 
 really ought to suffer some discomfort; suffering 
 is the daily bread of a missionary. ... I hope 
 that you rejoice, dear Father and Mother, in the 
 thought of having sacrificed to God’s service 
 what you love best in this world. No matter 
 how little I am worth, if you make your offer- 
 ing generously Our Lord will reward you super- 
 abundantly. 
 
 “Good-bye, my loved ones. God be with you 
 always! 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 83 
 
 Only ten days, later Father de Bretenières 
 wrote another, but much shorter, letter to his 
 parents, saying, “To-morrow we expect to reach 
 Pointe de Galle (Ceylon) where we shall meet 
 the Paris mail, which is the reason that I am 
 writing a few more lines to you. Our trip has 
 been very happy. We reached Aden in the morn- 
 ing of August second, but did not land. The 
 heat was so intense that it would have been rash, 
 and the officers urged us to remain where we 
 were. We left there after ten hours’ stay, and 
 ever since the sea has been rough, and for two 
 days the wind was very high. One of our sails 
 was carried away, and in spite of its size our 
 boat was tossed about like a cork. Often waves 
 swept over the deck and carried with them all 
 that was not nailed to it. I managed to keep 
 up for two or three hours but seasickness got 
 -the better of me at last. I was obliged to go to 
 my cabin and did not reappear for several days. 
 A furious sea is a magnificent spectacle — but 
 oh, if it would only treat us poor mortals better ! 
 We were a ridiculous party those three days, I 
 do assure you. 
 
 “Now the weather is lovely, though you can 
 judge from my writing that the sea is still rough. 
 I am squatted in a sheltered corner, or more 
 than once since I began this I should have turned 
 a somersault. Again I repeat, we were very 
 happy. There is a thought that comes often to 
 our minds: we hope that the little sufferings 
 which our dear Lord sends us from time to 
 
84 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 time are good not only for us, but also for the 
 precious souls to whom we have been sent. It 
 fills us with joy to believe this. 
 
 “We skirted the coast of Africa and the Is- 
 land of Socotra and did not see land again 
 until last evening when we passed close to a 
 little island of the Maidive Archipelago. It was 
 covered with cocoanut trees, and all unlike Suez 
 and x\den. 
 
 “Our greatest privation is being unable to say 
 Mass. This gives us pain, but Our Lord will not 
 forget it. Sunday passed like any other day, but 
 it was God’s will. x\men.” 
 
 Father de Bretenières wrote again, only a 
 week later, as the Cambodia passed through the 
 Strait of Malacca. “Dear Father, dear Mother, 
 dear Brother,” he began; “This is the first calm 
 day we have had since we left Aden and I am 
 taking advantage of it lest the good weather 
 should not last. I expected to be able to send 
 my last letter by a French mail from Ceylon, but 
 we were too late to catch it. The Erymauthe 
 left port two hours before we reached it. It 
 is a miserable harbor, by the way, and the en- 
 trance is dangerous, especially in a full sea such 
 as we had at the time. But Our Lady watches 
 over us constantly so all went well. On Thurs- 
 day, August eleventh, about nine o’clock in the 
 morning we cast anchor close to some English 
 war ships. Even in the harbor the sea was so 
 furious that one of our hea\’y cables snapped 
 like a thread. A brig which entered after us was 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 85 
 
 dashed against the roclcs and struck a leak, but 
 every one aboard was saved. Our boat rocked so 
 violently that only ourselves, two officers, and 
 two other passengers attempted to land. 
 
 “To disembark we were obliged to seize a 
 moment when the little native boat was lifted on 
 the waves almost to the height of the ladder of 
 our ship, and then, just at the right instant to 
 jump into the midst of the sailors, who caught 
 us as we fell. The first nine of us succeeded 
 admirably but Father Huin, who was last to 
 jump, gave us a fright by missing his aim and 
 slipping under the ladder, where he hung over 
 the water by his hands and feet. Some one went 
 quickly to his rescue, and his second effort was 
 successful. I have rarely seen anything as funny 
 as the whole scene. 
 
 “On landing, the first thing we did was to rest, 
 for the long rough passage from Aden had tired 
 us all. I could tell you many curious things about 
 this beautiful island of Ceylon, but it would take 
 too long. Nothing is like what we saw at home. 
 The costumes are strange and varied. The ca- 
 noes of the natives are made of the hollowed 
 trunks of cocoanut trees. They are long but so 
 narrow that it is possible to keep only one leg 
 inside; the other rests on the rim. 
 
 “Of course we went to see the Father in 
 charge of the mission. He received us like broth- 
 ers and we remained with him for twenty-four 
 hours. His little church and house are at the 
 entrance to a great grove of cocoanut trees. We 
 
86 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 had hardly arrived before boys brought us nuts 
 to use for drinking cups. We were fed like the 
 Indians on cocoanuts, bananas, a vegetable not 
 unlike potatoes, and thin rice cakes baked on the 
 coals. I was delighted to live as one does on the 
 missions; such food is more suitable for us than 
 delicacies prepared by a French cook. In the 
 morning we all said Mass. For me and for sev- 
 eral of the others it was the second time since 
 we left Marseilles, so you can understand why 
 we were so eager to land. Missioners have a 
 right to privations in this life, but one that cuts 
 to the heart is being deprived of the privilege 
 of saying Mass. Our Lord has willed that we 
 should taste it, and like all else that comes from 
 His loving hands it brings sweetness as well 
 as suffering. Whatever comes we can only say, 
 ‘Blessed be the Lord!’ 
 
 “The roughness of the sea made it difficult to 
 coal the Cambodia, so we were obliged to remain 
 at Pointe de Galle for two days. It was not 
 until Saturday, at two in the afternoon, that we 
 were ready to set sail.” 
 
 At Ceylon fresh partings began for the mis- 
 sioners. Two of their number, Fathers Ver- 
 dier and Barré, there left their friends to go to 
 Pondicherry. For fear of breaking down good- 
 byes were quickly said, but not so quickly that no 
 tears were shed. Father Beaulieu’s notes, after 
 a few sad words about the separation, hasten to 
 change the subject: “On Sunday, and on Mon- 
 day, feast of the Assumption, we were able to 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 87 
 
 Mass. The sea was perfectly calm, and is so 
 still. We hope to reach Singapore by Wednes- 
 day morning. I shall entrust my diary to Father 
 Patriat w^hom it will be a great joy to see again. 
 In two weeks we hope to reach Shanghai, and 
 will not be sorry to be where we can resume our 
 quiet, regular, community life.” 
 
 A few days later another parting wounded the 
 loving hearts of the missioners. Father Grous- 
 seau separated from his companions to go to 
 Siam. The valiant little band counted only seven 
 when the Cambodia approached the mouth of 
 the Saigon river. It was going at full speed 
 when from a little Annamite boat a voice called, 
 “Father Guerrin, are you on board?” 
 
 All the missioners hurried to the deck and 
 were in time to see two of their old friends of 
 the Foreign Mission seminary whom they had 
 expected to meet at Singapore, but who, obliged 
 to take advantage of the trade winds, had been 
 unable to wait longer for them. They were on 
 their way to Cochin-China. Messages were called 
 back and forth and letters were exchanged, but 
 very quickly the boats were too far apart for any 
 communication. The Koreans had looked for- 
 ward to the meeting and were keenly disap- 
 pointed, but their fiat was soon said. As Father 
 de Bretenières remarked in regard to another 
 of their trials, “The apostolate is one long re- 
 nouncement.” 
 
 In Saigon the missioners lodged in the episco- 
 pal palace — a pretty little cabin, built of wood. 
 
88 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 From there they went to Singapore whence they 
 soon started for Hongkong. When the Cam- 
 bodia was about to pass by night through the 
 dangerous Strait of Malacca the look-out vainly 
 tried to see the signal which In those waters took 
 the place of a light-house. The captain, a man 
 of strong faith, seeing Fathers de Bretenières 
 and Beaulieu standing together approached them, 
 and said, “Gentlemen, please say a Hail Mary 
 at once that we may see the signal.” Much 
 edified the two priests knelt where they were 
 and said a fervent Hail Mary and three times 
 the Invocation, “Star of the Sea, pray for us.” 
 Instantly the signal fire became visible. The next 
 morning the captain, meeting Father de Bre- 
 tenières as he left his cabin, said to him, “Your 
 prayers were answered last night, but say more 
 of them. We are not yet safe. In half an hour 
 we must pass between other dangerous rocks.” 
 
 On August twenty-eight the Cambodia safely 
 reached Hongkong, the end of its journey. To 
 transfer the trunks and boxes confided to the 
 young priests for the missions of Hongkong, 
 Manchuria, and Korea, from the ship to the 
 wharf and from there to the mission house 
 proved to be a difficult task, for modern methods 
 were then unknown — at least in China. The bag- 
 gage being heavy the three strongest were chosen 
 to care for it. Father de Bretenières among the 
 number. Armed with long bamboo sticks, pro- 
 vided by the captain, they started towards the 
 wharf in a junk. All went well until they tried 
 

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 i 
 
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Just de Bretenières 
 
 89 
 
 to reach an agreement about wages — always a 
 difficult matter to settle with the Chinese, and 
 the coolies in question proved to be particularly 
 stubborn and unreasonable. When, after much 
 wearisome haggling a certain sum was agreed 
 upon the men seemed to be satisfied, but soon 
 they stopped working and declared that the 
 promised wage was not sufficient. More discus- 
 sion followed, interminable and exasperating. 
 The coolies would not listen to reason. A Chris- 
 tian whispered to Father de Bretenières, “Un- 
 less the Fathers appear to be angry we shall 
 never get away from here without losing a num- 
 ber of boxes.” Acting on this suggestion Just 
 said threateningly, “In a moment we shall begin 
 to strike all who do not obey us. Then you will 
 see how strong we are.” The effect was magical 
 — but not in the way the missionaries had hoped. 
 The coolies absolutely refused to move at all. 
 The Fathers talked in loud voices and made 
 menacing gestures : to no purpose. A crowd had 
 gathered by this time and there was danger that 
 all their baggage would be stolen. They had 
 become terribly anxious when a policeman ap* 
 peared. He dispersed the crowd in no gentle 
 way and the porters, cowed at last, resumed 
 their work. 
 
 Twenty-four hours later the missioners boarded 
 a little American ship which took them to Can- 
 ton. The Koreans went there only to accompany 
 Father Guerrin. On the wharf they had further 
 trouble about their baggage and no policeman 
 
90 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 appeared opportunely, but their first experience 
 had taught them many things and they reached 
 Bishop Guiilemin’s house without having lost any 
 of their precious boxes. Father de Bretenières 
 wrote, “A poor episcopal palace : some wretched 
 huts crowded together and facing on a narrow 
 alley. But what a bishop, and what a father! I 
 knelt at his feet and he gave me his blessing.” 
 
 The four Koreans soon returned to Hongkong, 
 where they found letters awaiting them which 
 gave new instructions. They were told to re- 
 main in Hongkong for a month instead of going 
 directly to Shanghai, which is unhealthful in Sep- 
 tember. “Hongkong is a veritable Babylon,” 
 Just wrote. “There are people here of all relig- 
 ions. In walking through the streets we some- 
 times see within the shops a greater or less 
 number of candles burning in honor of the pro- 
 prietor’s ancestors. Yesterday I saw a China- 
 man in the middle of the street before one of 
 the temples, taking great pains to make five or 
 six little, lighted sticks stand straight between 
 two stones. The god in whose honor he was 
 taking so much trouble did not seem to be 
 pleased with his efforts for the sticks fell in all 
 directions, extinguishing their fires. But the good 
 fellow was not discouraged, and tried again and 
 again. We saw another man w^alking through the 
 streets carrying half a dozen paper devils strung 
 on a stick, each of them painted in many colors 
 and all horribly grotesque. They were to be 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 91 
 
 burned in honor of other, more important de- 
 mons. Oh the happiness of being a Christian!” 
 
 The instructions sent to Father de Bretenières 
 and his companions directed that from Shanghai 
 they should go by sea to the mouth of the Leao 
 Ho river and from there travel south-east by 
 land through the province of Leao Tong in Man- 
 churia. In this province, and under the jurisdic- 
 tion of the vicar-apostolic. Bishop Verrolles, they 
 were to pass the winter. When spring came they 
 were to try to enter Korea. Father de Breten- 
 ières told his parents of these arrangements, and 
 added, “Since the good Lord wishes us to wan- 
 der a long time before reaching the Promised 
 Land, His holy will be done! We were never 
 happier than we are now. As for you, my dear 
 ones, place yourselves unreservedly in God’s 
 hands. We are all wayfarers here. Our father- 
 land above is surpassingly beautiful and nothing 
 can satisfy the longings of our hearts, little as 
 they are, but the eternal possession of Him Whom 
 we love to folly. They say that I was foolish to 
 come to Korea, but it is a foolishness that costs 
 little, and is very sweet to a heart such as I 
 wish mine to become and as I hope with God’s 
 grace that it will be some day.” 
 
 This letter gave details of the last stages of 
 the long journey, and concluded by saying, “Do 
 not expect to hear from me soon again. After 
 we leave here communication with the outer 
 world will be difficult. Good-bye, dear Father 
 and Mother. Serve God with all your strength 
 
92 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 and pray that I may serve Him, too. Forgive me 
 all the pain I ever caused you — and forgive this 
 endless, wordy letter which I send because I 
 think it may give you pleasure. Good-bye, dear 
 Christian. Where are you now? I do not know, 
 but I think of you often and pray much for you. 
 There is really no need of my writing to you. 
 The one thing necessary is that we should love 
 Jesus with our whole hearts. Good-bye, each one, 
 and may Our Saviour give you His peace and 
 His joy!” 
 
 At the end of September the four Koreans 
 embarked for Shanghai, and there they took 
 passage for Leao Tong. The roughness of the 
 sea and a high wind made navigation difficult, 
 and the pilot being unskillful they were dashed 
 against the river bank; and hardly had they 
 gained the open sea when a storm arose which 
 for two days and three nights threatened the 
 vessel with shipwreck and drove it close to the 
 coast of Korea. How longingly the missioners 
 gazed upon its rugged outline ! A few calm days 
 followed, then more bad weather, but the party 
 reached the Leao Ho safely at last. Writing 
 aboard ship Father de Bretenières said, 
 
 “Our long journey is almost ended. Please 
 have some Masses said at an altar dedicated to 
 the Blessed Virgin to thank her for her protec- 
 tion and to obtain for us all the graces we need 
 to make us good missioners. 
 
 “We shall land at Ing Tze, and there seek 
 some means of transporting the trunks and boxes 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 93 
 
 which were entrusted to our care for the mission 
 of Manchuria and Korea. It seems that they 
 have little, slow-moving carts, and we are going 
 to try to rent one. We had to leave Shanghai 
 without passports but do not anticipate any 
 trouble on that score 
 
 “I Interrupted my letter to take a walk with 
 my brothers. The water is so quiet to-day that 
 I can almost believe that I am on a Swiss lake. 
 In two or three hours we shall enter the mouth 
 of the river. Thanks be to God I After a journey 
 as long and perilous as ours has been a man feels 
 like thanking God again and again. Unite your 
 voices with ours which are so feeble. We are in 
 the midst of a pagan people and see much to sad-' 
 den us, and although we are trying to accustom 
 ourselves to our surroundings v/e often think of 
 the magnificent churches of France and the su- 
 blimity of Divine worship there. But it was for 
 Our Lord that we left some of the beauties of 
 our holy religion, and if in reward for this sac- 
 rifice He permits us to save souls, how happy we 
 shall be! God’s will now and always! We are 
 offering Him our little mite of good will and our 
 little share of suffering. 
 
 “We are exceptionally well cared for aboard 
 this ship. Everyone treats us with utmost kind- 
 ness and does everything to make us comfort- 
 able. The captain speaks English and German, 
 and his mate speaks English, so I have talked 
 both languages — after a fashion — for three 
 weeks. It is such a pity that these splendid fel- 
 
94 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 lows are not Catholics. They often ask questions 
 about our Faith. Sometimes we sing beautiful 
 bits of plain chant which charm the captain who, 
 by the way, is full of admiration for all mission- 
 ers. May God draw to Himself a soul so upright 
 and so rich in true charity! 
 
 “I have read and re-read the letter from home 
 which reached me at Shanghai, and cannot tell 
 you all the joy I feel because God asks of you, 
 dear Father and dear Mother, the sacrifice of 
 your second son that he, too, may be a priest. 
 Of course your hearts ache, and ache sorely, 
 but Our dear Lord wishes your gratitude to be 
 stronger even than your grief. I know that you 
 praise and bless Him for the great graces He 
 has showered on Christian.” 
 
Just de Bretenîêres 
 
 95 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 A Winter in Manchuria. 
 
 On the twenty-eighth of October, after twenty- 
 two days at sea, the weary little band set foot 
 on the soil of Manchuria. Fathers Huin and de 
 Bretenières at once sought out some English 
 merchants, recommended as honest and reliable, 
 who procured for them two carts and two saddle 
 horses, and invited them to a dinner. As soon 
 as the meal was ended the missioners started on 
 a strange journey through that strange land. The 
 prevailing mode of travel was far more pictur- 
 esque than comfortable. Father Dorie and Father 
 Beaulieu mounted the two small, fat, Manchurian 
 horses. The saddles were peculiar and the stir- 
 rups very high. They were directed to allow 
 their right arms to hang and to lean forward 
 after the approved Chinese fashion of the day. 
 Fathers Huin and de Bretenières had to make a 
 running jump to get into carriages painted light 
 blue on the outside and on the inside ornamented 
 with white tulle embroidered in black, and so 
 small that Father de Bretenières was at a loss 
 what to do with his long legs. The mules that 
 drew them set forth at an incredibly slow pace 
 through mud which often reached to the axles of 
 the wheels; and later, on getting out of the mire. 
 
96 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 they trotted over rocky slopes, mercilessly throw- 
 ing the travelers against the top and sides of 
 their cages, until they were bruised and sore 
 from head to foot. 
 
 When night approached the guides insisted on 
 stopping at an inn, which, in Manchuria, meant 
 a long hall, inconceivably dirty, with fires kept 
 burning beneath the brick floor from October 
 until April so that the guests would not suffer 
 greatly from the intense cold. Not knowing one 
 word of the language, and anxious to arouse no 
 suspicion, and if possible not even to excite curi- 
 osity, the missioners were in a delicate position. 
 Thanks to their presence of mind, and perhaps, 
 too, to a boyish sense of fun in the adventure, 
 they played their difficult parts well. With great 
 dignity and in absolute silence they took their 
 places on the floor with as much ease as if they 
 had never known chairs. Fortunately, they had 
 been told that each guest’s mat must serve suc- 
 cessively as seat, table, and bed. 
 
 But they could not escape observation, nor fail 
 to arouse curiosity, dressed entirely in black as 
 they were, and despite themselves, foreign in ap- 
 pearance and manner. Soon a circle of curious 
 Manchurians surrounded them, watching every 
 movement. Very gravely the missioners lit their 
 pipes, and seeming to pay no heed to their audi- 
 ence they smoked tranquilly. After a time a 
 strange repast was served on stranger dishes. 
 The missioners knew that it would not be pru- 
 dent for them to eat in public: their fellow guests 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 97 
 
 would then see how unaccustomed they were to 
 Chinese food and to Chinese customs, and they 
 would lose all prestige by making themselves 
 ridiculous. Father Huin saved the day. By a 
 haughty gesture he signified that the strangers 
 desired to be alone, and the spectators reluctantly 
 withdrew. As soon as they were gone the priests 
 ate in peace, with no little fun over the queer 
 dishes and their own peculiar table manners. 
 
 Covered with vermin from the filthy inn, they 
 set forth at daybreak the next morning, and 
 reached the nearest mission, Yang Kouan (Our 
 Lady of the Sun) in time to say Mass. Father 
 Métayer, of the Paris Foreign Mission Society, 
 was in charge there, and warmed their hearts by 
 his cordial welcome. Three days later the little 
 band left Our Lady of the Sun for the residence 
 of Bishop Verrolles, about forty-five miles away 
 — too long a journey for one day, because the 
 roads were in a deplorable condition. An an- 
 noying accident interrupted the first day’s travel, 
 when the wagon which carried the priests and 
 all their belongings overturned in the mud. No 
 one was much hurt, but to get the wagon on its 
 wheels once more and to load into it the mud- 
 covered trunks and provisions was a hard and 
 disagreeable task. The party passed the night 
 in the house of excellent Christians, where with 
 no fear of mockery they ate, or tried to eat, 
 Chinese-fashion. 
 
 The following day they had their first encoun- 
 ters with the brigands who infested all lonely 
 
98 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 places in Manchuria; but the outlaws, seeing a 
 French flag which the missioners had placed on 
 the front of their wagon, thought it best to al- 
 low them to pass unharmed. At dusk other more 
 desperate brigands surrounded the party and in- 
 sisted on having at least their hand luggage. “If 
 you dare to touch it you will see what happens,” 
 the driver said menacingly. Intimidated, but not 
 yet beaten, the brigands kept close to the wagon 
 for an entire hour, during which the four black- 
 clad missioners said not a word, and never took 
 their hands from pockets that, the outlaws feared, 
 might contain European pistols, of which they 
 knew enough to be in terror. At last prudence 
 gained the upper hand and they turned back, leav- 
 ing the priests and their belongings untouched; 
 and all the while the four had kept their hands 
 in their pockets because they were cold! 
 
 Late in the evening they sav/, faintly outlined 
 against the sky, the little Gothic tower of the 
 church of our Lady of the Snow, the village in 
 which Bishop Verrolles made his headquarters; 
 and a few minutes later he was welcoming them 
 as lovingly as their own fathers could have done. 
 Despite the poverty and the smallness of his 
 house he kept them with him for two weeks. 
 Father Huin was then sent to The Valley of the 
 Willow, Father Beaulieu to The Desert of the 
 West, Father Dorie to Wolf Valley, and Father 
 de Bretenières back to Our Lady of the Sun, the 
 mission of Father Métayer. 
 
 Manchuria is intensely cold in winter, the tern- 
 

Just de Bretenières 
 
 99 
 
 perature often falling to thirty degrees below 
 zero, and necessarily Father de Bretenières’ first 
 care was to adopt the costume of the country, not 
 only that he might be inconspicuous, but for the 
 sake of Its warmth. He wrote to his parents, 
 “My feet are now at home In an immense pair 
 of fur-trimmed Chinese shoes, and three pairs of 
 socks, one of them wadded. I wear long trous- 
 ers, also wadded and at least an Inch thick, and 
 over them a long gown lined with lamb’s wool, 
 and over that a kind of v/aistcoat, black with an 
 otter skin collar, and last of all a blue vest, also 
 lined with lamb’s wool. For my head I have a 
 fur cap which I wear under a big black Chinese 
 hat with a turned-up brim. I shall say nothing of 
 various other vests, nor of little muffs for each 
 hand.” Thus attired Just, tall and thin though 
 he was, must have been literally as broad as he 
 was long! 
 
 Under the tuition of Father Metayer he began 
 to study the extremely difficult language of the 
 country, and from the first learned with wonder- 
 ful facility. “In this line I am making quite a 
 reputation among the Christians of Our Lady 
 of the Sun,” he wrote. “Only three or four days 
 after my arrival Father Metayer asked me to 
 bless a marriage. To make It possible for me to 
 do so he wrote in Chinese the questions I had to 
 ask the bride and groom. As you may Imagine I 
 understood what I v/as saying about as well as If 
 I had been talking Hebrew, but succeeded so well 
 that the people took me for an old missloner. 
 
100 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 Father Metayer had to bite his lips to keep from 
 laughing.” 
 
 Shortly after this Bishop Verrolles went to 
 Peking, taking Father Métayer with him, and 
 Father de Bretenières was left in charge of the 
 mission. He loved his work too intensely to be 
 lonely in his solitude. At last he was leading the 
 life of a missionary priest and his heart was 
 supremely content. “I am very happy to be doing 
 my little part,” he wrote. “Until now I never 
 had a real care or a real responsibility. I have 
 them now. I am making an apprenticeship, and 
 rejoice to find that things go fairly well. My 
 life is uneventful and regular, because at present 
 there is very little sickness. I talk as best I can 
 with the good Manchurians who come to watch 
 me eat and to ask innumerable questions about 
 France, the seminary in Paris from which mis- 
 sioners come to them, my own relatives, etc. I 
 give some hours each day to my little exercises 
 of piety, and to the study of Chinese, that I may 
 learn both to speak and to write it.” 
 
 Difiîcult as the language is, in less than three 
 months Just was able easily to exercise his sacred 
 ministry and to talk with the Christians. Father 
 Paik Chen Fou (White as Snow) was the name 
 by which he was known. In the modest little 
 church left to his care he faithfully carried out 
 the ceremonies he loved so well. In one of his 
 interesting letters he said, “I am preparing to 
 keep Holy Week with all possible pomp, but my 
 best efforts will not rival the splendor of the 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 101 
 
 services in Paris; My poor little chapel is only 
 ten feet high, and I have but one voice in my 
 choir. While I say Mass I hear rats scurrying 
 about on the paper ceiling over the altar. Truly 
 it is all as poor as the stable of Bethlehem, but 
 sometimes on feast days when I chant the Gloria 
 or the Credo my heart swells with emotion that 
 has in it far more of joy than of sadness. . . . 
 
 “If I am not too late in saying so, I would 
 rather have a censor, plain but of good quality, 
 and an untrimmed alb, than the revolver which 
 you were asked to send me.” 
 
 In another letter, written to Father Lesserteur 
 who was stationed in Tongking, he said, “I wish 
 you could have seen me pontificate on Easter 
 Sunday. I had eight acolytes, all as proud as 
 peacocks in the strangest surplices in the world. 
 Unfortunately the music was not quite v/orthy 
 of the occasion. For choir I have one young 
 Chinaman who by dint of studying plain chant 
 for several years has at last learned to sing off 
 the note. In consequence, the Chinese regard him 
 as a prodigy. When I tried to chant the Haec 
 Dies and the verse that follows the unfortunate 
 man gave me a wrong note three or four times. 
 In the end I improvised as best I could. But it 
 made no difference. The people were charmed, 
 and I assure you that I was supremely happy.” 
 
 In his hours of enforced leisure Father Paik 
 Chen Foil sometimes hunted in the mountains, 
 and when he had unusually good luck would take 
 his game to Father Beaulieu. “He is my nearest 
 
102 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 neighbor,” Just wrote. “His mission is only five 
 hours’ trip across the mountains, and you can 
 imagine how great is the temptation to go to 
 see him from time to time. We drink the health 
 of our absent friends in a strange beverage which 
 the Chinese have the audacity to call ‘water of 
 life.’ ” 
 
 To travel on foot was considered unfitting the 
 dignity of a priest so Father de Bretenières had 
 a wild little horse to carry him over the wretched 
 mountain roads. He wrote laughingly of his ex- 
 periences: “I know now what it means to pass 
 over the ears of one’s horse; however I have 
 never hurt myself. Little Father Dorie, who 
 came here two days ago, had a tumble or two 
 on his way but, like myself, escaped without 
 breaking anything.” 
 
 While Father Dorie was at Our Lady of the 
 Sun he fell ill with chicken-pox, and for two or 
 three weeks Just nursed him with brotherly ten- 
 derness. To add to his cares brigands made 
 their appearance in the neighborhood. “Having 
 a good gun I slept soundly in spite of them,” he 
 said. “This country is infested with thieves and 
 murderers. The authorities beheaded whole bands 
 of them in Kai Tchou which is only a few miles 
 from here. Not long ago they broke into the 
 house nearest mine, but they have never come 
 nearer than that.” Later, some of the outlaws 
 did enter his cabin. After a struggle he suc- 
 ceeded in throwing them out — then tranquilly 
 went back to bed. 
 
Just de Breteniêres 
 
 103 
 
 That in the midst of his strange and seem- 
 ingly distracting surroundings Father de Breten- 
 ières’s spiritual life did not suffer is evidenced by 
 letters written to his confrères. Every hour of 
 every day he tried to be true to his vocation of 
 priest and missioner and to keep his soul ever 
 turned towards God in childlike confidence, and 
 with the humility which — though he did not sus- 
 pect it — had always been one of his marked char- 
 acteristics. The following lines, taken from one 
 of his letters, give a little glimpse of his soul: 
 “Your letter of last September gave me the 
 greatest of pleasure. I see how brightly the love 
 of God burns in your heart and feel ashamed of 
 my coldness and tepidity. Pray for your poor 
 brother. I, on my part, will remember you in my 
 miserable prayers. Let us both meditate often 
 •on Our Lord’s passion.” 
 
 At first Just did not know how long he would 
 be obliged to remain in Manchuria, but soon 
 Bishop Berneux of Seoul arranged that on May 
 fifth the four new missioners should be met on 
 the little island of Melinto. If this plan failed, 
 perhaps a second attempt of the kind would be 
 made on the twenty-fifth of July, but only after 
 another sort of ruse had been tried: a boat from 
 Korea would pretend to be driven by an ill wind 
 to the coast of Manchuria; the missioners would 
 steal into it, and concealed in its hull sail for 
 their Promised Land. During the long weeks of 
 waiting for winter and spring to pass Father de 
 Breteniêres left the issue entirely in God’s hands. 
 
104 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 Until the twenty-fourth of April he worked hard 
 at Our Lady of the Sun, leaving it then for Our 
 Lady of the Snow where he was to meet his com- 
 panions that together they might make a first 
 attempt to enter Korea, always most jealously 
 guarded against all strangers and Christians in 
 particular. 
 
 In a good-bye letter to his parents, he said, 
 “This is the last letter that you will get from me 
 for a year. I am sorry you must have this pri- 
 vation, but in another sense I do not regret it 
 because, like every other suffering, it will bring 
 with it many graces. The way to heaven is strewn 
 with thorns; the more they tear our feet the 
 better. An hour of suffering here is worth more 
 than a year of pleasure.” As for himself, a long 
 novitiate of mortification, of prayer, and of de- 
 tachment had prepared him for the suffering 
 awaiting him, such suffering as we shrink from 
 thinking of, but as its crown such glory as only 
 the “white-robed army” knows. 
 
 The last news from Korea had been of a rev- 
 olution in the palace which seemed to promise 
 toleration for Christianity. In Thibet and Tong- 
 king conditions were menacing and Just thought 
 enviously of the missioners in both places for 
 whom martyrdom was probable. Regarding them 
 he wrote to Father Albrand, “It is hard on the 
 missions, but consoling for the missioners, who 
 can hope for martyrdom. When I think of them 
 I am tempted to complain because Our Saviour 
 did not call me to so great a grace. Of course I 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 105 
 
 am unworthy of it, but have not some great sin- 
 ners received It?” 
 
 He little knew that not one of his friends was 
 as near as he to the goal of his heart’s desire. 
 
106 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Korea at Last. 
 
 On the twenty-sixth day of April Father de 
 Bretenières joined his friends at Our Lady of the 
 Snow. Their final preparations made, they con- 
 fided themselves anew to our Blessed Mother’s 
 care and set forth on horseback from Tsouang 
 Heu, a village on the Gulf of Korea. There 
 they found at anchor the junk which was to 
 take them to Melinto. It had nothing to recom.- 
 mend it except the fearlessness and honesty of 
 its Chinese crew, and a nice little deck which 
 the missioners could enjoy whenever the weather 
 permitted. They had to share a dirty, ill-smelling 
 room, six feet square and very low, which was 
 reached through a hole in the deck. 
 
 A very rough sea made it impossible for them 
 to sail before the third of May. For two days, 
 then, all went well; on the third, when they were 
 far from the mainland, the wind changed sud- 
 denly and a severe storm threatened, obliging 
 them to seek shelter at Kio Tao, a small island 
 about forty-five miles north of Melinto. It was 
 inhabited by swarthy savages who refused to have 
 anything to do with the strangers. For eight days 
 the party was marooned in this inhospitable place, 
 while a storm raged which threatened utterly to 
 
(See Page 111) 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 107 
 
 destroy the junk, and so terrified the natives that 
 they shrieked and moaned in a way horrible to 
 hear. Day and night the sailors v/orked, almost 
 in despair, and the missioners prayed unceasingly. 
 Father Huin afterwards declared that during 
 those days he did more penance than throughout 
 the whole of any Lent he had ever passed. Be- 
 cause of the delay the junk’s supply of provisions 
 ran low. A few handfuls of rice and two or three 
 chickens were all that remained, and to add to 
 the sufferings of those days the fathers had the 
 anxiety of seeing the hour fixed for their arrival 
 in Melinto come closer and closer with no cer- 
 tainty that they would be able to leave Kio Tao 
 in time to meet Bishop Berneux’s envoys. They 
 would certainly be too late unless the junk soon 
 put to sea, so at the close of the eighth day 
 the missioners forced the sailors to raise anchor, 
 although the storm still raged. They worked 
 tirelessly, helping to manage the junk and even 
 directing its course, but after hours of struggle 
 they, as well as the seamen, were only too glad 
 to creep back to the inhospitable shelter of Kio 
 Tao. The next day the wind was more favorable, 
 but the sea was still rough, and the Chinamen 
 refused to leave the island; and on the following 
 day they began to complain that they could not 
 work unfed. “Eat all that is left,” Father Beau- 
 lieu told them, “but if after your breakfast you 
 do not try once more to reach Melinto we will 
 not pay you half as much as we promised.” The 
 men ate ravenously, all the while raising objec- 
 
108 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 tions to doing their dangerous work afterward. 
 “But you are not afraid of death,” they insisted: 
 this was their strongest argument. “All men fear 
 death,” Father Huin contradicted. 
 
 A gift of money at length induced them to 
 raise anchor in spite of an angry sea and a dense 
 fog. The fog soon lifted, and all v/ent well until 
 noon when they approached a dangerous cape 
 which it was necessary to double. Fortunately 
 the wind was favorable and the passage was at- 
 tempted. The junk was pitilessly dashed about 
 by roaring, rushing waters which again and again 
 sw^ept over the deck; and a great gust of wind 
 tore the sails into shreds and broke one of the 
 masts. The Chinamen were in an agony of ter- 
 ror. Headed by the pilot they beat their cymbals, 
 struck their gongs, shot fire crackers, and made 
 many prostrations, all to placate the evil genii 
 whom they thought to be hidden in the rocks 
 about the cape. The missioners invoked Our 
 Lady as Star of the Sea; and once more she man- 
 ifested her motherly care over the valiant little 
 band. The passage was made in safety. At 
 noon, on May twelfth, the missioners reached 
 Melinto. 
 
 A fresh disappointment awaited them: no boat 
 v/as there to meet them. A red flag — the signal 
 agreed upon — was hung out, but no response came 
 from any of the junks anchored near the island. 
 In vain the priests watched and waited through- 
 out the long day and the night that followed, and 
 hour after hour as the following day wore on. 
 
Just de Bretenîêres 
 
 109 
 
 Towards evening five mandarins boarded their 
 boat to say that it must not linger in the harbor. 
 The pilot proved himself equal to the emergency. 
 He received the officials most cordially and was 
 so generous with his nasty Chinese wine that 
 they became very friendly, entirely forgot the 
 object of their visit, and did not suspect the pres- 
 ence of the living contraband hidden in the hull. 
 
 However, the missioners’ position was still pre- 
 carious. Their red flag had attracted attention 
 on all the junks nearby. The Chinese boatmen 
 knew that it indicated the presence of strangers — 
 and to a Chinaman a stranger is at least under 
 suspicion. For any Koreans to have learned as 
 much would have further imperiled the already 
 uncertain issue of the venture. 
 
 Day after day the fathers waited in ever deep- 
 ening anxiety. The pilot was determined to start 
 homeward on May twentieth, and if their friends 
 did not come before that time the missioners 
 would be obliged to return with him, making use- 
 less all their efforts, all that they had suffered, 
 all the dangers through which they had passed. 
 They would have to go back to Leao Tong 
 which they thought to have quitted forever. But, 
 at last, a small boat approached theirs under 
 cover of darkness, and six Koreans, dressed in 
 white, clambered aboard. They made the Sign 
 of the Cross and spoke Bishop Berneux’s name 
 to give the missioners to understand that they 
 were to be trusted, and offered to take them and 
 their baggage to the continent — the sooner the 
 
110 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 better. At first the priests were overjoyed, but 
 happily, before it was too late. It occurred to 
 them to ask the hurried Koreans if they could 
 show any letter to prove that they had been sent 
 by the Bishop, and if they had with them the 
 mourning garments which he had promised to 
 send, as furnishing the best possible disguise. 
 The men had neither; they were smugglers who 
 had somehow learned of the coming of priests 
 from Europe. 
 
 The missloners did not know what to do. To 
 place themselves at the mercy of such men was 
 to risk the loss of their trunks, even of their 
 lives; on the other hand, to return to China 
 meant failure to reach posts where they were 
 sorely needed, and for which. In their zeal, they 
 longed with all their hearts. In their distress 
 they begged those among the smugglers who were 
 Christians to wait until the twentieth, the day 
 on which their Chinese pilot was determined to 
 start homeward. They hoped that in the mean- 
 time their friends would come. — ^And how they 
 prayed! 
 
 During the night of the eighteenth they were 
 rudely awakened by the smugglers, who had come 
 to say that the missloners must come with them 
 at once or not at all, as they were in a hurry to 
 return. After much persuasion the m.en agreed 
 to wait until the following evening. As soon as 
 day dawned the four priests landed and made a 
 tour of the little Island to see If they could find 
 shelter there. It was a desert. To prevent the 
 
Ill 
 
 Just de Bretenîères 
 
 Chinese from settling on it the Korean custom- 
 house officials had destroyed all vegetation. 
 
 That long, anxious day crept by, and no help 
 came. It was necessary to decide what should 
 be done for this time the smugglers really in- 
 tended to go. The missioners were divided as 
 to their wiser course. Two of them thought that 
 it would be far better to return; the other two 
 had resolved to abandon themselves to the mercy 
 of the smugglers, desperate men though they 
 were. All were determined to make as many de- 
 lays as possible, to hope to the last for Bishop 
 Berneux’s men, to pray unceasingly, and to leave 
 the outcome in God’s hands. At the eleventh 
 hour their confidence was rewarded. The long ex- 
 pected boat arrived ! The fathers hurriedly v/rote 
 a few lines to Bishop Verrolles and to Father 
 Albrand and confided the letters to the Chinese 
 pilot. Half an hour afterward they were on their 
 way to Korea, softly singing the Te Deum. 
 
 Soon they donned the mourning garments sent 
 by the Bishop, which would be a great safeguard, 
 as Korean custom forbade anyone to look into 
 the facës of those wearing them. The clothes 
 were peculiar and very ugly. The wide trousers 
 were made of a coarse, dark material not unlike 
 sacking and fastened at the knee with strange 
 garters. An ample mantle of the same cloth fell 
 from the shoulders. Straw sandals protected, or 
 rather, were supposed to protect the feet. The 
 hair was gathered on top of the head, rolled 
 around and round, and made to stand upright 
 
112 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 by a band woven of horsehair. Over this coiffure 
 was worn an immense cone-shaped hat, eighteen 
 inches high and a yard and a half in diameter. 
 The brim reached to the elbows, and the whole 
 looked like the roof of a pigeon house. A fan, 
 made of a piece of cloth attached to two small 
 sticks, completed the toilet. It was used to hide 
 the face from anyone rude enough to glance at it. 
 
 But the missioners’ troubles were not yet at an 
 end. The boat was small and made poor time — 
 hardly fifteen miles in twenty-four hours. It 
 rained, rained, rained, hour after hour, and they 
 were obliged to seek shelter in a room under a 
 deck which, being made of straw, allowed the 
 water to trickle through it. The room was so 
 very small — two yards long, one wide, and four 
 feet high — that they could neither stand nor sit, 
 but were obliged to crouch down, one almost on 
 top of the other. It was infested with vermin; 
 and as it served as chimney for the fire in the 
 hull was always full of smoke. Of those days 
 Father Huin wrote, “We hardly tasted food. 
 We could get only mouldy bread a month old, 
 rancid rice, and spoiled fish. One day Father de 
 Bretenières and I carefully cleaned a dirty sauce- 
 pan with our portion of water; then, having 
 neither salt nor fresh water, we used salt-water 
 to cook our rice, imagining that it would be pala- 
 table. I cannot tell you how nasty it was! No 
 one could eat more than a few mouthfuls. Dur- 
 ing the remaining eight days of our journey we 
 allowed the sailors to cook our meals and ate 
 
Just de Bretenîères 
 
 113 
 
 them when we could. But not one of us fell ill.” 
 With the cheerfulness which characterized each 
 one of the brave little band Father Dorie said, 
 “In spite of our sufferings we were happy, for 
 we were Koreans at last!” 
 
 It was not these hardships alone that tried 
 the patience' of the missioners. Delays had met 
 them at every stage of their journey and did not 
 spare them towards its close. They were to have 
 reached Seoul in twenty-four hours; instead, on 
 their sixth day at sea they were still going farther 
 and farther from land. Bishop Berneux had in- 
 structed the sailors to bring their passengers di- 
 rectly to the capital, but on approaching it they 
 had learned that two vessels, suspected of having 
 had dealings with the Chinese, had been care- 
 fully searched. Greatly alarmed, not for them- 
 selves alone but for their families, they made 
 what haste they could to reach their own neigh- 
 borhood, much farther north, and in the heart 
 of the most Christian part of Korea. There they 
 would be among friends on landing their pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 It was not until the evening of May twenty- 
 seventh, 1865, that the fathers touched Korean 
 soil, after an often interrupted journey of ten 
 months. They disembarked in a swamp not far 
 from Nai Po, a village almost entirely Chris- 
 tian. In some unaccountable way everyone had 
 learned that four more Catholic missioners were 
 attempting to enter the country; nevertheless the 
 faithful of Nai Po were astonished to see them. 
 
114 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 having had no intimation where they would land. 
 Already tried by persecution and very timid, they 
 feared that the presence of the missioners would 
 draw trouble upon them, and everyone but the 
 catechist hid in his own house. In spite of his 
 terror that good man met them and offered them 
 shelter. Father Huin described their arrival as 
 follows: “Out of respect for our mourning the 
 pagans whom we met on our way to the catechist’s 
 house stepped aside to allow us to pass and dared 
 not look into our faces. We, in our joy, could not 
 help laughing behind our veils. After fifteen min- 
 utes’ walk we were taken into a little hut. Its 
 mistress was grinding barley for her large family. 
 Watching her turn the grindstone, as mothers did 
 in the days of the patriarchs, I was reminded of 
 Rachel and the other strong women of the old 
 days. Conditions in this country are in every way 
 as primitive as in the days of Abraham or Jacob. 
 
 “As for ourselves, we ate on mats in that poor 
 little cabin and looked at one another smiling, 
 and saying again and again, ‘Now we are safe 
 and happy!’ Our good hosts prepared our sup- 
 per with utmost care, and gave us pipes to smoke 
 while we waited for it. We had rice and two 
 chickens roasted à la Korean. We preferred 
 water to the drink used by the natives. You may 
 be sure that we ate heartily, having been hungry 
 for days and knowing that at last we and our 
 boatmen were out of danger.” 
 
 After the meal visits from the Christains be- 
 gan; but soon the catechist, afraid that so many 
 
(A Typical Village in Korea) 
 

Just de Bretenières 
 
 lis 
 
 people seen coming to his house would arouse 
 suspicion, suggested that the priests would go to 
 a cabin, used as a chapel, which was away from 
 the heart of the village. Under cover of dark- 
 ness their baggage was transferred and they fol- 
 lowed it; and there they passed their first night 
 in Korea. 
 
 The priests were disappointed to learn how 
 far they were from the capital, and at once be- 
 gan to make arrangements to reach it. At the 
 moment Bishop Daveluy, coadjutor of Bishop 
 Berneux, chanced to be in the neighborhood, and 
 hearing of the arrival of the missioners hastened 
 to Nai Po. He welcomed and encouraged them; 
 and that they might more easily escape observa^ 
 tion sent Father de Bretenières alone to Seoul 
 and took the others with him to a larger and 
 safer village. 
 
 In his mourning dress, head and face well 
 hidden and feet half covered by sandals much 
 too small. Father de Bretenières set forth for the 
 capital. He reached it after four days’ travel. 
 The country through which he passed during the 
 first two days was barren and unattractive; the 
 hills were low, the trees far apart and stunted, 
 and only here and there had rice or barley been 
 planted in fields, where but few men labored and 
 with the most primitive implements. One inter- 
 esting monument he passed: the simple tomb 
 of Andrew Kim, a native priest who had been 
 martyred. 
 
 On the third day he reached a mountainous 
 
116 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 region, well wooded, with fertile fields which 
 were being diligently tilled. He crossed the Han 
 Yang river and a stretch of sand some miles in 
 width — the arena which his own blood was soon 
 to water. The place showed traces of many an 
 execution and must have filled his mind with 
 grave, sweet thoughts and made his heart beat 
 high with hope of the palm he coveted. 
 
 He entered Seoul by its southern gate, a broad 
 one, made of pinkish v/hite stones of regular size. 
 The top has two stories and Chinese cornices with 
 turn-up edges. The city was poor and ugly. Nar- 
 row streets were flanked by mud huts, all of them 
 low and covered with straw or rushes, standing 
 close together and at every angle, and for back- 
 ground a chaos of rugged mountains whose high 
 peaks were covered with pines. Soon after his 
 arrival Father de Bretenières WTOte to the Abbé 
 Gautrelet, “Here I am at last in the capital of 
 Korea, the ‘city of delights.’ Do not be dazzled 
 by its high-sounding name ! Everything in this 
 world is relative, and the delights of Korea would 
 not enchant a European. Picture to yourself an 
 immense number of mud huts, crowded one on 
 top of another, and less prepossessing in appear- 
 ance than the most miserable shacks in Bresse; 
 and by way of streets, passages so narrow that 
 two persons go by each other with difficulty. 
 These streets are the city drains and are always 
 in horrible condition. I leave you to imagine 
 how unpleasant walking is in good weather, and 
 how much worse when it rains. Fortunately new 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 117 
 
 shoes cost only a few pennies, being a kind of 
 sandal made of straw. Fashion requires them to 
 be shorter than the feet. They are not easy to 
 walk in, until one becomes accustomed to them. 
 When we landed the first thing I did was to fall 
 full length, after the example of William the 
 Conqueror; but I was not hurt, as the beach is 
 covered with mud.” 
 
 Bishop Berneux, whom Father de Bretenières 
 joined at Seoul, was an apostle worthy of the 
 early ages of the Church; a hero, a saint grown 
 old in the Master’s service. He looked tall even 
 sitting, tailor-fashion, on the mat which was the 
 only vestige of furniture in his room. He was 
 thin to the point of emaciation; his shoulders 
 were bent with age; his face, covered by a white 
 beard, was the gentlest and kindliest in the world. 
 He had known exhausting labor, heavy cares, 
 and untold suffering and sorrow, but was still 
 full of energy and as light-hearted as a child. 
 Ordered to the perilous mission of Tongking 
 when he was young, he had written, “I am will- 
 ing for anything that is for God’s greater glory.” 
 He landed only to be scourged so cruelly that he 
 was scarred as long as he lived, and to be cast 
 into a prison which was exchanged in time for a 
 bamboo cage. After twenty-three months of soli- 
 tary confinement he was condemned to death, but 
 a French naval officer obtained his pardon, and 
 the martyr’s palm escaped his grasp. He was to 
 win it only after many years of toil and suffering. 
 
 Free, but in shattered health, he profited by 
 
118 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 what was supposed to be a rest to learn Chinese, 
 and was soon able to undertake the care of an 
 immense territory. There were few years in 
 which he did not travel more than two thousand 
 miles afoot or on horseback, over poor roads, 
 or in dirty, slow-going boats. And still his frail 
 body, ill-fed and abused in a hundred ways, was 
 always able for the work imposed upon it. He 
 himself said, ‘‘I am astonished at the strength 
 the good God gives me. Without being robust 
 I go unceasingly from one end to the other of our 
 mission, in cold and heat, in rain and snow, al- 
 ways half nourished and poorly lodged. But not 
 once have I been ill ! When I am quite worn out 
 I rest for two days and then begin again my 
 vagabond life, a thousand times happier than I 
 ever was before I came to the mission.” At last 
 he fell ill with typhoid fever, but slowly recov- 
 ered; with cholera, and recovered again. 
 
 In time the Holy Father laid the burden of 
 the episcopacy on his alreadybent shoulders. He 
 was consecrated Bishop, with Korea for his field 
 of labor. An illness which lasted for eight months 
 made it impossible for him to go promptly to his 
 diocese, and when he reached it difficulties in- 
 numerable beset him. When Father de Breten- 
 ières reached Seoul he had worked tirelessly in 
 Korea for ten years, constantly in hiding, always 
 in danger. Describing his life the Bishop wrote 
 to a friend, “The axe is always suspended over 
 our heads, and the least incident may inaugurate 
 a bloody persecution. Placed as we are, it is im- 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 119 
 
 possible to have any chapels or regular meeting 
 places for our Christians. On Sunday they as- 
 semble to the number of ten or twelve, sometimes 
 in one house, sometimes In another, always as 
 secretly as possible that they may escape the ob- 
 servation of the pagans. They recite in a low 
 tone certain prayers which I have prescribed and 
 listen to an explanation of the Gospel of the 
 Sunday. The remainder of the day Is spent in 
 saying the Rosary, studying catechism, and teach- 
 ing It to the little ones. To this Is the sancti- 
 fication of the Sunday reduced In Korea, but 
 to allow the faithful to assist at Mass would be 
 rash Indeed. 
 
 “In September I begin the yearly ‘missions’ In 
 Seoul, which continue without Interruption for six 
 weeks. Only once a year do the people see a 
 missioner, but their reverence for all priests Is 
 very touching. The catechists make all arrange- 
 ments as to the houses to which I am to go. 
 When I reach one I am put in possession of a 
 little room, with a Crucifix and a picture of Our 
 Lady as Its only ornaments, where I find from 
 thirty to forty Christians awaiting me. Examin- 
 ing every one In catechism — the old as well as 
 the children — preparing all for the Sacraments, 
 hearing confessions, and administering Baptism 
 and Extreme Unction occupies the whole day and 
 part of the night. This Is the only time In the 
 year that the people can receive the Sacraments 
 for which they verily hunger and thirst. 
 
 “The next morning I say Mass at two o’clock. 
 
120 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 and all receive Holy Communion. I preach a 
 little sermon on the necessity and means of per- 
 severance, and then go to another house where a 
 second group awaits me, and carry out the same 
 programme there. I live thus for forty days 
 until I am so weary that more than once I have 
 fallen asleep with one sock in my hand and the 
 other still on my foot. 
 
 “Besides Seoul I care for sixty villages. I give 
 the same exercises in each one every year, with 
 the added labor of traveling from one to another, 
 across the mountains, through rain and snow, in 
 uncomfortable stockings and straw sandles which 
 soak up water like sponges. After working in 
 this way for eight months each of us, worn out, 
 goes home and passes three months quietly in 
 prayer and study before beginning again the cir- 
 cuit of his mission.” 
 
 One of Bishop Berneux’s associates added to 
 this letter the following lines: “His' Lordship 
 has not told you all. He has not said, for in- 
 stance, that he suffers constantly from a painful 
 disease, and lives on turnip greens and a little 
 rice; that he often works twenty-two hours out 
 of the twenty-four, and considers four hours of 
 rest, which is the most he ever takes, as a shock- 
 ing indulgence.” 
 
 It was in the school of such a master that 
 Father de Bretenières was about to be instructed 
 in the work for which he had come so far. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 121 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Life in Korea. 
 
 Bishop Berneux had begun to despair of the 
 coming of his new priests before Father de Bre- 
 tenières knocked at the door of his humble little 
 house. He received him with utmost kindness, 
 and at once sent porters with sedan chairs for 
 Fathers Dorie and Beaulieu, and dispatched a 
 letter directing Father Huin to remain with 
 Bishop Daveluy. The three young priests spent 
 two weeks with their Bishop, happy weeks of rest, 
 and spiritual refreshment, and preparation for 
 the work and trials and loneliness awaiting them; 
 then. Father Dorie and Father Beaulieu went to 
 missions in country places, and Father de Bre- 
 tenières, remaining in Seoul, was lodged in the 
 house of a catechist whose little son, Paul Hpi, 
 taught him the Korean language. 
 
 Just wrote happily, “I am living with a family 
 of good Christians, and have for my own a room 
 which Korean custom does not permit strangers 
 to enter. It is the nicest in the house, but as you 
 may imagine neither large nor elegantly furn- 
 ished. It is twelve feet square, and between four 
 and five feet high. The doorway is low and 
 narrow. The ground serves for chair and table, 
 and at night I lay my head on a piece of wood 
 
122 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 and am m bed. I exercise my long legs by walk- 
 ing back and forth, back and forth, like a squir- 
 rel in a cage, and imagine that I am making 
 delightful excursions in the mountains. But how 
 careful of my head I have to bel Fortunately 
 my bushy hair warns me in time when I am get- 
 ting too near the ceiling. 
 
 “The national costum.e for indoor wear is 
 very simple, consisting of wide trousers and a 
 short jacket. Whenever a missioner goes into 
 the streets he w^ars his mourning clothes. The 
 food is not very appetizing, and is insufficient in 
 quantity. A man’s strength fails under a diet of 
 a small portion of rice and barley mixed with 
 small black beans, to which is added, according 
 to the season, herbs or wild roots gathered in 
 the mountains. The mixture is cooked without 
 salt. The less said of the meat the better. It is 
 forbidden to kill calves or young cows, and we 
 eat only animals too old to be of use in carrying 
 loads. Dogs are in great demand as food. The 
 pigs are small, and their flesh is used only on 
 gala days.” 
 
 Just’s apostolate began by long weeks of soli- 
 tude. Until this time his hardships and sufferings 
 had been lightened by the companionship of de- 
 voted friends; now he was alone with strangers 
 who spoke a language which he stigmatized as 
 “diabolic.” His own view of the hardness of his 
 lot is given in a letter to one of his friends. “I 
 lead the happiest life imaginable,” he wrote. “I 
 am alone in a little room in the interior of a 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 123 
 
 catechist’s house and never go out except at 
 night. The solitude is good for me after the 
 dissipation of a long year’s journeying. I am 
 tasting once more the tranquillity of the semi- 
 nary, and realize what a grace it is to have these 
 months of quiet. Later, I shall be obliged to 
 unite Martha’s life to Mary’s.” 
 
 Prayer, study, and visits from Christians eager 
 •to teach him their language filled his hours of 
 seclusion. Accustomed from childhood to waste 
 no time he wasted none then. Apart from his 
 prayers the study of the language was his chief 
 occupation. “It is much more difficult than Chi- 
 nese,” he wrote. “It will require at least six 
 months’ study to be able to preach and to hear 
 confessions. From morning until night I stam- 
 mer Korean with my little professor and the peo- 
 ple who come to see me. I have been doing so 
 for a month, but know very little. To give you 
 an idea of the difficulty of the language it will 
 be enough to tell you that every verb has from 
 forty to fifty conjugations, whose use is regulated 
 by rules so complicated that many of the natives 
 do not know them all, and the oldest missioners 
 have but an imperfect knov/ledge of them.” The 
 punctuation presents difficulties which can be 
 overcome only by long patient study and prac- 
 tice. A word written in one way is pronounced 
 in another; for instance, ha-keit-sa/>-ni-ta changes 
 its p into m when it is spoken and becomes ha- 
 keit-sam-ni-ta. 
 
 Father de Bretenières studied with all dili- 
 
124 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 gence, stimulated to extraordinary effort by his 
 desire to be able to help the overworked older 
 priests. His only relaxation during those weeks 
 was to slip out under cover of darkness and go 
 to see Bishop Berneux, whom months of low fever 
 had so weakened that he had to be carried to the 
 sick and could not administer baptism without 
 pausing several times to rest. His coadjutor, 
 Bishop Daveluy, was able to do his work only 
 with the help of Korean medicines, and of the 
 four remaining missioners three were in wretched 
 health. “But no one complains,” Father de Bre- 
 tenières wrote admiringly. “On the contrary all 
 are happy, because God is signally blessing their 
 labors. Many envy the lot of missioners in 
 Korea; if they knew more about it their envy 
 would grow. Fortunate, indeed, are those whom 
 Our Lord calls to this little corner of His vine- 
 yard. If I were less lax in responding to His 
 grace it would not take me long to become holy 
 here.” 
 
 Towards the close of the same letter he said, 
 “I have not yet heard or seen very much, but 
 what has come under my notice fills me with 
 joy and admiration. My associates are models 
 of humility, sweetness, and self-abnegation. I 
 have but one ambition: to walk in their foot- 
 steps, instead of being a failure in the midst of 
 souls sanctified by years of labor in this land of 
 martyrs. I could never say how happy I am to 
 see something of a man like our Bishop. To de- 
 scribe him in one word, he is a second St. John 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 125 
 
 of the Cross. He despises suffering, privations, 
 sickness, contradictions; in the midst of them all 
 he is always joyous, always gay.” 
 
 Numbers of extraordinary conversions encour- 
 aged the superhuman efforts of the missioners. 
 In one of his letters Bishop Berneux left a rec- 
 ord of some cases, of which the following are 
 typical: “A Catholic book fell into the hands of 
 an old man who had already heard something of 
 the teachings of Christianity, and it opened his 
 eyes to the truth. He held an exalted public posi- 
 tion whose duties were incompatible with those of 
 a Christian, and at once he resigned it. Finding 
 it well nigh impossible, even in his own family 
 and among his friends, to be true to his new- 
 found Faith, he pretended to be insane, would 
 speak to no one, and lived almost entirely alone. 
 For several years he persevered in this difficult 
 manner of life without being able to receive bap- 
 tism, for his sons, suspecting the truth, would 
 allow no stranger to approach him. I sent a cate- 
 chist to his house, hoping that he would find a 
 way to see him. He succeeded at last and bap- 
 tized the old man, who died a few weeks later. 
 
 “A young girl, who longed to become a Chris- 
 tian, was given in marriage to a pagan. In her 
 new home she said many prayers when she was 
 alone; but in spite of her efforts to do so unob- 
 served her husband’s mother and sister saw her 
 on her knees more than once, at night and in the 
 day-time; and her sweetness, patience, and obedi- 
 ence were too marked to pass unnoticed. One 
 
126 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 day the sîster-în-law said to her, Tou have a 
 secret which you are trying to hide from us.’ 
 ‘I, a secret! What could it be?’ the bride re- 
 plied, laughingly. ‘Laugh as you will, you have 
 a secret, and it makes you different from the rest 
 of us,’ the other insisted. Certain that she could 
 trust her sister the bride at last acknowledged 
 that she had a priceless secret. ‘I will tell it to 
 you.’ she said. ‘I have the happiness of know- 
 ing and adoring the one true God. It was to 
 Him that I was praying when you surprised me 
 on my knees in the -middle of the night. I dare 
 neither lie, nor disobey, nor be angry, because 
 God’s law forbids all these things, and I am trying 
 to keep it and to win heaven.’ Interested and 
 edified, the sister-in-law begged to be told about 
 the true God. The light of faith was given her, 
 too, and she became very fervent. The intimacy 
 of the two young women was remarked in the 
 household, as was the great change which had 
 been worked in the but lately ill-tempered daugh- 
 ter of the house. Her mother insisted on an ex- 
 planation and on receiving it she followed in her 
 child’s footsteps. The aged grandmother alone 
 remained, and soon she, too, was told, and she, 
 too, responded eagerly to grace. The four wo- 
 men were very happy in their new-found Faith 
 and followed all they knew of its teachings, with- 
 out allowing the men of the household to suspect 
 what they were doing. The one obstacle to their 
 baptism was the superstitious practices in which 
 they were forced to participate. To escape from 
 
Her First Quarter A Future Orator Smiling A Welcome 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 127 
 
 them it would have been necessary to say that 
 they were Christians, which would inevitably have 
 resulted in ill-treatment and such close surveil- 
 lance that it would have become impossible for 
 them to perform any religious exercise. They 
 decided among themselves that the mother and 
 the grandmother should have nothing further to 
 do with preparing sacrifices for the idols, so that 
 they might be baptised. The two younger women 
 would attend to all such things, praying to be 
 delivered from the necessity. 
 
 “I could tell you of a thousand such cases, and 
 how they would make you love my dear Korea, 
 and how you would pray for us ! Surely God has 
 His merciful designs over this mission!” 
 
 At the time of which the Bishop spoke the 
 greater number of the mandarins ignored the 
 Christians; a few mistreated them, and the re- 
 sult was a marked increase of fervor among the 
 persecuted. In some districts there was entire 
 liberty, and the faithful wore little crosses on 
 their breasts and met openly on Sunday. In lo- 
 calities where the laws against Christianity were 
 severe and the authorities watchful the spread 
 of the Faith was necessarily slow. Everywhere 
 the missioners’ work was overwhelming. 
 
 A little later, at the moment in which Father 
 de Bretenières and his companions reached Korea, 
 the movement towards Christianity had somehow 
 gained a marked impetus, and conversions were 
 becoming more and more frequent. In the north, 
 where the Gospel was only beginning to be 
 
128 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 preached, there were many catechumens so eager 
 for baptism that they did not wait for the visit 
 of a missioner, but went in bands to Seoul, even 
 in harvest time. Their one thought was to be- 
 come Christians. Lacking teachers, they taught 
 one another as best they could. 
 
 Two young men, cousins, having been instructed 
 by a catechist, the more fervent said, “Let us not 
 delay an hour, but go at once to Seoul to be bap- 
 tised by the great Bishop.” His cousin objected, 
 “But our rice will die if we go now.” “Do you, 
 then, care more for your rice than for your 
 soul?” the other cried. “If our bodies die it will 
 matter little, if we have been baptised and our 
 souls are safe.” “You are right,” his cousin 
 agreed; and that same day they began their 
 journey of three hundred and sixty m.iles in quest 
 of baptism. 
 
 One of the missionary fathers told the follow- 
 ing experience: “I often helped Bishop Berneux 
 when he administered baptism, and saw rude 
 mountaineers, old men and children, burst into 
 tears when the saving water was poured on their 
 heads. I saw women of seventy years who had 
 walked a hundred and twenty miles that they 
 might have the happiness of receiving Holy 
 Communion a second time in the course of the 
 year. How their souls thirsted for God! It 
 iDroke our hearts not to be able often to break 
 the Bread of Life for them, and to give them 
 the helps disdained by so many Europeans.” 
 
 Father de Bretenières’s rapid progress in the 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 129 
 
 Korean language- made it possible for him to be 
 of use to Bishop Berneux sooner than had been 
 hoped. After a few months’ study he could un- 
 derstand and make himself understood. 
 
 To the Abbé Gautrelet he wrote, “I wish you 
 could see me these days with my hair arranged 
 in the strangest fashion imaginable, arrayed in 
 wide pantaloons and a little white vest laced in 
 front with heavy cord, sitting on the ground 
 with my legs crossed, and taking long puffs at a 
 pipe with a copper bowl and a bamboo stem 
 more than a yard long. I am beginning to talk 
 easily in the strange language of the country 
 which to you would sound like nothing more than 
 trik-krok, trik-krok. Does all this remind you 
 of the Just of other days? 
 
 “For nearly a month I have been at work. 
 It is baptism that the Bishop had oftenest per- 
 mitted me to administer, and I assure you that 
 many are waiting for it. Catechumens come in 
 bands, and it is necessary to explain to them any- 
 thing that they do not well understand, to pre- 
 pare them for the Sacrament, and then to ad- 
 minister it. When there are ten or twelve to be 
 baptized it takes all day without a moment of 
 rest; but that is nothing, considering the need. 
 Help us, dear Lord! 
 
 “Everywhere there is a dearth of missioners, 
 and the older men are worn out; so, you see, we 
 need not fear inaction, and that is a great bless- 
 ing. Thank the dear Lord for me, and redouble 
 
130 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 your prayers for me and my intentions. You can 
 imagine how much help I need. 
 
 “By the time this letter reaches you I shall 
 probably be in charge of a district. With my 
 'mite of piety and of theology I should be ap- 
 palled at the prospect did I not count on God^s 
 mercy and His help. Ask Him that in Tvorking 
 with all my might to gain other souls for Him I 
 may not lose sight of my own, that I may truly 
 live for Him alone, that I may strive to keep 
 my heart close to His, that I miay live the life 
 of an apostle of Jésus Christ and die in His 
 love !” 
 
 Father de Bretenières was working with in- 
 tense earnestness. He quickly won the respect 
 and love of the good people who went to him.. 
 His great height and distinguished bearing awed 
 them at first, but his affability soon gained their 
 hearts. The boy who taught him the language 
 afterwards wrote the following quaint descrip- 
 tion of their guest and of his life during these 
 first months in Korea: “In the spring of 1865 
 Father P. Paik (Father de Bretenières) arrived 
 in our country. Fie was very young. He had a 
 pleasant face, without beard of. any kind. He was 
 more than six feet tall, and had such large feet 
 that no shoes could be found to fit him. When 
 some were ordered the sandal-maker was aston- 
 ished at the measurements given him. Being so 
 tall he v/as not easily disguised and rarely ven- 
 tured out-of-doors; this is why he did not go 
 oftener to see the Bishop. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 131 
 
 “He was very gentle, and very kind, and the 
 sound of his voice was pleasant. He was care- 
 ful to honor those in authority, and to be polite 
 to every one. He followed all our customs. He 
 treated his body very severely. He was affable 
 to all the Christians and never had trouble with 
 them, although he would not deviate a hair’s 
 breadth from the regulations laid down by the 
 Bishop. He worked with ardor, was always in a 
 good humor, and seemed to be unaware of dif- 
 ficulties. Though he did not have time to learn 
 our language well, his pronunciation was correct, 
 and it was easy to understand him. When he said 
 Mass or took part in any pious exercises his de- 
 votion was so evident that all who saw him were 
 moved to reverence him. Whenever he heard 
 our confessions he excited in us deep contrition 
 and was very kind. Although he did not have 
 time to go to Hpyeng-an and Hoang-hai many 
 catechumens from both places came to him for 
 baptism. 
 
 “Without the permission of the Bishop not 
 even catechists could go to his room in our house, 
 but whenever he had the opportunity to see any 
 of the people he was delighted and talked to 
 them for a long time. Without showing the least 
 repugnance he ate all kinds of Korean food. One 
 day when they gave him some strange kind of 
 buckwheat cakes he ate them at once, and said 
 gaily, ‘Is it to keep me from getting to heaven 
 that you give me such good things?’ He was al- 
 ways ready for a little joke. 
 
132 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 “When autumn came and the Bishop put him 
 in charge of the City of Seoul his joy was greater 
 than I can say.’’ 
 
 In the last months of 1865 and the early part 
 of 1866 Father de Bretenières heard about sev- 
 enty-five confessions, baptized at least eighty 
 adults, blessed several marriages, confirmed a few 
 persons,^ and administered Extreme Unction a 
 number of times. Almost constantly shut up In 
 his little hiding place, and obliged to be watchful 
 even as to coughing, and sneezing, and moving 
 about, lest he should attract the attention of pa- 
 gans who might be passing the house, he did go 
 out whenever a sick person needed the ministra- 
 tions of a priest in the absence of the Bishop. 
 Two or three times, concealed by his mourning 
 garments, he even ventured beyond the city lim- 
 its to administer the Sacraments. New to the 
 country though he was, he was proving a valu- 
 able assistant to Bishop Berneux. 
 
 1 By special privilege missionary priests sometimes administer 
 confirmation. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 133 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Persecution. 
 
 Political events which had occurred in Korea 
 in 1864 were destined to have far-reaching and 
 disastrous consequences for the missions. In Jan- 
 uary of that year the king had died suddenly, 
 and a revolution in the palace had placed the 
 crown on the head of a child and all real power 
 in the hands of his father, a despot with no love 
 for Christianity. 
 
 In Korea, if a king is childless, he chooses one 
 of his relatives to suqceed him. At his death the 
 royal seal is given to the heir if he is of age; 
 if not, the oldest living queen becomes regent. 
 But the king who died in 1864 left no child and 
 had neglected to appoint a successor. There were 
 four queen-widows in the palace at the time: 
 Tcho, the dead king’s grandmother; Hong and 
 Pak, his father’s wives; and his own wife, whose 
 name was Kim. The ministers wished Kim to be 
 regent, but while they deliberated the old queen 
 Tcho seized the seal and insisted on keeping it. 
 Through amazement, or respect for her age, 
 neither the ministers nor Kim opposed her. The 
 weak old woman then chose for king an unruly 
 child of twelve years, son of Prince Heung-song- 
 koun, an able, unscrupulous, violent man, who 
 
134 For The Faith 
 
 wrested all semblance of power from Tcho’s 
 hands. 
 
 Heung-song-koun despised Christianity, but his 
 gentle wife knew and loved it. Tcho, widow of 
 the author of the terrible persecution of 1839, 
 might feel that family tradition pledged her to 
 oppose It. For a time the new government gave 
 no evidence of hostility, but it was impossible to 
 foresee the future. 
 
 So, at the moment that Father de Bretenières 
 began his ministry, the Church was enjoying com- 
 parative peace, and the Christians believed that 
 at last liberty w’as to dawn for them. Bishop Ber- 
 neux, wiser than his children, repeatedly warned 
 them, saying, “Do not be deceived; the tiger is 
 only sleeping.” 
 
 The fact was that the building of an enormous 
 palace w-as absorbing the attention of the terri- 
 ble Heung-song-koun. Two thousand men were 
 being employed In the construction of this “Sec- 
 ond Louvre.” In accordance with the traditions 
 of the country the royal treasury could supply no 
 funds for the undertaking; forced contributions 
 from the people must cover the expense. The 
 result was arbitrary demands and exorbitant tax- 
 ation which Infuriated both rich and poor, al- 
 though no one dared to protest. To have done 
 so would have cost any man his head. 
 
 To add to the widespread misery, terrible 
 rains flooded Seoul, and the overflowing of a 
 river south of the city added to the destruction. 
 Hundreds of houses were washed away; part of 
 
1 . 
 
 2 . 
 
 AT SEOUL 
 
 Publishing a Korean Periodical under the direction of the Ben- 
 edictine Fathers 
 
 A Korean Priest on his visit home 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 135 
 
 the palace caved în; the city wall, thought to be 
 an impregnable defense, crumbled and fell; and 
 more than three thousand people perished. No 
 such disaster had ever before befallen Seoul. The 
 people attributed it to the anger of heaven, pro- 
 voked, they believed, by the wickedness of Heung- 
 song-koun. Those rash enough to say so above 
 a whisper were promptly put to death. An edu- 
 cated man wrote to the regent pointing out the 
 sad consequences of his abuse of power. The ex- 
 ecutioner brought his answer. 
 
 The Christians should have been particularly 
 quiet and prudent in this crisis, for the least in- 
 cident was almost certain to direct the fury of 
 the tyrant towards them. The tactlessness of a 
 few was to have dire consequences. 
 
 In January, 1864, a Russian ship cast anchor 
 in a little port on the Sea of Japan. The captain 
 asked, or rather demanded, of the Korean gov- 
 ernment a grant of land for his country and the 
 establishment of commercial relations with it. 
 There was deep consternation throughout the 
 kingdom, and the perplexed regent tried to make 
 time by replying that Korea, being a vassal of 
 China, could not take so important a step with- 
 out consulting the authorities at Peking. He sent 
 a special embassy to China, and the Russians dis- 
 embarked to await an answer. Meanwhile anx- 
 iety was keen throughout poor little Korea. 
 
 In Seoul there lived a nobleman, Thomas Kim- 
 Kei-ho, who had long before lost caste by be- 
 coming a Christian. He had clung to his faith, 
 
136 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 but was tîmîd and regretful of the past, and now 
 thought that the danger which threatened the 
 country offered him an opportunity to regain his 
 lost social position and at the same time to win 
 the gratitude of the Church in Korea. His plans 
 made he went to see Bishop Berneux, and in the 
 course of conversation with him said, “Do you 
 think that there is a way to prevent the Russians 
 establishing themselves in Korea?” “I think that 
 there is,” the Bishop replied. “What would you 
 do if the regent should summon you to the palace 
 to confer with you?” “I should go,” Bishop Ber- 
 neux answered. Well pleased, Thomas went 
 away. He and his friends drafted a letter to be 
 presented to Heung-song-koun suggesting that he 
 should interview a French missioner who could 
 ward off the threatening danger. The letter 
 declared that an alliance with France and Eng- 
 land, made through the mediation of a Christian 
 Bishop, was the only means of keeping the ag- 
 gressors at bay. 
 
 Bishop Berneux’s presence in the country was 
 thus to be tactlessly betrayed to the regent. It 
 was hard to forsee the consequences, but they 
 might easily be grave. 
 
 Thomas hurried to the palace and eagerly pre- 
 sented his letter to the regent, who received him 
 coldly, read and reread the letter, and put it 
 aside without a word. Terrified, Thomas fled to 
 the country; and about the same time Bishop 
 Berneux set forth on one of his missionary jour- 
 neys. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 137 
 
 The regent’s wife heard of the matter and 
 thought the plan a good one. She loved the 
 Christians, and through Martha Pak, one of her 
 servants and a devout Christian, had often beg- 
 ged Bishop' Berneux’s prayers and his advice. 
 She said to Martha, “Why don’t the Christians 
 do something? The Russians are at our doors 
 and the Bishop who might help us has gone 
 about his mission work when he is needed here. 
 Another letter should be presented to my hus- 
 band. Believe me, it would succeed. Do urge 
 the Bishop to return.” 
 
 A second letter, written by Nam John, a man 
 well liked in the palace, was more favorably re- 
 ceived by Heung-song-koun. He discussed Chris- 
 tianity with Nam John for a long time, and de- 
 clared that he thought it beautiful in everything 
 except its prohibition of ancestor worship. Sud- 
 denly dropping questions of dogma, he asked, 
 “Are you certain that the Bishop could save us 
 from the Russians?” “I am certain that he 
 could, “Nam John replied. “Where is he? Is 
 he in Seoul?” the regent asked next. “No, he has 
 been away for several days.” “Has he gone to 
 the province of Hoang-hai to administer your 
 Christian Sacraments?” And when Nam John 
 answered, “Yes,” Heung-song-koun said, “I wish 
 to see him.” 
 
 It was a decisive moment for the fate of the 
 Church in Korea, and every indication seemed 
 favorable. Long persecuted and in hiding, it had 
 friends at court and even in the family of the 
 
138 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 king. The regent had softened, the queen often 
 prayed to the true God; one of the princesses 
 was baptizing children in danger of death; the 
 young king’s nurse was a Catholic, and one of 
 his uncles was kindly disposed towards the Faith. 
 Surely toleration was at hand. The people were 
 very hopeful; they even began to talk of build- 
 ing a cathedral. 
 
 Unfortunately, after the regent asked to see 
 the Bishop there was some delay in sending for 
 him, because of a lack of funds. The necessary 
 money was at last supplied by a friend of the 
 royal family. His Lordship reached Seoul on 
 the twenty-ninth of January, but when Nam John 
 went to the palace to announce his return he 
 found that the wind had changed. On seeing him 
 Heung-song-koun said irritably, “I thought that 
 you were in the country with your father.” “I 
 came to the capital on business which you know,” 
 he began; and the regent interrupted, “There is 
 no hurry about that. Go back to the country and 
 stay there.” 
 
 The terrified Nam John was tenderly wel- 
 comed by his father, an excellent man and a 
 fervent Christian. “You played a patriotic part, 
 but it will cost you your life,” the old man told 
 him. “When they make you sign your death war- 
 rant do not fail to erase from it any words injur- 
 ious to the Faith.” Nam John hid, but in vain. 
 
 There were several reasons for the sudden 
 change in the regent’s attitude. The Russians 
 had unexpectedly gone away of their own accord; 
 
139 
 
 Just de Breteniêres 
 
 the ambassadors sent to Peking had returned to 
 tell that in the ‘Tlowery Kingdom” they were 
 putting to death all “devils” from the West; and 
 Korean magistrates, sore-hearted because they 
 had not been consulted about the Russian trouble, 
 were determined to revenge themselves on all 
 foreigners by seeing that the laws against them 
 were enforced. They had gone to the regent 
 with the cry, “Death to every European in the 
 kingdom, and to all Christians!” “But Euro- 
 pean ships will come to avenge the foreigners,” 
 Heung-song-koun had objected. “Have we not 
 put many Europeans to death, and who ever 
 avenged them? What harm came to us because 
 of them?” the prime minister had urged. The 
 regent had weakened, hesitated, and come to a 
 decision terrible for the Christians. 
 
 The storm soon burst. A few days later his 
 wife sent for Martha Pak, who found her weep- 
 ing and wringing her hands. “Oh, Martha! 
 Martha!” she cried. “Terrible things are to 
 happen ! The Bishop and every European whom 
 they can lay hands upon are to be put to death. 
 All the officials are against my husband, and what 
 can he do ? Why was the dear old Bishop brought 
 back to the capital only to be killed? It would 
 have been so much better for him to have re- 
 mained where he was!” The good woman wept 
 uncontrollably for a long time; when she could 
 go on, she added, “Dear Martha, hide yourself, 
 for I should hate to lose you. Hide in some place 
 
140 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 where you cannot be found. Tell the Christians 
 whom you know to hide, too.” 
 
 All that day and the next the princess was be- 
 side herself with anguish at the thought of the 
 fate in store for the European priests whom she 
 esteemed so highly, and the terrible consequences 
 which might follow upon their deaths. But the 
 die was cast. The soil of Korea was to be 
 soaked with the blood of martyrs, and for many 
 a day the terror-stricken Christians, in hourly 
 peril of their lives, were to hide in their poor 
 little huts or in the mountains, praying, praying 
 unceasingly 
 
 On the twentieth of June two messengers from 
 Korea reached Bishop Verrolles, bearing the fol- 
 lowing letter from Bishop Daveluy, dated March 
 tenth: “We are in the midst of a violent perse- 
 cution. Bishop Berneux, vicar-apostolic of Korea, 
 was taken prisoner on the tw^enty-third of Febru- 
 ary, and since then five of his priests have also 
 been arrested — Fathers Pourthié, Petitnicolas, 
 de Bretenières, Dorie and Beaulieu. The others 
 will certainly be found; escape is impossible. Al- 
 ready there is talk of executing the six who are 
 in prison, and I believe that they will be put to- 
 death in spite of their French and Chinese pass- 
 ports. Whatever comes, God’s will be done ! My 
 turn is coming, and I am begging Him to give 
 me strength to face death as I should. They 
 pillaged Bishop Berneux’s house and secured all 
 the money and goods belonging to the mission. 
 
 Pray for us. “Antoine Daveluy. 
 
 “Coadjutor Bishop of Korea.” 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 141 
 
 A copy of this letter was sent to the Baron 
 de Bretenières by Father Wallys, who added, 
 “Bishop Daveluy’s messengers waited for three 
 months before they could secure a boat to bring 
 them to Manchuria. They say that Bishop Ber- 
 neux gave his life for Jesus Christ on the fif- 
 teenth of March, and that the five missioners, 
 arrested soon after he was, followed him to 
 heaven on the eighth of April. 
 
 “My dear Baron, there Is little doubt that this 
 sad news Is true; however, as we have received 
 no account of the martyrdoms by letter or from 
 eye-witnesses there Is still faint hope in our 
 hearts. The messengers tell us, too, that Bishop 
 Daveluy was seized before they left Korea, and 
 with him three other missionaries whose Euro- 
 pean names they do not know, but one, I think, 
 was Father Huln. The poor Christians have been 
 trapped, robbed, and massacred, or have died of 
 hunger In the mountains whither they had fled to 
 escape their persecutors.” 
 
 Further details of what had happened were 
 gathered later. 
 
 Reaching Seoul late in January Bishop Ber- 
 neux waited patiently for a summons from the 
 regent. On February fourteenth two armed men 
 presented themselves In his hut on the pretext 
 of getting a contribution for the great palace 
 which was being erected. Their visit alarmed the 
 Bishop’s friends who vainly tried to find a safe 
 hiding place for the money and valuables belong- 
 ing to the mission, all of which were In his keep- 
 
142 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 ing. His Lordship refused to seek a safer re- 
 treat. “It is I whom they want,” he said. “If I 
 hide they will make a thorough search, and a 
 general persecution will be the result.” 
 
 After night-fall on the twenty-second the 
 armed men returned. With the aid of a ladder 
 they got on the roof of the cabin, and afterwards 
 examined the inside of it. The ladder had been 
 furnished by Bishop Berneux’s servant, a traitor 
 who, not content with betraying his master, de- 
 nounced all the missioners whose places of resi- 
 dence he knew. At four o’clock in the afternoon 
 of the twenty-third the house was surrounded, 
 and the Bishop was seized and taken before a 
 judge. After a short examination he was thrown 
 into the common prison. 
 
 At the moment Father de Bretenières was in 
 the house of a Christian where he heard two con- 
 fessions, confirmed a man, and blessed a mar- 
 riage. Returning to his own room he learned 
 that Bishop Berneux had been arrested. Not 
 knowing what to expect, or what course to adopt, 
 he merely sent the news to Bishop Daveluy and 
 to all the fathers who had fixed places of resi- 
 dence. The next morning he said Mass for the 
 last time. At dawn on the twenty-fifth the house 
 was surrounded by soldiers. The catechist was 
 arrested, but Paul Hpi, Father de Bretenières’s 
 little professor, was away from, home and so was 
 saved. At first the men pretended not to suspect 
 the presence of the European priest, although 
 they closely watched the house. No one ever 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 143 
 
 knew how Father de Bretenières passed that day 
 and the following night, the vigil of his supreme 
 struggle. 
 
 Early in the morning of the twenty-sixth he was 
 seized, bound, and dragged away. When told of 
 the arrest of Bishop Berneux he had asked what 
 shoes he wore when he was taken, and being told 
 those he used when saying Mass, he had ex- 
 claimed, “Then I, too, will wear my Mass san- 
 dals.” And so he did. 
 
 A red cord, the badge of great criminals, was 
 tied lightly about his arms and chest, and thus, 
 in his indoor dress, head bare, and escorted by 
 eight men, three before him, three behind, and 
 one on either side holding his sleeves, he was 
 taken to the “Tribunal of the Right,” so called 
 because it was to the right of the king’s palace. 
 He was led into a large court room, on one side 
 of which were seated the judges and a number of 
 other mandarins. The judges wore their official 
 dress, consisting of hats made of horse hair with 
 flaps hanging down on either side, and volumin- 
 ous blue silk gowns confined at the waist by belts 
 richly ornamented with tortoise shell or precious 
 stones. 
 
 In the center of the hall there stood a chair 
 meant for the accused. Father de Bretenières 
 was placed in it. His feet were strapped together 
 above the ankles. A rope was placed about his 
 knees tying them together and at the same time 
 binding him tightly to the chair, and his arms 
 and shoulders were fastened to its back, so that 
 
144 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 no matter what torture might be inflicted it would 
 be impossible for him to move. Three torturers 
 took their places on each side of him, holding 
 their horrible instruments in their hands and 
 watching the judges for permission to set to 
 work. Near them, but separated from the ac- 
 cused by a curtain, was a clerk whose duty it was 
 to take notes of the proceedings. Farther back 
 twenty-four soldiers, armed with instruments of 
 torture, were ranged in a semi-circle, and behind 
 them a second line of soldiers kept the curious 
 crowds in check. While a prisoner was exam- 
 ined or tortured the twenty-four soldiers always 
 chanted continuously in low, heavy tones, to 
 drown his answers or his cries. 
 
 From servants and from the executioners them- 
 selves details of Father de Bretenières’s trial 
 were afterwards gathered. On entering the court 
 room he had found there his beloved Bishop, and 
 to show his respect had knelt humbly at his feet. 
 To the questions asked him after he was tied to 
 the chair, he replied, “I came to Korea to save 
 souls. I will gladly die for Christ,” and excused 
 himself from saying more because he w^as new 
 to the country and still spoke the language imper- 
 fectly. After his first examination he w^as thrown 
 into Kou-riou-kan, a dark, cold, loathsome prison, 
 reserved for the lowest criminals. The place had 
 no opening except a low, narrow door and was 
 dirty and ill-smelling. Father de Brêtenières was 
 seated on the ground, and left there for the night. 
 
 The next day he was taken to another prison, 
 
i 
 
 iih 
 
 at SEOUL 
 
 1. The Catholic Cathedral 
 
 2. In the Emperor’s Garden 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 145 
 
 not so dark as Kpu-rlou-kan, where each man had 
 a small cell with a wooden floor. A number of 
 bells were rung continuously to make impossible 
 any communication among the prisoners. The 
 whole was divided into three sections, one meant 
 for those not in serious trouble, the second for 
 those to be sent into exile, the third for all who 
 were condemned to death. It was into the last 
 that Father de Bretenières was thrown. 
 
 According to the laws of the kingdom four 
 examinations by different judges were necessary 
 before a man could be put to death. In the “Tri- 
 bunal of the Left,” Father de Bretenières was 
 examined by a sombre, pitiless man who never 
 laughed, would listen to no plea for mercy, and 
 to no advice. He decided every case as he saw 
 fit. The regent, also, had intended to question 
 him, but learning that he spoke the language im- 
 perfectly changed his mind. 
 
 For four days Father de Bretenières was drag- 
 ged from one court to another, each with its ter- 
 rifying equipment for inhuman torture. First he 
 was subjected to what is called the shienn-noiim. 
 Armed with triangular sticks executioners fiercely 
 beat the shins, feet, and fingers until the flesh was 
 torn from the bones and the lacerated legs could 
 no longer support the victim. Another day Father 
 de Bretenières’s body was beaten almost to a 
 pulp with heavy clubs, and it is probable that his 
 ribs were broken by the blows. He was tortured 
 other times, but there is no record of the Instru- 
 ments used; however, an idea of what his suffer- 
 
146 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 ings were may be gained from a description of 
 the punishments in frequent use at that time. 
 
 A criminal was sometimes laid face down- 
 wards on the ground, and a strong man beat him 
 across the legs with a stout club, four or five feet 
 long and six or seven inches thick, which was nar- 
 rowed at one end to form a handle. After a few 
 blows blood flowed; a few more, and flesh came 
 off in large pieces, and by the tenth twelfth 
 stroke the dub struck the bare bones, ivloie than 
 one Christian received as many as sixty strokes 
 in a single examination. 
 
 Another form of torture was inflicted with a 
 thin board three feet long, and two inches in 
 width, with which the sufferer was beaten on the 
 shins. Ordinarily thirty blows were given, and as 
 an executioner was expected to break his lath at 
 each one thirty had to be in readiness for each 
 criminal. A similar form of punishment was in- 
 flicted with very slender sticks, interwoven to 
 form a kind of rope, with which the whole body 
 was beaten. 
 
 There were three ways in which bones were 
 bent or dislocated. In one, after the knees and 
 feet had been tied together, two sticks were 
 passed through the space between and pulled in 
 opposite directions until the bones curved out- 
 ward; then they were slowly allowed to go back 
 to their natural shape. At other times the toes 
 of both feet were tied together, a thick piece of 
 wood was placed between the calves of the legs, 
 and ropes were fastened about the knees on which 
 
Just de Bretenîères 
 
 147 
 
 two men pulled in opposite directions, little by 
 little making them almost touch. Again a crimi- 
 nal would have his arms horribly dislocated. 
 Afterwards the torturer planted his feet on the 
 victim’s chest, seized his arms, and roughly drag- 
 ged them into place. Executioners whom long 
 practice had made skillful could bend bones 
 without breaking them; novices broke them so 
 horribly that marrov/ as well as blood poured 
 from the wounds. 
 
 Another form of torture consisted In stripping 
 the victim, tying his hands behind his back, and 
 hanging him up by the arms. Four men then 
 beat him with rods. After a few minutes the 
 tongue protruded and the face became purple, 
 and death quickly followed unless the sufferer 
 was taken down and allowed to rest. After he 
 recovered he was usually suspended again. At 
 other times criminals were hung by their hair, 
 with their knees resting on bits of broken glass, 
 and as they hung they were beaten with sticks. 
 
 Still another form of torture was given with 
 cord made of horse hair, which two men pulled 
 across the legs until It cut to the bone, when they 
 would shift their rope and begin to work In an- 
 other place. 
 
 The length of time that these tortures were 
 Inflicted depended entirely upon the caprice of 
 the judges who, when the accused were Chris- 
 tians on trial for their Faith, often gave free 
 rein to their hatred and devised added refine- 
 ments of cruelty too horrible to Imagine. It 
 
148 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 seldom happened that after an examination fol- 
 lowed by torture the accused was able to drag 
 himself from the court room. Ordinarily the ex- 
 ecutioners lifted him on two poles and carried 
 him, limp and bleeding, to the prison. 
 
 Under torture Father de Bretenières kept his 
 eyes cast down, and neither sigh nor complaint 
 passed his lips. His silence astonished and an- 
 gered the judges and incited them to still greater 
 cruelty. All witnesses testified that after Bishop 
 Berneux he was the most pitilessly tortured. 
 
 The terrible ordeal lasted for four successive 
 days. He was alternately questioned and tor- 
 tured until at length his patient heroism discon- 
 certed his enemies and for very shame they did 
 no more. Thrown again into prison, his wounds 
 were dressed with oiled paper and wrapped in a 
 coarse kind of cloth. On the fifth day he was 
 taken back to the horrors of Kou-riou-kan, 
 where the loved companionship of the Bishop 
 and of Fathers Beaulieu and Dorie sweetened 
 his pain. In the midst of their suffering the four 
 rejoiced together that they were on the threshold 
 of martyrdom. How ardently they had longed 
 for it in their peaceful seminary days and as 
 they journeyed Eastward or toiled among their 
 poor people! 
 
 Days passed, and still Father de Bretenières 
 waited, in darkness and dirt and noise, consumed 
 with fever, and with no other bed than the 
 ground for his wounded, pain-racked body. But 
 even then his gaiety did not forsake him. He 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 149 
 
 made pathetic little jokes with his jailors, and 
 tried to be kind to them — men whom long years 
 of service In Kou-riou-kan had hardened until 
 they knew no pity. 
 
150 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Martyrdom. 
 
 On the eighth of March a white flag floated 
 over the sandy plain south of Seoul, announcing 
 the execution of criminals of high station. A tent 
 had been pitched for the accommodation of a 
 mandarin and his attendants, and everything was 
 in readiness. 
 
 When the appointed hour drew near four con- 
 demned men were led from their prison: Bishop 
 Berneux first. Father de Bretenières^ next to 
 him, and after them Father Beaulieu and Father 
 Dorie. Each was placed in a chair; his arms and 
 legs were tied to the seat, and his head was held 
 slightly back by strings which attached his hair 
 to a lathe behind him. Over each man’s head 
 hung a little placard, on both sides of which his 
 sentence was written. Just’s read, “Paik, rebel- 
 lious and disobedient, condemned to die after 
 having been tortured.” 
 
 Curious crowds had gathered about the prison 
 to see the European priests go to death, and 
 jeered and laughed as they watched the prepa- 
 rations. Bishop Berneux spoke gently to them. 
 
 1 Evidently the messengers from Bishop Daveluy sent to Man- 
 churia had been mistaken in thinking that Bishop Berneux had 
 been martyred alone on the hfteenth of March, and nis companions 
 not until the eighth of April. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 151 
 
 “Do not mock and laugh,” he said. “You should 
 weep to see us die. We came to teach you the 
 way to heaven, and now we can work for you no 
 longer. How you are to be pitied!” 
 
 Ttvo burly men lifted each chair to their shoul- 
 ders and four hundred soldiers accompanied the 
 party. It required an hour to go from the prison 
 in Seoul to the arena. The porters paused several 
 times to rest, giving the Bishop an opportunity 
 to advise and encourage his young priests. The 
 unmistakable joy shining from each countenance 
 irritated the pagans who watched them pass. 
 “The fools dare to laugh!” they complained. 
 Just turned his bright face towards one of them 
 and said softly, “To die Is very sweet.” 
 
 The mandarin and his numerous attendants 
 were In their places when the party reached the 
 arena, and all the terrible instruments of torture 
 were In readiness. The condemned were sub- 
 jected to rough treatment as they were loosened 
 from their chairs. Father de Bretenières, prob- 
 ably in conscious Imitation of Our Saviour, said, 
 “I am thirsty.” A Christian soldier quickly 
 brought some water, but a pagan who stood 
 nearby would not allow him to touch it. 
 
 Bishop Berneux was called first, and soon his 
 body lay lifeless, and his head rolled across the 
 sand. Father de Bretenlères’s turn came next. 
 
 They stripped him of most of his clothing, 
 threw water on his face and head, and sprinkled 
 them with lime that they might not show the 
 effects of the last struggle. His ears were folded 
 
152 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 over and pierced with darts which were allowed 
 to remain in the wounds. His arms were tied be- 
 hind his back and a long pole was passed under 
 them on which two soldiers lifted him to show 
 him to the crowd. Preceded by three flag bear- 
 ers and two soldiers bearing instruments of tor- 
 ture, and followed by two flag-bearers and three 
 other soldiers similarly equipped, he was then 
 carried eight times around the arena, the circles 
 narrowing at each round so that the last ended 
 in the center. Meanwhile a number of soldiers 
 marched and countermarched in elaborate ma- 
 neuvers to amuse the spectators. 
 
 On reaching the middle of the arena Just was 
 placed on his knees. He bent his head forward 
 and a soldier held the cord with which his hair 
 was tied. Six executioners took their places near 
 him, and at a signal from the mandarin danced 
 about him, brandishing their axes and uttering 
 unearthly cries, before they began to strike furi- 
 ously and not very carefully at his neck. At the 
 fourth stroke Just’s dear head was severed from 
 his body, and all the soldiers called out triumph- 
 antly, “It is done! It is done!” 
 
 The head was placed on a board, and two 
 knives were thrust into it that the mandarin 
 might turn it back and forth without touching it. 
 With the head borne before them the soldiers 
 again marched eight times around the arena, 
 widening instead of narrowing the circles, until 
 they reached the mandarin’s tent. The bloody 
 head was presented to him, and after he had 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF SEOUL 
 (The Pulpit is the handiwork of Korean youths directed 
 by Benedictine Fathers) 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 153 
 
 identified it, it was hung by the hair to a post, 
 with the sentence of death nailed above it. 
 
 So did he die, the gifted son of a rich and 
 aristocratic house, who had preferred suffering 
 to all that the world could offer, and Christ to 
 His fairest gifts. 
 
 Father Beaulieu and Father Dorie passed 
 bravely through a like ordeal. That day, on a 
 road leading eastward from Seoul, a servant of 
 Bishop Berneux’s and the devoted mandarin, 
 Nam John, were also martyred; and in the same 
 place Father Pourthié and Father Petitnicolas 
 were put to death three days later. With them 
 suffered a young Korean and a zealous old cate- 
 chist who had served his Master long and well. 
 Bishop Daveluy and Father Huin were martyred 
 on Holy Saturday, March thirtieth, in a village 
 far south of Seoul. 
 
 No one dared to claim the bodies of Bishop 
 Berneux and his companions. Hour after hour 
 they lay on the blood-stained sand, with no one 
 near to weep or to pray. Ravens hovered over 
 the spot, but did not touch the precious relics. 
 After three days the display of the corpses was 
 considered to have lasted long enough to impress 
 all passers-by with deep respect for the laws of 
 Korea; and as no one claimed them the people 
 of the village towards which their faces had 
 been turned when they died were obliged to bury 
 them. The task fell to the pagans of Sai-nam- 
 hte, a town not far from Seoul. They dug a big 
 
154 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 trench and threw the despised remains into it. 
 All was over. 
 
 Six months passed. The persecution had abated 
 a little, and the Christians began to venture tim- 
 idly from their hiding places. Their first care 
 was to bury decently the fathers who had come 
 so far to bring them salvation. Poor before per- 
 secution came upon them, nearly all of them were 
 destitute now, but at the cost of untold sacrifices 
 they collected sufficient money to defray the ex- 
 pense. Women set the example by selling their 
 wedding rings, the only jewelry they had, and 
 inexpressibly precious apart from their intrinsic 
 value. 
 
 All being in readiness, forty Christians met 
 one night near the grave of Bishop Berneux and 
 his companions. They dug up the mutilated re- 
 mains, placed each head with the body to which 
 it belonged, hurriedly laid the four side by side 
 in the earth once more, refilled the trench, and 
 rolled stones over the mound; for dawn was 
 breaking and they must separate without being 
 seen. Two nights later the same men went back, 
 carrying coffins, shrouds, and holy water. Four 
 graves were quickly dug, and with utmost rever- 
 ance the bodies were lowered into them, while 
 appropriate prayers were read from books which 
 had escaped the rage of the persecutors. Each 
 martyr’s name was scratched on a shell which 
 was buried close to his coffin. 
 
 There the precious relics lay undisturbed until 
 October, 1899, when they were verified by the 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 155 
 
 Bishop of Seoul, in the presence of three wit- 
 nesses who had assisted at the exhumation, and 
 were secretly borne to the cathedral and buried 
 in its crypt. 
 
 It was long before tidings of the persecution 
 reached France. Late in the summer of ’66, five 
 months after the martyrdoms, English dispatches 
 reported in a vague way that some Europeans 
 had been massacred in Korea. Mme. de Bre- 
 tenières was at Vichy when these rumors reached 
 her, and was already keenly anxious when Chris- 
 tain hurried to her from Switzerland to tell her 
 of a conversation that he had chanced to over- 
 hear there, which seemed to confirm what she 
 had read. They went at once to Boulogne to be 
 in closer communication with Paris. 
 
 On the fifth of September Father Delpech, as- 
 sistant superior of the Foreign Mission Seminary, 
 wrote to Bishop Rivet of Dijon, saying, “One of 
 your children. Father Simon Marie Anthony Just 
 Ranfer de Bretenières, member of the Congrega- 
 tion of Missions and Missionary Apostolic in 
 Korea, has won the palm of martyrdom. 
 
 “Your Lordship will learn all the details that 
 we know from the enclosed letter of Father 
 Patriat’s and the one which I have written to the 
 father of our dear martyr. I dare not send my 
 letter direct to him, and am confiding it to Your 
 Lordship, convinced that you will know how to 
 soften the sad news with all the consolations 
 which faith and the hope of heaven can give. 
 
156 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 “Use my letter as you see fit. Give it to the 
 poor parents or withhold it, as seems best. 
 
 “I lived here with Father de Bretenières for 
 three years. He was undoubtedly a saint. It 
 can truly be said of him: ^Consummatus in hrevi 
 explevit tempora multaJ 
 
 The message could not have been confided to 
 tenderer lips. The kindly Bishop went at once to 
 see the parents of the young martyr, and with 
 exquisite tact and gentleness prepared them for 
 the terrible news before he placed in their hands 
 this letter, written by Father Delpech: 
 
 “Yesterday we received direct news, from our 
 dear Korea, of grave and important events, never 
 to be effaced from the annals of God’s Church. 
 The designs of God are impenetrable to us, but 
 by faith we know that everything permitted by 
 Providence works for the salvation of souls. Let 
 us, then, adore the tender Providence of God 
 that every pain may become for us a means of 
 sanctification and a pledge of eternal life. 
 
 “These, my dear Sir, are the details which we 
 have just received concerning the recent trouble 
 in Korea: Last January some Russians landed 
 on the coast of Korea and demanded the opening 
 of a port to commerce with their country. The 
 government was greatly disturbed. As the regent 
 was trying to find some means of keeping them 
 at bay, and was personally w^ell disposed towards 
 Christianity, certain Christians thought that they 
 had an excellent opportunity of serving our holy 
 Faith. They told the regent that the two Bishops 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 157 
 
 of Korea and their priests would be the best pos- 
 sible intermediaries in the Russian affair. 
 
 “The regent sent for the Bishops. Bishop Ber- 
 neux, who was working in his country missions 
 and had little faith in the plans afoot, was not 
 eager to return to the capital, but his presence in 
 the kingdom having become officially known he 
 was obliged to obey the summons. 
 
 “By the time he reached Seoul the Russians 
 had disappeared, and with them the fears of the 
 Government. About the court there were man- 
 darins intensely hostile to Christianity who, see- 
 ing the Bishop made easy prey, urged that he and 
 his priests be seized. The regent objected at 
 first, but ended by supporting them, and Bishop 
 Berneux was taken prisoner. Orders were given 
 to arrest Bishop Daveluy and a number of mds- 
 sioners whose hiding places had been revealed 
 by a traitor. Soon both Bishops and all but three 
 of the priests were in the hands of persecutors 
 who, blind to the consequences of their folly, were 
 determined to stop at nothing. So the Bishops 
 and seven of their priests were martyred. 
 
 “We have not yet heard all details, but we 
 know that on the eighth of March Bishop Ber- 
 neux, Father Dorie and Father Beaulieu, and one 
 other, were put to death; that on the eleventh 
 Father Pourthié and Father Petitnicolas followed 
 them to heaven; and last of all, on the thirtieth 
 of the same month. Bishop Daveluy was mar- 
 tyred with Fathers Aumaître and Huin. 
 
 “We know, too, that these nine confessors of 
 
158 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 the Faith went to their- death with a calmness 
 and joy evident even to the pagans, so happy 
 were they to leave this vale of tears for the arms 
 of their Heavenly Father. 
 
 “I have named all but one of our venerated 
 martyrs. I have hesitated to say his name, know- 
 ing the depth of a father’s and of a mother’s 
 love. Your own hearts have uttered the word I 
 dared not say. 
 
 “Perhaps I should have counted absolutely on 
 your faith and unhesitatingly have placed your 
 beloved son in the band of our holy martyrs. 
 The day that Father Just was arrested he had 
 baptized twenty-live catechumens. 
 
 “These, my dear Sir, are the only details 
 which we know now. 
 
 “I beg Our Saviour and the Queen of Martyrs 
 to soften for you and yours the grief which this 
 news must cause. Faith will teach you, in time, 
 to thank God for the great glory which He has 
 deigned to bestow upon your child. 
 
 “In the love our Our Lord Jesus Christ and 
 in memory of our dear martyr accept for your- 
 self and all your family the expression of my 
 respectful affection and entire devotion. 
 
 “Delpech, 
 
 “Missionary Apostolic.” 
 
 After he and his wife had read this letter to- 
 gether the poor old father wept uncontrollably. 
 Many, many times he had renewed the sacrifice 
 of his son to God; still, deep in his heart the 
 
Just de Breteniêres 
 
 159 
 
 hope of seeing him again would not die. He 
 knew now that this could never be. And what 
 torture had preceded Just’s death? And where 
 did his body rest? The mother could not weep. 
 Bishop Rivet said a few words of comfort, and 
 soon the broken-hearted old father and mother 
 knelt together at his feet and In voices broken by 
 sobs murmured the Te Deum. 
 
 Soon letters poured into their hands from 
 Paris and from the Orient, bringing tribute after 
 tribute of love and admiration for Just; sweet 
 comfort for their aching hearts. How those let- 
 ters were treasured! read and reread a hundred 
 times, until they were known word for word! 
 
 A beautiful little incident, cherished by all 
 lovers of Just, was also a solace to them in the 
 hard days of their first grief. It seems that when 
 he was nine or ten years of age the boy planted 
 a rose bush in the grounds adjoining the convent 
 of the Sisters of Charity in Dijon. It lived, but 
 never bloomed. The sisters treasured it as a 
 souvenir of Just and would not permit the gar- 
 dener to uproot it. To everyone’s amazement, 
 early in the spring of 1866 , four buds* appeared 
 upon It, and in time four lovely roses I 
 
160 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Rendezvous. 
 
 While he was at the Foreign Mission Seminary 
 Just had written to his parents: “The few days 
 that we have to spend in this world will pass 
 quickly, and how happy we shall be when v/e are 
 reunited in heaven, never to part again, and lov- 
 ing one another in Our Lord, without uneasiness 
 or fear of the future.” 
 
 The Baron de Bretenières was the first to join 
 his son. He died in January, 1882, at the age of 
 seventy-eight. After four lonely years his wife 
 slipped peacefully away, not long before her 
 eightieth birthday. Only Christian remained. 
 He had been for years Superior of St. Francis de 
 Sales College in Dijon when he died, an old man, 
 deeply revered and loved. 
 
 The family was reunited at last. 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 161 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 It is to Bishop Daveluy’s unwearied efforts 
 that we owe the interesting story of the Church 
 in Korea. Sent there in 1845, for twenty years 
 he collected everything that could be found re- 
 lating to the establishment and growth of Chris- 
 tianity, and many anecdotes of its times of trial, 
 its confessors, and its martyrs. Fortunately his 
 notes were sent to France some months before 
 the outbreak of the persecution which counted 
 him among its victims. 
 
 Korea is a mountainous peninsula parallel to 
 the eastern coast of China. It is three hundred 
 miles in length and a hundred in width. A vassal 
 of China until 1895, in that year the treaty of 
 Shimonoseki placed it under the protection of 
 Japan; but it was always an autonomous king- 
 dom, with a language and customs materially 
 different from those of either China or Japan. 
 Until long after Father de Bretenières’s brief day 
 there the government jealously isolated the coun- 
 try from the rest of the world. 
 
 In 1860 China was forcibly opened to Euro- 
 pean commerce, but the Powers made no effort to 
 enter into negotiations with inhospitable Korea, 
 and six years later Catholic missioners were still 
 the only Europeans who, at the risk of their 
 lives, had succeeded in settling there. 
 
162 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 Nevertheless the Koreans have always been 
 singularly well disposed to receive the good seed 
 of the Gospel. In other pagan lands the Church 
 has made its w^ay almost entirely through the 
 children in Catholic schools and orphanages. In 
 Korea men — the intellectuals .of the country — 
 were the first converts, and its evangelization 
 was unique in the history, not only of modern 
 missions, but of Christianity. 
 
 The world marvels at the constancy of the 
 Japanese who guarded the Faith through two 
 centuries of persecution, carefully transmitting 
 its essentials to their descendents. They did this 
 without priests, or any Sacrament except baptism, 
 until Japan opened her doors to the world and 
 missioners again flocked into the country. But 
 Japan had received the Faith from St. Francis 
 Xavier, and for a century Christianity had flour- 
 ished there. When it was persecuted, almost 
 to extinction, the faithful who so tenaciously 
 clung to it had a precious legacy of Christian 
 traditions and many examples of holiness to 
 strengthen them in long generations of isolation. 
 
 The story of Korea is entirely different, and 
 even more extraordinary. A country cut off from 
 the rest of the world, it had never seen a priest. 
 Towards the end of the eighteenth century some 
 of its scholars accidentally came across Catholic 
 books written in Chinese and brought them into 
 Korea with a number of scientific works. In 1783 
 one of these scholars, Peter Seng-Houn-i, w^as a 
 members of the embassy which Korea sent an- 
 
WORKROOM IN THE BENEDICTINE TRADE SCHOOL, SEOUL 
 

Just de Bretenières 
 
 163 
 
 nually to Peking, and while there he became ac- 
 quainted with Bishop Alexander de Govea, a Port- 
 uguese Franciscan, and was baptized by him. 
 
 On returning to his own country he took with 
 him religious books, crucifixes, and pictures, which 
 he distributed among his friends; and with the 
 aid of Piek-i and a few other earnest men he en- 
 deavored to spread the knowledge of the Faith, 
 appealing particularly to the most learned and 
 thoughtful men of the country. The fervent cate- 
 chists invited public discussions with followers of 
 other religions, and these debates redounded to 
 the honor of Christianity, and gave it an assured 
 position in the world of letters. Thence it was 
 diffused among the middle and lower classes. 
 
 The catechumens baptized by Peter Seng-Houn-i 
 baptized others. Books, written by Chinese mis- 
 sioners, were translated into Korean; the neo- 
 phytes were taught Christian practices — the sanc- 
 tification of Sunday, the observance of days of 
 fast and abstinence, even the rigors of asceti- 
 cism; and the Christian laws regarding marriage 
 were inculcated to the best of the catechists’ abil- 
 ity. In a word, a society of the faithful was 
 established, attached to the church in China by 
 baptism: and all through the zeal of one convert, 
 a layman, and not thoroughly instructed. 
 
 Such a beginning was marvelous; the sequel 
 was even more so. 
 
 The infant Church of Korea waited ten years 
 for the first Catholic priest who penetrated into 
 the kingdom. Again and again the isolated Chris- 
 
164 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 tians entreated the Bishop of Peking to send 
 them priests, but he was unable to do so. Long- 
 ing for spiritual help, and in their ignorance not 
 understanding that they could not transmit the 
 priesthood even as they conferred baptism, they 
 consecrated a bishop and ordained several priests, 
 according to the ceremonies which Peter Seng- 
 Houn-i had witnessed in Peking, and very care- 
 fully made altar vessels for the celebration of 
 Mass. 
 
 Hearing of all this the Bishop of Peking at 
 once wrote to them explaining their mistake, and 
 with childlike docility the so-called priests obeyed 
 him and they and their fellow Christians renewed 
 their entreaties for help from China. They were 
 destined to pass through great trials before it 
 reached them. 
 
 The slender theological knowledge which had 
 permitted the heads of this little community to 
 take upon themselves the priesthood was equally 
 at fault in regard to their duty concerning the 
 ceremonies held in honor of their ancestors. The 
 rites practiced in China had, after much contro- 
 versy, been condemned by the Holy See as savor- 
 ing of idolatry. Those in use in Korea were but 
 slightly different, and the people’s attachment to 
 them not less strong. 
 
 When instructions on this point came from 
 Peking the Korean Christians had no alternative 
 but to renounce the ancient rites as dear to them 
 as their beloved dead. A few gave up the 
 Church. The rest submitted, but the spread of 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 165 
 
 the Faith was arrested, and in the eyes of the 
 pagans Christianity was henceforth synonymous 
 with impiety. The abhorrence which the new re- 
 ligion had aroused in certain quarters then found 
 a plausible pretext to employ merciless measures 
 for stamping it out. 
 
 The first persecution began in 1791, and the 
 consistency of the neophytes under torture was 
 admirable. There were apostasies; even some 
 who had endured tortures afterwards yielded to 
 the entreaties of their relatives, or the fear of 
 involving all their household in a common ruin: 
 but many gloriously repaired the weakness of a 
 few and won the palm of martyrdom. The ex- 
 aminations at which the Christians were ques- 
 tioned concerning their belief were always ac- 
 companied by torture, and attracted numberless 
 spectators, whose attention was thus forcibly 
 drawn to the teachings of the Church. More 
 than once even the judges expressed reluctant 
 admiration of what they heard, and conversions 
 dated from those sublime instructions delivered 
 on the rack. 
 
 Thus v/as the Korean Church prepared in tears 
 and blood to receive the priest who came at last : 
 Father James Tsiou, a Chinaman, sent in 1784, 
 exactly ten years after the baptism of the first 
 Korean convert. On his arrival he found more 
 than four thousand Christians, many of whom 
 were living most devoutly. His ministry was as 
 fruitful as it was difficult and dangerous. The 
 general persecution had ceased, because the king 
 
166 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 was opposed to violent measures, but through the 
 cruelty or greed of certain mandarins Christians 
 were still put to death in some parts of the 
 country. 
 
 The death of the king in 1799, and the estab- 
 lishment of a regency intensely hostile to the 
 Church, was soon followed by a general and most 
 cruel persecution. The avowed determination of 
 the government was to exterminate the new sect. 
 Well knowing the hatred of the authorities for 
 foreigners Father Tsiou gave himself up, hoping 
 thus to ward off the danger threatening his peo- 
 ple. After enduring horrible tortures he was 
 beheaded in May, 1801. 
 
 But his death did not appease the enemies 
 of Christianity. The number of victims is not 
 known, but it is certain that in the capital alone 
 more than three hundred men and women, of 
 every age and condition, were put to death. 
 From time to time the authorities wearied of 
 their bloody work and persecution ceased for a 
 while, only to be renewed with increased violence. 
 Few years passed without seeing Christians im- 
 prisoned for their Faith, tortured, and either 
 exiled, put to death, or allowed to die of hunger 
 and neglect in loathsome prisons. 
 
 Summarized, the early history of the Church 
 in Korea is as follows: founded in 1784 by Peter 
 Seng-Houn-i, it waited ten years for the arrival 
 of a priest; until 1831 for the establishment of a 
 Vicariate Apostolic; and until 1836 for its first 
 European missionary — Father Maubant. During 
 
Just de Breteniêres 
 
 167 
 
 these fifty-two years' it had no external assistance, 
 except that given it by the ministry of Father 
 Tsiou, which lasted for five years. For forty-seven 
 years it carried on its work without priests, with- 
 out any Sacrament but baptism, with no preach- 
 ing but that of catechists; it passed through the 
 general persecutions of 1791, 1801, 1815, and 
 1827; and it gave to the Church more than a 
 thousand martyrs and uncounted examples of 
 exalted virtue. 
 
 Again and again the poor isolated Koreans 
 sent touching addresses to the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 begging him to send them priests. Pius VII re- 
 ceived such a petition at the moment that the 
 horrors of the French Revolution were beginning 
 to alarm the world. He placed them under the 
 jurisdiction of the Bishop of Peking; but the 
 Church in China felt the effects of the storm 
 that was devastating Europe, and the Christians 
 of Korea had to be neglected. In 1811 Pius VII 
 received a second letter from them; and then, 
 imprisoned at Fontainbleau, his hands were tied. 
 Still another petition, written in 1825, reached 
 Leo XII two years later; and touched by such 
 unwavering fidelity he charged the Propaganda 
 to offer the Korean mission to the Paris Foreign 
 Mission Society. Poor in men and in resources, 
 the Society accepted the difficult field and chose 
 Father Bruguière to begin their work there. He 
 was consecrated Bishop in 1829. 
 
 The Koreans being incredibly prejudiced 
 against foreigners, especially those who were 
 
i68 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 Christians, their country had to be entered 
 secretly; and in three years of effort, amid dan- 
 ger and inconceivable hardship. Bishop Bruguière 
 was unable to reach his diocese. His failure was 
 due in part to a Chinese priest. Father Pacifus, 
 who had penetrated into Korea and was exercis- 
 ing his ministry there. He filled the hearts of the 
 people with terror by telling them that the com- 
 ing of the French Bishop would be a signal for 
 a persecution, and scandalized them by a life not 
 in keeping with the sublimity of his vocation. 
 
 Thus Bishop Bruguière’s already difficult task 
 was made more difficult. He suffered cruelly 
 from the hostility of his spiritual children, who 
 continually raised new difficulties to delay his 
 entrance into the country — imaginary difficulties, 
 invented for that express purpose, until at last 
 he was obliged to resort to extreme measures and 
 to threaten with excommunication those who con- 
 tinued to make his apostleship impossible. The 
 people resisted no longer and made ready to 
 welcome him; but the holy Bishop, worn out by 
 hardship and sorrow, died suddenly in Tartary, 
 in October, 1835. 
 
 After his death Father Maubant, who had 
 been appointed his assistant, succeeded in enter- 
 ing Korea; and another French priest. Father 
 Chastan, soon followed him. For five years they 
 labored alone in that field of martyrs, by their 
 zeal greatly increasing the size of their flock. 
 
 In time a new Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Imbert, 
 made his way into the kingdom, but the peoples’ 
 
Just de Breteniêres 
 
 169 
 
 rejoicing was short lived. A furious persecution 
 soon broke forth. Imitating Father Tsiou the 
 three missionaries gave themselves up, hoping 
 thereby to save their flock. The Bishop, deliver- 
 ing himself first, sent word to his priests to join 
 him, and all three were beheaded. The persecu- 
 tion thus inaugurated was more general and more 
 systematic than any that had preceded it. Apos- 
 tacies were few, and many were martyred. 
 
 The Korean Church was again without a priest, 
 and more than five years passed before another 
 succeeded in getting into the country. During 
 this time intermittent periods of persecution fur- 
 ther enriched its martyrology. Father Ferréol, 
 consecrated Bishop in Alanchuria, at last entered 
 the kingdom from the sea, accompanied by Father 
 Daveluy, and a young Korean priest, named An- 
 drew Kim, who had been ordained in China — a 
 man of rare promise, courageous, persevering, 
 and very holy. He had already suffered much, 
 so much that later, when arraigned before the 
 judges, the story of his trying adventures drew 
 cries of admiration even from his persecutors. 
 “Poor young man, in what terrible labors has he 
 not passed his days !” they- exclaimed. 
 
 Bishop Ferréol found the Christians scattered 
 and disheartened. Discipline had been relaxed, 
 instruction neglected, and many of his people 
 concealed themselves from him in terror. Every- 
 where he had to begin afresh. Father Kim was 
 doing good work when he fell into the hands 
 of some soldiers; and after a heroic confession 
 
170 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 of Faith shed his blood for Christ with heav- 
 enly joy. 
 
 A Korean deacon, who had been sent to China 
 to complete his studies, forced his way into the 
 country, where he was presently ordained. An- 
 other French missioner. Father Maistre, came 
 just in time to see Bishop Ferréol die, exhausted 
 by privations and by labor too great for his 
 strength. He was the third Vicar Apostolic whom 
 the Church had lost in Korea in ten years. 
 
 Bishop Berneux was next appointed to the dif- 
 ficult position, and entered the country in 1856, 
 accompanied by Fathers Pourthié and Petitnico- 
 las. His first official act was to name Father 
 Daveluy his coadjutor. Despite the continued 
 hostility of the government and some persecution, 
 during the years immediately preceding Father de 
 Bretenières’s arrival the Church in Korea knew 
 comparative peace and made great strides. The 
 Christian population increased to sixteen thous- 
 and. The people seized every opportunity of 
 receiving the Sacraments, and were docile and 
 devoted and zealous. Many emulated the vir- 
 tues of their holy missioners, and during ^ vio- 
 lent persecution which stained the regency of 
 Heung-song-koun not only priests but several 
 thousand laymen gladly died for the Faith. 
 
 Three years after the martyrdom of Bishop 
 Berneux and his companions two priests. Fathers 
 Ridel and Blanc, attempted to penetrate into 
 Korea, but found the coast guarded at every 
 point. Later, in 1876, Father Ridel, who in the 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 171 
 
 meantime had been consecrated Bishop, man- 
 aged to effect an entrance with some of his 
 priests. Of the condition in which he found 
 the mission he wrote: “Several thousands of the 
 faithful have disappeared, victims of the most 
 cruel persecution ever waged even in Korea. 
 Some died of hunger, cold, and disease; others, 
 especially young girls, were sold as slaves and 
 taken no one knows where. Those Christians 
 whom we find are in a miserable condition of 
 body and soul. Obliged to flee and hide, they lost 
 their fields and homes and all their possessions. 
 They have no means of livelihood. I am in hid- 
 ing, surrounded on all sides by pagans. I dare 
 not speak above a whisper and go out to minister 
 to the Christians only after dark. So far I have 
 not been disturbed.” 
 
 Bishop Ridel had hardly begun his work when 
 he was made prisoner. His life was spared, but 
 after being subjected to ill-treatment he was 
 taken beyond the frontier of the kingdom and 
 forbidden to return. ^ The more lenient attitude 
 of the Korean government was due, it is believed, 
 t;o t’*^ ' fluence of Japan and China. 
 
 In 1880 only three missioners were left in 
 Korea, Fathers Blanc, Doucet, and Robert, and as 
 they greatly needed helpers Bishop Ridel sent to 
 their aid Father Lianville and Father Mutel, the 
 present beloved Bishop of Seoul. These two 
 priests, after one unsuccessful attempt, gained 
 entrance in disguise, and for a time secretly min- 
 istered to the Christians. Bishop Ridel died in 
 
172 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 1884 without having been able to return to his 
 diocese, and was succeeded by Bishop Blanc, con- 
 secrated at Nagasaki. France now wrung from 
 Korea the assurance that missioners would be 
 permitted to live in the kingdom, and this with 
 pressure brought to bear by other governments, 
 including that of the United States, Inaugurated 
 an era of toleration and of peace for the long- 
 tried Church of Korea. 
 
 Soon a band of sisters arrived, and, to the in- 
 expressible joy of the Christians, opened an or- 
 phan asylum in Seoul. Land was bought for a 
 chapel and a seminary. When Bishop Mutel was 
 consecrated — 1890 — the future looked brighter 
 than ever before: and It has gloriously fulfilled 
 Its promise. Once the old enemies of the Faith 
 organized a rebellion and terrorized the Chris- 
 tians, but order was soon restored. When Bishop 
 Mutel took charge the Catholic population of 
 Korea was 17,577; it is now about 85,000. 
 
 In a short article which the Bishop wrote for 
 the Catholic Encyclopedia, he gives this sum- 
 mary of activities: “In each district some chapels 
 have been built, wfith residences for the mission- 
 aries. In 1892 a seminary was built at Ryong- 
 saun near Seoul. The quasi-cathedral church of 
 Seoul was solemnly consecrated on May 29, 1898. 
 Parish schools have been opened anew, or organ- 
 ized upon a better footing. It has been possible 
 to open In the great centers a few schools for 
 girls, a thing which Korean usage would never 
 before have permitted. In 1875 the missionaries 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 173 
 
 published a dictionary and a grammar in French 
 and Korean. The movable type then cast has 
 served as a standard for all that is used to- 
 day. The mission possesses a printing-house for 
 the publication of Korean Catholic books and of 
 a weekly Korean Catholic newspaper, founded in 
 1906, which counts more than four thousand sub- 
 scribers. As a striking event of this period may 
 be noted the conversion to Catholicism of the 
 princess, the mother of the emperor, and the 
 true wife of the terrible regent Heung-song-koun. 
 Christian at heart even before the persecution 
 of 1866, she was baptized and confirmed Octo- 
 ber 11, 1896, but in great secrecy and unknown 
 even to those about her. The following year she 
 received, under the same conditions, the Sacra- 
 ments of Penance and Holy Eucharist, and died 
 piously, January 8, 1898.” 
 
 To the Very Reverend James A. Walsh, Super- 
 ior of Maryknoll, the American Foreign Mission 
 Seminary, we are indebted for the story of the 
 conversion to which Bishop Mutel refers. Father 
 Walsh has been in correspondence with Bishop 
 Mutel for several years and recently, on his Far 
 Eastern voyage in search of a mission-field for 
 American priests, he remained for several days 
 at Seoul as the Bishop’s guest. During this visit 
 His Lordship wrote for him the interesting story 
 which follows: 
 
 “The prince, whom the Japanese call Prince 
 Ri Senior, occupied the throne of Korea, first as 
 king, from 1864 until 1897; then as emperor, 
 
174 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 from 1897 until 1907, when he abdicated in 
 favor of his son, who was dethroned in 1910 
 and has since been known as Prince Ri Junior. 
 
 “Born of a noble family, in 1852, Prince Ri 
 Senior was only twelve years of age when he 
 was chosen to succeed a childless king, and the 
 regency placed in the hands of his father, Heung- 
 song-koun, principal author of the terrible perse- 
 cution of 1866 which gave us so many martyrs. 
 Little as the regent suspected it Christianity had 
 even then won its way, not only into the court, 
 but into his household. The nurse of the boy- 
 king was a devout Catholic, and his own wife 
 loved the Church and believed in it. Shortly be- 
 fore Bishop Berneux’s martyrdom she sent a mes- 
 sage, begging him to offer a number of Masses 
 for the prosperity of the kingdom, and while her 
 husband was torturing priests and thousands of 
 native Christians she was secretly studying the 
 catechism and preparing herself for baptism. 
 
 “She w^as a Christian at heart for many years, 
 and when, in 1890,1 returned to Korea as Bishop, 
 she sent to me begging for baptism. It was im- 
 possible for me to grant her petition, for not- 
 withstanding her great age she still acted as 
 mistress of the royal family and among her 
 duties were the preparation of the pagan sacri- 
 fices and the defraying of whatever expense per- 
 tained to them. I was obliged to reply that she 
 could not be baptized until she renounced all par- 
 ticipation in the false worship of the court. 
 
 “In the spring of 1896, giving her advanced 
 
THE MUCH-LOVED BISHOP OF SEOUL 
 Rt. Rev. Gustave Mutel of the Paris Foreign Missions 
 
Just de Bretenîères 
 
 175 
 
 age as excuse, she resigned her place as head of 
 the royal household, and once more asked for 
 baptism. The eleventh of October was the day 
 chosen; the place, a Christian maid-servant’s un- 
 pretentious home, outside the grounds of the 
 palace, but not far from it. I was the first to 
 reach the house and hid behind the door of its 
 one room. Soon the princess came, carried in a 
 kind of chair which is in general use among the 
 ladies of the palace. The bearers did not know 
 her and suspected nothing. A pagan woman of 
 the court, to whom the princess had confided the 
 secret, accompanied her on foot. When the prin- 
 cess alighted she was greeted as Koreans greet 
 an aged relative; only after she entered the house 
 and the door had been closed was more profound 
 respect shown her. 
 
 “The princess was immediately presented to 
 me. She was simply dressed, and very simple in 
 manner. Her sight had grown dim, but her hear- 
 ing was perfect and her mind was alert and keen. 
 We had much to say to each other, but there was 
 little time for anything but the serious matter for 
 which we had met. I asked her to repeat our or- 
 dinary prayers and she said them fluently, as one 
 does who recites them often. I examined her in 
 Christian Doctrine, and she readily answered all 
 my questions. I then baptized her with as much 
 solemnity as time and place permitted. A Chris- 
 tian, the daughter of the king’s nurse, was god- 
 mother. All went well, although during the cere- 
 mony we could hear the bearers of the princess’ 
 
176 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 chair wrangling over a -few pennies just outside 
 the door. Evidently they had had too much wine. 
 
 “When I poured the baptismal water on the 
 forehead of Princess Mary I saw a look of un- 
 utterable joy illumine her face — a look which I 
 have seen a thousand times on the countenances 
 of humbler converts. Immediately afterward I 
 confirmed her, and this time a Christian servant 
 was god-mother. The ceremonies had lasted about 
 an hour and we could not tarry longer without 
 danger. I said good-bye to Princess Mary and 
 hid behind the door while she went to her chair. 
 When it passed out of sight I also left the house. 
 
 “The following day Princess Mary sent some 
 one to thank me, to tell me that she had re- 
 entered the palace without being seen, and also 
 to ask for a dispensation from abstinence, which 
 it would have been almost impossible for her to 
 observe. 
 
 “A year later, on September fifth, 1897, the 
 princess sent a messenger to ask me to see her 
 that evening, that I might hear her confession 
 and, if possible, give her her First Communion. 
 This time it was arranged that I should go to 
 her at the palace. In a chair not unlike the one 
 she had used I left my house about nine o’clock 
 in the evening, carrying the Blessed Sacrament 
 on my breast. I was taken through a side-door 
 to the room of a Christian servant. The porters 
 having been dismissed I was led across several 
 courts to the apartments of a court lady who was 
 in the secret. On the way I narrowly escaped 
 
Just de Bretenières 
 
 177 
 
 running into one of the guards who make the 
 round of the palace during the entire night. Each 
 of them is armed with a long stick, bound with 
 iron, with which he strikes the ground making a 
 horrible noise. We stood aside in the shadow 
 until he passed, and continued on our way. 
 
 “A very old lady of the court received me in 
 her room where I found also the lady who had 
 been present at Princess Mary’s baptism. I laid 
 the Blessed Sacrament on a table which had been 
 made ready for it, lit a candle, and awaited the 
 coming of the princess. At half-past eleven I 
 heard a slight noise and rose quickly. It was in- 
 deed the king’s mother who approached, having 
 profited by a moment when all her attendants 
 were asleep to have herself carried on the back 
 of a slave to the room in which I awaited her. 
 After our greetings and some little conversation 
 Princess Mary asked me to hear her confession. 
 I did so at once, and afterwards prayers were 
 read to her in preparation for Holy Communion. 
 Shortly after midnight I put on my surplice and 
 stole and gave her Holy Communion. I can still 
 see the whole scene: the aged princess kneeling 
 before me to receive Our Lord, and behind her 
 two pagan ladies of the palace with a humble 
 Christian servant between them, all three rever- 
 ently bent low. Such was the First Communion 
 of Princess Mary in the early morning of the 
 sixth of September, 1897, when she was eighty 
 years of age. It was her last Communion as well 
 as her first. I was obliged to interrupt her 
 
178 
 
 For The Faith 
 
 thanksgiving to take leave of her, and never saw 
 her again. 
 
 “Towards the end of the year she fell ill, but 
 profited by a day on which she was better to 
 send me messages, recommending herself to my 
 prayers, and begging me', if possible to see her 
 husband, the old regent, Heung-song-koun, v/ho 
 was also very ill. She hoped that I might be 
 able to bring him into the Church. I had no 
 further news of her until the morning of Janu- 
 ary ninth, when word was brought me that she 
 had died the evening before. In any case it would 
 have been impossible for me to be with her at 
 the last. Knowing this she had told a Christian 
 servant to stay beside her, and in words agreed 
 between them to suggest pious thoughts until 
 the end came. 
 
 “I felt it my duty to seek an audience with 
 the king that I might offer my condolence and 
 tell him that his mother had died a Christian. 
 Some one’s indiscretion had already appraised 
 him of the fact, and fearing that I should men- 
 tion it before the assembled court he refused to 
 see me, sending word that he was unusually busy 
 and would summon me later. 
 
 “I asked, also, for an interview with Heung- 
 song-koun, as the princess had asked me to do. 
 He sent me effusive messages of thanks, but ex- 
 plained that he was not on friendly terms with 
 his son and a visit from me at that moment might 
 get us both into trouble. Perhaps this, too, was 
 but an excuse. 
 
Just de Breteniêres 
 
 179 
 
 “Obliged by ill health to go to Shanghai for 
 two months’ rest it was there that I learned of 
 the regent’s death on the twenty-second of Feb- 
 ruary. National obsequies — entirely pagan, of 
 course — were held at the same time for him 
 and for Princess Mary. For her soul she had 
 only the portion of the poor: the generous suf- 
 frages of the Church and a few Masses said at 
 the request of some humble Christian servants.” 
 
-s 
 
The Martyr of Futuna 
 
 {.Blessed Peter Chanel, S. Ai., First A4 arty r of Oceania^ 
 Adapted from the French by Florence Gilmore 
 
 “This simple life of Blessed Peter Chanel will do much to arouse 
 enthusiasm for foreign missions, and will, we trust, lead many an 
 American youth to labor in the ‘field afar.’ ” — The Catholic World. 
 
 “A valuable addition to the Catholic Foreign Mission Society’s 
 list of publications. — A copy of this book in the hands of those 
 interested in the missions may mean an increased number of voca- 
 tions. — Catholic libraries especially should not fail to procure the 
 life-story of this nineteenth-century martyr.” — America. 
 
 Bound in cloth, 208 pp. 16 illustrations, $1.00 prepaid 
 
 Catholic Foreign Mission Society 
 
 Maryknoll, Ossining P. O., N. Y. 
 
An American Missionary 
 
 ^IS new edition of Father Judge’s life and 
 
 etters will be welcomed by all his friends 
 and by the increasing number of those whose 
 Catholic hearts beat in full sympathy with the 
 intrepid missloners * beyond the frontiers.’ The 
 headings of the chapters are enough to incite 
 readers, who will wish to know more about the 
 Yukon, Forty Mile Post and Circle City, the 
 Rush to the Klondike and Dawson City. The 
 excellent reviews of the first edition have been 
 printed at the end of the present volume and 
 bear testimony to the inspiring letters within. 
 
 304 Pages. In Cloth. 20 Illustrations. 
 Price, 50 cents. Postage, 1 2 cents. 
 
 (Third Edition) 
 
 Catholic Foreign Mission seminary 
 
 MARYKNOLL : : : : OSSINING P. 0., N. Y. 
 
Atones: from W\)t Jftelb Star 
 
 A Charming Gift 
 
 Fifteen Short Stories bearing on the subject of Foreign 
 Missions. A long-felt want supplied. 
 
 This book has lOU pages and 17 illustrations. It is 
 most attractively bound in cloth, with cover design. 
 
 Price, only Fifty Cents 
 
 {Postage Ten Cts.) 
 
 Address: 
 
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 Maryknoll : : : OSSINING P. O.. N. Y. 
 
Tield Jifar Calcs 
 
 A companion volume to the Stories already 
 announced. 
 
 Twenty Short Stories, of which the Brooklyn 
 Tablet says; 
 
 Up at the New Catholic Foreign Mission Seminary 
 the purpose of educating the Catholic public of America 
 in the matter of its duty to the foreign missions, goes 
 on apace. Month after month the brilliant Field Afar 
 magazine comes from the printing-press to the homes of 
 American Catholics and quietly fans the flames of enthu- 
 siasm. Already there is a glowing response in the 
 material growth of tliis venture, while vocations among 
 American youth and a broadened outlook on the world 
 are even now in evidence. The monthly story of the 
 missions, fresh from the Orient, is hardly surpassed by 
 the bright little fictional tales that are written with an 
 eye for propaganda. 
 
 The volume before us is the second collection of these 
 breezy tales. It is most welcome and having a definite 
 purpose, will, we believe, produce fruit. 
 
 The tales attributed to Fr. John Wakefield are clear 
 and terse echoes of “what might have been” if American 
 Catholics were interested in the evangelization of the 
 Orient. Some of the stories are by a Teresian of Mary- 
 knoll. These also strike home and sound as if they 
 were founded on fact. The many dramatic incidents 
 that daily come to our shores from China and Japan, 
 furnish the main theme of the tales, and the material 
 is well handled. 
 
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31 
 
 (New Edition) 
 
 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF 
 
 BLESSED THEOPHANE VÊNARD 
 
 Alumnus of the Paris Foreign Mission Society 
 
I am very grateful to you for making me acquainted 
 with ‘ A Modern Martyr.’ I think it is the most fascina- 
 ting book I have read for a long time. I can hardly put it 
 out of my hands, and have finished reading half of it al- 
 ready. I have Instructed the President of our Cathedral 
 College to place a copy in the hands of each of our petits 
 séminaristes, and I feel convinced that no better book could 
 be given them for their spiritual reading .” — Cardinal Farley. 
 
 ‘‘ Thanks, many times over, for Theophane Venard, 
 not only for the copy of the book itself, but above all for 
 writing, publishing, and spreading it. It is bound to do 
 an immense amount of good for the Cause which we both 
 have so much at heart. . . . Before leaving Mill Hill, I 
 gave the book to the Rector with instructions to have it read 
 in the refectory.” — Very Rev. F. Henry t Mill Hill. 
 England. 
 
 ‘‘ ‘ A Modern Martyr ’ has all the charm and interest 
 of a novel. In variety of incident, in wealth of detail, in 
 careful analysis of character, it will not suffer by compari- 
 son with the latest production of fiction. It is brimful of 
 human love and human interest. . . . Nothing so edifying 
 and inspiring has of late been recorded in our missionary 
 annals as the calmness and fortitude with which Theophane 
 Venard bent his neck under the stroke of the executioner’s 
 axe in testimony of the faith delivered by the saints. — 
 Catholic Transcript, Hartford, Conn. 
 
Letter written hy Fr. Venard from his Cage. 
 
 January 20, 1861. 
 
 My very dear, most honored and much-loved Father: — 
 
 I have not had to endure torture like many of my friends. A slight 
 sabre-stroke will separate my head like the spring flower which the gar- 
 dener cuts for his pleasure. We are all flowers planted on this earth, 
 which God gathers in His own time, one a little earlier and one a little 
 later. One is as the purple rose, another as the virgin lily, another the 
 humble violet. 
 
 yyy ..0. 
 
 From His Eminence^ Cardinal Farley: 
 
 “I am very grateful to you for making me 
 acquainted with ‘A MODERN MARTYR.’ 
 I think it is the most fascinating book I have 
 read in a long time. I can hardly put it out 
 of my hands, and have finished reading half of 
 it already. I have instructed the President of 
 our Cathedral College to place a copy in the 
 hands of each of our petits séminaristes, and I 
 feel convinced that no better book could be 
 given them for their spiritual reading.” 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The life of THEOPHANE VENARD. published under 
 the title "A Modern Martyr,” is a book of about 260 pp., 
 illustrated and bound in cloth. 
 
 Price, 50 Cents. Postage, 10 Cents 
 
 CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSION SEMINARY 
 Maryknoll Ossining P. 0., New York 
 
THOUGHTS FROM MODERN MARTYRS 
 
 Made up of short sentences from 
 Just de Bretenicres 
 Blessed Tiiéothane Venard and 
 
 Henry Done— all içtli century martyrs and alumni of 
 the Baris Seminary for' Foreign Missions. 
 
 Includes also a brief sketch of the life of each. 
 
 JUST DE BRETEXIERE5 
 
 This is a small book, suitable for occasional reading. It 
 contains 122 pages, printed in large, clear type, and is illus- 
 trated with photographs of the three martyrs. 
 
 Price, in cloth, 35 cents. Postage 5 cents. 
 
 Address THE CATHOLIC FOREIGX MISSIOX BUREAU 
 Maryknoll, Ossining P. O., X. Y. 
 
The Field Afar 
 
 O N the following pages our readers will find reference 
 to The Field Afar. This paper is the organ of the 
 Catholic Foreign Mission Seminary, now established in 
 its permanent home at Maryknoll, Ossining P. O., New 
 York. 
 
 The Field Afar began its mission in 1907 and has at- 
 tracted world-wide notice. Its subscribers commonly 
 assert that they read it from cover to cover. 
 
 Practical editorials, touches of missionary life that ap- 
 peal to all classes, recent important happenings, and 
 stories illustrating the apostolic spirit as well as life on 
 the field, — these are the features, carefully grouped, that 
 make The Field Afar a welcome visitor wherever it goes. 
 
 ASSOCIATE SUBSCRIPTION 
 
 Including a share in the works and suffrages of the 
 Catholic Foreign Mission Society 
 
 ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
 
 SPECIAL RATES FOR SCHOOLS, SODALITIES, 
 SOCIETIES, ETC. 
 
 For one year to any single address: 
 
 10 copies (for twelve issues) $ 8.00 
 
 25 copies (for twelve issues) 20.00 
 
 50 copies (for twelve issues) 40.00 
 
 100 copies (for twelve issues) 80.00 
 
 ADDRESS: THE FIELD AFAR 
 Catholic Foreign Mission Seminary 
 of America 
 
 Maryknoll, Ossining P. O., N. Y. 
 
TRIBUTES TO THE FIELD AFAR 
 
 The Field Afar is excellent. — B ishop Casartelli, Salford, 
 England. 
 
 I am of those who read it from Alpha to Omega. — Father 
 Forbes, Superior of White Fathers, Quebec, Canada. 
 
 It IS certainly a well-edited paper. Do not fail to exchange 
 with us. — R ev. P. Paulo Manna, M. Ap., Editor ‘Le Missioni 
 Cattoliche/ Milan^ Italy. 
 
 A completely new spirit, — an object lesson for the whole 
 English-speaking world. God knows it was badly wanting. — 
 Rev. H. Brown, S. J., University College, Dublin, Ireland. 
 
 I rejoice to learn that the work of the missioners is being 
 made known in the United States through The Field Afar . — 
 Editor of Anthropos, Vienna, Austria. 
 
 It is most interestingly conducted, the material and form 
 equally admirable. There is a variety and life in it winch our 
 old countries in Europe have not yet known how to catch. — 
 Bishop Mutel, Korea. 
 
 It is destined to promote a great and noble purpose, the 
 work of , building up Christ in souls. The work to be performed 
 h.ere is immense and only awaits missionary laborers and assist- 
 ance, spiritual and temporal, from those to whom the Faith 
 lias been preached for centuries. The Field Afar deserves every 
 encouragement and I shall recommend it to all our Catholics. 
 — M. Kennelly, S. J., Shanghai, China. 
 
 From the “ Catholie Transcript,'^ Hartford, Conn. 
 
 The Field Afar is a powerful youngster already rejoicing 
 in a large circulation of 15,000. It aims high and it is devel- 
 oping a rapid stride. We predict that, within five years, another 
 cipher must be added to the three that stand at the right of 
 the “ 15,” in order to give an adequate idea of the wonderful 
 growth of this most interesting monthly. 
 
 The success of the paper is an index to the progress of 
 the movement which it represents. The Catholic Foreign Mis- 
 sion Society of America is in its infancy, but the cause to which 
 it is consecrated is as old as the Church. The harvest is ripe 
 and our people are not without the gift of apostolic charity. 
 The prosperous Church of the United States will not be true 
 to herself if she hesitates to take part in the perennial and 
 Heaven-imposed task of evangelizing the heathen. The Mis- 
 sion Society has a glorious field and the laborers who have 
 already entered it are cultivating the soil with zeal and with a 
 prudence which gives earnest of a splendid harvest. 
 
TRIBUTES TO THE FIELD AFAR 
 
 From “ America.” 
 
 The Field Afar, a monthly published in the interests of 
 the Apostolic Seminary at Maryknoll, Ossining, N. Y., grows 
 in attractiveness with each new issue. There are sixteen pages 
 in this little publication, fourteen of them devoted to reading 
 matter and two to notices and advertisements. A personal 
 touch to all the articles puts The Field Afar in a class by 
 
 itself. It is most readable and most instructive 
 
 In reading the issue for April, we thought what an excellent 
 paper it is to put into the hands of our Catholic children, 
 whether attending the parish schools or the Sunday schools. 
 
 The fulness of Christian charity is never to be found in 
 the hearts of Catholics unless there be an expression of the 
 desire to spread the Kingdom of Christ throughout the world, 
 especially in those lands whose inhabitants are still sitting in 
 the darkness of infidelity and the shadow of spiritual death. 
 Our fathers did their noble share in spreading the Faith when 
 they carried it as a sacred treasure from the land of their birth 
 and planted it in all its vigor in the land of their adoption. 
 That the apostolic mission of a former generation was well 
 done, the marvelous expansion and present development in many 
 States of the Union amply testify. The children of such sires, 
 to be worthy of their lineage, must do their share in propa- 
 gating the Faith, and for this purpose a knowledge of what 
 is done or is planned to be done in mission fields is a prime 
 necessity. 
 
 Day after day we read of the departure of Protestants, 
 men and women, to foreign lands to join the truly astounding- 
 number of active workers belonging to the sects in all parts 
 of the globe. The coffers of their missionary societies are be- 
 ing replenished by organized efforts, to secure contribution‘s, 
 be they ever so snaall, from all the churches that dot the land, 
 and by the colossal fortunes that are bequeathed for tlie 
 furtherance of the same inspiring cause. 
 
 American Catholics give signs of waking up to that which 
 is in itself a duty and the neglect of which will become a 
 greater reproach if they are less zealous than such as possess 
 onlv a tithe of that blessed heritage of the Faith which all 
 Catholics possess in the fulness received from Christ and the 
 Apostles. There are a score of ways in which zeal and interest 
 in the great cause of missionary development may be mani- 
 fested. One of the simplest and the most direct, in which 
 even those may share whose income allows them to spend but 
 little, is the support of a paper like The Field Afar. If the 
 Catholic paper in the home is a perpetual mission, a paper 
 treating of the missions is an inspiration, an inspiration to 
 share the highest good that man can share with his fellow 
 man. 
 
 From the “Catholic Guardian” Jaffna, Ceylon. 
 
 The Field, Afar is the very bright, sparkling organ of the 
 Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. We note with 
 extreme pleasure the founding and progress of this Society and 
 of its college for the training of American priests for the 
 foreign missions. The young Church in America proves its 
 vitality bv the truly Catholic zeal with which it has taken 
 up this noble work. We wish Maryknoll Godspeed, and may the 
 example of the younger Church stir up the energies of her elder 
 sister in the British Isles ! 
 
Bernadette of Lourdes 
 
 (Authentic portrait — Copyright by 
 Pierre-Bernard Soubirous, 
 brother of Bernadette) 
 
 “A book of special interest to every American and 
 above all to every American nun.” — Cardinal Gibbons. 
 
 MISSION EDITION 
 
 Blue cloth, paper and binding of good grade, 14 
 half-tone illustrations .$1.00 
 
 STANDARD EDITION 
 
 Paper and cloth binding, both of high grade, pure 
 gold stamping, hand-printed photogravure illustra- 
 tions. Boxed $2.50 
 
 DE LUXE EDITION 
 
 Dark blue suede leather binding, pure gold stamp- 
 ing and edge, hand-printed photogravure illustra- 
 tions on real Japan vellum. Boxed .... $5.00 
 
 By special arrany^ement sold for the benefit of its work by 
 
 THE CATHOLIC 
 
 FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 
 MARYKNOLL, OSSINING, N. Y. 
 
A LIST OF PAMPHLETS 
 
 The ^lission Field of the Xineteenth Century — 
 Cardinal ^loran 
 
 The Catholic Foreign ^Mission Field 
 
 English Catholics and the Foreign ^Missions 
 
 A Sister of Charity in China 
 
 Chinese AAyside Tales 
 
 More Chinese Tales 
 
 Cardinal \"aughan 
 
 St. Francis Xavier 
 
 Fr. Damien 
 
 Catholic Church in Japan 
 Martyrs of Japan 
 A Alartyr of Japan (Fr. iMastrilli) 
 
 The Religions of Japan 
 
 St. Peter Claver (The Apostle of the X'egroes) 
 
 Lazarus, an Indian Alartyr 
 
 The Religion of China 
 
 An American Hindu on Hinduism 
 
 Catholic Missions 
 
 Catholic ^Missions in Japan 
 
 China and Korea 
 
 Jesuit ^Missionaries in N’orthern India 
 Don Bosco 
 
 Indian Languages and Early Catholic Glissions 
 An Apology for Foreign Missions 
 
 For further information address the 
 
 CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 
 Maryknoll, Ossining P. O., N. Y. 
 
Recent Mission Literature 
 
 With Christ in China Postpaid $1.00 
 
 By Rev. J. P. McQuaide, Ph. D. 
 
 Mission Literature in Foreign Languages 
 
 Théophane Venard — in French Postpaid $0.60 
 
 Un Martire Moderno Postpaid .60 
 
 (Théophane Vénard in Italian) 
 
 Books under the patronage of Mary knoll 
 
 Vocations to the Priesthood $0.10 
 
 Rev. F. X. Steinbrecher 
 
 Abide With Me 25 
 
 Short Catechism of Church History 25 
 
 Rt. Rev. Msgr. J. Oechtering 
 
 Why is Thy Apparel Red ?..... 60 
 
 Rev. M. F. Walz, C. P. P. S. 
 
 Bernadette of Lourdes 1.00 
 
 Translated by J. H. Gregory 
 
 The Church in Many Lands 1.00 
 
 Rev. J. J. Burke 
 
 The Shepherd of My Soul LOO 
 
 Rev. C. J. Callan, O. P. 
 
 The Inner Life of the Soul 1.50 
 
 S. L. Emery 
 
 New Psalter of the Roman Breviary 1.50 
 
 Rev. L. C. Pillion, S. S. 
 
 Illustrations for Sermons and Instructions 2.00 
 
 Rev, C. J. Callan, O. P. 
 
 (POSTAGE EXTRA) 
 
 Address 
 
 The Catholic Foreign Mission Seminary 
 
 Maryknoll, Ossining P. O., N.Y. 
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT CATHOLIC MISSIONS 
 
 General 
 
 Christian Missions Marshall 
 
 The Workers are Few Fr. Manna 
 
 Our Lord’s Last Will and Testament Dr. A/iaus 
 
 Mission Work in America 
 
 (a) Biographical and Historical: 
 
 An American Missionary 
 
 Notes of a Missionary Priest in the Rocky Mountains 
 
 The Iroquois and the Jesuits 
 
 Catholic Pioneers in America — Murray 
 
 Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska 
 
 Indian Sketches — De Smet 
 
 Sebastian Rasle 
 
 Life of Fr. Isaac Jogues, S. J. 
 
 Pioneer Priests of North America — Fr. Campbell 
 Across Wildest America — Fr. Devine 
 Western Missions and Missionaries — De Smet 
 Life of Bishop Machebeuf, Pioneer Priest of New Mex- 
 ico, Colorado and Utah 
 
 Life of Very Rev. E, De Andreis, First Superior of the 
 Congregation of the Mission in the United States 
 Missions of the Rocky Mountains 
 Missions among the American Indians 
 Fr. Lacombe — The Black-Robe Voyageur 
 ( h ) Stories : 
 
 The Story of a Mission Indian 
 
 Lot Leslie’s Folk.s — Their Queer Adventures among the 
 French and Indians 
 
 Foreign 
 
 (a) Biographical and Historical: 
 
 A Modern Martyr 
 
 Just de Bretenières 
 
 The Dominican Martyrs of Tonkin 
 
 First Martyrs of Holy Childhood — Lady Herbert 
 
 Travels in Tartary and Thibet — Hue 
 
 The Catholic Church in China — Rev. B. Wolferstan, S. J. 
 Life of Ven. Colin, Founder and First Superior-Gen- 
 eral of the Society of Mary 
 Life of Bishop de Mazenod, Founder of the Oblates of 
 Mary Immaculate 
 The Lepers of Molokai — Stoddard 
 The Catholic Missions of Southern Burma 
 Thoughts from Modern Martyrs 
 Dominican Missions and Martyrs in Japan 
 The Cross in Japan 
 Japanese Martyrs 
 Missions in Japan and Paraguay 
 
 Missionary Labors of Mgr. de Mazenod and the Oblates 
 The Apostle of Abyssinia 
 
 (h) Stories: . ^ ^ 
 
 Love Your Enemies (A Tale of the Maori Insurrection) 
 Prince Arumugan (A Tale of India) 
 
 Maron (A Youth of Lebanon) 
 
 The Queen’s Nephew (A Story of Early Japan) 
 
 The Cabin Boys (A Story for the Young) 
 
 Children of Mary (A Tale of the Caucasus) 
 
 Laurentia (A Tale of Japan) 
 
 Chinese Lanterns — Alice Dease 
 
 The above lists have been prepared to suggest sources of 
 information and interest. The supply of Catholic inission 
 literature in English Is scant, but a growing demand will 
 doubtless stimulate the production of more books treating or 
 
 this vital subject. 
 
 For further information address the : 
 
 CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY, 
 Maryknoll, Ossining P. O., N. Y. 
 
Maryknoll Outfit 
 for Mission Training 
 
 Sold only to Sisters and others interested in Mission Training 
 
 Price $3.50. Regular Price $7.00 
 
 Thoughts From Modern Martyrs $ .40 
 
 A Modern Martyr (Bl. Theophane Venard) 60 
 
 Stories From The Field Afar 60 
 
 Field Afar Tales 60 
 
 An American Missionary (Fr. Judge, S. J., in Alaska) .60 
 
 Theophane Venard (French) 60 
 
 The Martyr of Futuna (Bl. Peter Chanel, S. M.) .... 1.00 
 
 Bernadette of Lourdes 1.00 
 
 100 Prayer Prints 25 
 
 Chi Rho Pin 25 
 
 100 Post Cards 50 
 
 Set of Educational Cards 50 
 
 Half-tone engraving of Bernadette of Lourdes 10 
 
 of forty per cent to Clergy and Religious: 
 
 With Christ in China $1.00 
 
 Catholic Foreign Mission Society 
 
 Maryknoll, Ossining, N. Y.