JESUIT MARTYRS, In the Service of the Arab Orient (1975-1989)
By Father Camille Hechaïmé
, Dar el-Machreq

english edition

PREFACE

Ancient Relations between the Jesuits and the Arab Orient

It is known that Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), the founder of the Society of Jesus, knew Arabs and Muslims very well. Despite the repressive measures taken by Queen Isabel I of Spain , towards the end of the fifteenth century, by which she made Muslims in her country choose between converting to Christianity and leaving, many of them stayed in old Andalusia. In his personal memoirs, Ignatius related that in one of his journeys, shortly after his conversion, he met a Muslim who traveled with him for a while. They had a religious conversation that the Saint did not like at all. Indeed, the Muslim made remarks about the Virgin that were not appropriate in view of the veneration she deserves.

When the Society of Jesus was created in 1540, it dedicated a large portion of its activities to the service of the Arab Orient, Islam and Muslims. For example, in the Roman College that Ignatius founded in 1551 and that, after ten years, became the most important college in Rome, the Society started teaching Arabic and other Oriental languages. The Jesuits set up a small printing house next to the College to publish a number of Arabic texts for which Father Jean-Baptiste Eliano was responsible. The first was The Belief in the Orthodox Faith as Taught by the Roman Church (1566) and the second was a book addressed to Muslims that Eliano had most probably brought from Egypt during one of his trips. It is entitled Spiritual Friendship

Between Two Scholars, the First One Named Sheikh Sinan and the Second Ahmad the Scholar. This Friendship that Started on Their Way Back From the Ka’ba Was Useful to All Muslims (1579). It is known that Eliano wrote in Arabic or translated into Arabic about 8 other books.

When Pope Gregory XIII decided to renew the brotherly relation between Rome and the Maronite Church, he sent Father Eliano as an ambassador who was experienced and had been in charge of an embassy for the Coptic Patriarch; he was accompanied by Father Thomas Reggio. This mission took place between 1578 and 1579. Eliano was then sent to another embassy in Lebanon with Father Jean Bruno from 1580 to 1582.

After a few years, the Jesuits went to Egypt and Syria where they founded monasteries and schools (1625: the monastery of Aleppo; 1650: a school in Aïntoura, Lebanon ; 1697: a seminary in Cairo). Ever since the eighteenth century, they have written Arabic books in different fields, whether spiritual, linguistic, literary, intellectual or school books. In their many pedagogical institutions, especially in the university they founded in Beirut 125 years ago (1875), they educate generations of cultivated people in sciences, humanities and religion, and they encourage them to experience social interaction.

Since the Society of Jesus is a multinational community, its mission in the Orient includes members from different countries. They all put aside their home countries to be in the service of their new countries where they live the rest of their life with a feeling of complete belonging, never leaving until their death.

The war that took place in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 entailed the death of seven Jesuits, all not Oriental, in the land of the Cedars, while they were fulfilling their duties, fearless, having refused to abandon the country they were dedicated to.

Furthermore, most of these martyrs worked in the university field and some were devoted to bringing Islam and Christianity closer.

We shall present short biographies about each one of these martyrs, these silent heroes, gentle and faithful to God, to mankind, to the truth and to love.

 

CONCLUSION

Since the Society of Jesus was founded in the middle of the sixteenth century to this day, i.e. for about 465 years, it presented hundreds of its sons as martyrs who died defending the truth and the faith in several areas, from Japan and China to Southern, Central and Northern America, through Africa, Europe and our Oriental countries. It seems that many of them, if not the majority, were murdered on the foreign lands they went to, abandoning their most precious belongings to share with others their living conditions, their sufferings and their hopes. The best proof is that the seven martyrs that we saw die in Lebanon during the last war were not Lebanese: five were French, one was Dutch and one was American. The paradox is that none of their Lebanese colleagues was hurt, in spite of the dangers that surrounded them and the damages encountered by their institutions. This fact stands as a call for all our sons to be prepared to give and even to die as a martyr for the others, all the others, wherever they are. Didn’t the Christian scholar Tertullian (around 155-222) say, “Each foreign land is a country for them”? Therefore, it is unacceptable to isolate oneself or to hide behind narrow frontiers because all men are brothers. Our Oriental countries, that God chose to be the cradle of civilizations and monotheistic religions, have a mission that constitutes the greatest honor. Can they disregard this trust ?

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