San José Vaz, el Apóstol de Sri Lanka
The clandestine faith in Ceylon · 1687-1711
The Dutch silence about Ceylon
When the Dutch East Indian Company took Ceylon from the Portuguese in 1658, the new Calvinist administration banned Catholicism throughout the island. The priests were expelled, the churches turned into reformed temples and the attendance at mass penalized with exile or death. The Catholics - tens of thousands, heirs of more than a century and a half of Portuguese evangelization - were left alone, without sacraments, practicing their faith in hiding.
A priest disguised as a brittle (1687)
José Vaz was born on April 21, 1651 in Sancoale, Goa. Ordained priest, in 1687 he crossed to the north of the island disguised as a day worker, carrying under his clothes the objects necessary to celebrate the Mass. For years he traveled the island at night, from village to village, celebrating the Eucharist in private houses, basements and grotto, baptizing children born in the silence of the underground.
The priest of the Buddhist king... and released by him
In 1692, the Dutch authorities pressured Buddhist king Vimaladharma Surya II to be imprisoned. The king did. During his prison, a terrible epidemic hit Kandy. Father Vaz prayed and the epidemic referred. The king, impressed, released him and granted him the freedom to preach in the kingdom of Kandy.
José Vaz died in Kandy on January 16, 1711, after twenty-four years of mission. He left a church of 70,000 faithful, fifteen reconstructed churches and more than four hundred chapels. On January 14, 2015, Pope Francis canonized him in Colombo: the first saint of Sri Lanka.
pray for those who keep the faith today
No churches, no priests, no freedom. Amen.