1693

A straw for a pen

Eight years after the thatch went up at Vadakkankulam, he was in irons. On the eve of his death, in the prison at Oriyur, he wrote to his brethren. A straw served him for a pen, and his ink was charcoal moistened with his own spittle. “The only crime I am accused of is, that of having taught the law of Jesus Christ… as this crime is a virtue, the punishment cannot be otherwise than honourable to me.” The next morning he was beheaded, forty-five years old, and two and a half centuries later Rome named him a saint. To the wider Church he is a martyr of the far south. To Vadakkankulam he has always been Arulanandar, the priest it remembers as its founder, whose feast it keeps each February.

DocumentedThis moment rests on 4 sources.
de Britto 1693p. 544
FATHER JOHN DE BRITTO. 445 be locked up, and gave him orders to prepare for the torture. For three days the father tasted nothing but a little milk. On the eve of his death he wrote to Father Francis Laynez, the superior of the mission; a straw served for his pen, whilst his ink consisted of powdered coal moistened with his spittle. We give his letter, which has been preserved as a precious treasure. Father De Britto intended to address it to all the missionaries, through their common superior. ‘“‘My dear Father Superior, and all you, my dear brethren in Jesus Christ, peace in our Lord ! “Canajen, our catechist, will have informed you of all that has happened to me since my arrest. On the 28th of January I was brought to the tribunal of the Regulo, and sentenced to death. I was condemned to be shot, and was led to the place of execution; the soldiers were on the point of firing, when the Regulo, fearing a disturbance, sent me back to prison; three days later I was separated from my companions, those glorious confessors of Jesus Christ, and was sent by the prince to his brother Ouriardeven, for him to put me to death. I reached his palace on the last day of January. I suffered extremely on the journey. I have been brought to the tribunal of this prince, and am now momentarily expecting death for my God and for my Saviour ; this has ever been the sole object of my desires in my vocation to the Indies. How happy I am to find it at last after all my prayers and toils: what glory will it not ensure me! The only crime I am accused of is, that of having taught the law
544

Letter from the prison of Oriyur, 3 February 1693Written the night before his death; here as printed by Faber, London 1851

Published before 1930. In the public domain, and reproduced here in full.

de Britto 1693 · p. 544

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The printed page 544 of Letter from the prison of Oriyur, 3 February 1693, photographed from the book

What this source establishes

St John de Britto, in his own hand, on the eve of his execution — the highest evidential tier there is. (The parish holds him as its founder; that is its own tradition. What is documented here is the letter.) Our ellipsis drops his “and of having combated the worship of idols”, the polemical half of his own sentence.