454 FATHER JOHN DE BRITTO.
vocation, and a warm affection for the Society of Jesus, to which he had been called ; a delicacy of conscience which scarcely afforded his confessors matter for absolution; a love of God so tender and fervent as to lead him to wish for nothing but the happiness of giving his life in sacrifice to Him. Here, then, we behold what was constantly exhibited in Father De Britto, and what made him a perfect religious, an ardent missionary, a new apostle, a man of God.
In a word, what the records of the Church relate of S. Chrysostom, as having chosen S. Paul for his protector and model, may be also applied to Father De Britto and his imitation of, and resemblance to S. Francis Xavier. Animated by the example, and supported by the protection of the Apostle of the Indies, the missionary of Madura, in his own apostolate, revived all the zeal and all the courage of the Thaumaturgus of these latter ages. This illustrious martyr and confessor of Jesus Christ,—this evangelical labourer, worthy of immortal praise, died for the faith at the age of forty-five, on the 4th of Febru. ary, 1693, in the reign of Rangadeven, usurper of the principality of Marava.
So many admirable deeds, offsprings of the most heroic virtue, have determined the Holy See to begin the process for the canonization of Father John De Britto. Benedict XIV. thus eagerly strove to rescue his memory from the calumnies which a certain writer, (who undertook to censure that which ought to be beyond the reach of censure) has published against the
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