Edifying and curious letters of some Missioners of the Society of Jesus from foreign missions
Annotation
After reaching and residing in foreign places, Christian missionaries sent different kinds of writings (letters, reports, notes, etc.) back to Europe. These writings, based on different Church orders to which missionaries belonged, are normally stored in different archives (most in Rome). Among these writings, Lettres Édifiantes Et Curieuses, Écrites des Missions Étrangères was probably the most famous and widely read collection (edited and published from 1702 to 1776). This collection included the letters sent to Europe by Jesuit missionaries in China, India, America etc. Some letters of this collection were translated to English and published in London as a two-volume book with the title Edifying and Curious Letters of Some Missioners of the Society of Jesus from Foreign Missions.
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Text
The remaining Letters are written to the King by the Patriarchs of the Syrians and Armenians, and by the Arch-Bishop of Tyre and Sydon. These Prelates wonderfully taken with the Piety and Religion of this great Prince, and his Zeal for the Propagation of the true Faith, and full of Gratitude for what he has lately done in Favour of their People, return him their Thanks, for having erected at Paris in the College which bears his Name, a Seminary to educate in Piety and the Sciences, the young Orientals of all the Christian Nations of the Levant, who in the Process of time, will, as we have Reason to hope, be the Lights of their Churches, and firm Supports of Catholick Religion.
A Letter of Father Verzeau Superiour General of the Missinoers of the Society of Jesus in Syria, to F. Fleuriau of the same Society.
Aleppo, the 10th of March, 1694.
Reverand Father,
The Zeal which the Syrians of Catholick Jacobites have made appear for the Conservation of the Purity of their Faith, adds no small Lustre to the Catholick Church; who in these our Days have renew’d the Spirit and Fervour of the primitive Christians, by chusing rather to grown under a cruel Perfection, than to be separate from the Communion of the holy Apostolick See. Andrew, Patriarch of Antoch for the Syrian Nation, having breath’d out his Soul in an Odour of Sanctity on the 28th of July of the year 1677, loaden with Merits, which his austere and mortify’d Life, his Charity, Patience, indefatigable Zeal in the ministry of the Word of God, and perfect Submission to the holy See had purchas’d to him; Ignatius Peter archbishop of Jerusalem a zealous Catholick, by the Permission of the Grand Seignor was exalted to the patriarchal Throne. He govern’d his Church peaceably for some Years, and apply’d himself with the fame Ardour as his Predecessor, to extirpate the Remains of Herefie, in which some of that Natio were still involv’d. This he di with so much Success, that Pope Innocent the XI, thought fit to send him the Pll.
Credits
Edifying and curious letters of some Missioners of the Society of Jesus from foreign missions. [Being a translation of part of the collection entitled “Lettres édifiantes et curieuses,” by C. Legobien, and comprising letters from China, the East Indies and Syria.]. United Kingdom: n.p., 1707.