Elizabeth of the Trinity Among the Laity

Communicationes n° 73

15-01-2007

CONTENTS

-Rare documents on Persia

-Elizabeth of the Trinity among the laity

-The General Delegation of Taiwan and Singapore

-A page from Cardinal Ratzinger

RARE DOCUMENTS ON PERSIA

In recent months when the clamour of iranian politics worsened against the existence of the Israeli State the diplomacy of this State was moved to sympathize with the Persian people. It was at this time that Dr. Hassan Dehghani Kodneoih, from the Islamic Iranian Embassy to the Holy See, visited our Generalate,. He obtained the name of the missionary secretary from the Congregation for Propaganda Fide. His opening remarks were most diplomatic, using carefully chosen and respectful words, like someone who had learnt what to say by heart: He defended “the truth about his country”, in contrast to the way it is being described these days – and with good reason – by the world’s media. But the diplomat became less formal and more relaxed when he heard that the Carmelites were sent by the Pope (1604) to the court of shah Abbas the Great, that the first bishop in Isfahan was a Spanish carmelite (Fr. Juan Tadeo de San Eliseo), that I had written my historical thesis in Vienna on all these facts,…When I spoke about the history of his country the atmosphere between us changed becoming one of trust and friendliness.

His patriotism was stirred up when I told him that in the General House we conserved unique documents on the history of his country: 15 signed letters from the shah Abbas I the Great (1557-1628). In fact, our General Archives have the rare privilege of possessing this inique collection: 15 original documents written in Arabic and in the Persian language with the signature and seal of the oriental potentate. Attached are manuscripts translated into Italian. There are moreover another 6 Italian translations, where the originals are missing. The letters were addressed to Pope Paul V, Urban VIII and to certain Cardinals, to King Philip III of Spain, to the King Segismundo III of Poland, to the Discalced Carmelite General who had sent missionaries to Persia. The date of the documentation covers a period of eight years: 1608-1616, corresponding to 1019-1024 in the Persian calendar.

These rarest of documents were mentioned in the Missionary Bibliography of Fr. Ambrosio of St. Teresa. But they were catalogued for the first time only in 1991 by professor Paola Orsetti, at the time when Antonio Fortes was our archivist. They were also quoted by Francis Richard in the review “Dabireh” (n° 6/1989, pp. 172-178). But the author only knew the existence of six of the original 15 documents.

The Iranian diplomat asked if he might look at this treasure in our archives. Photographs of the documents will now be available for researchers in his country, both in the national library as well as in the library of Tehran university.

ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY AMONG THE LAITY

In the centenary of the death of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity the number of commemorative acts, celebrations, congresses, concerts, publications, prayer vigils, meetings with young people, are multiplying. Elizabeth of the Trinity is the favourite theme of the year within the Carmelite family. In the our nuns convent in Medellin (Colombia) there is a “Teresian house of payer”. It is directed by the Carmelite John Jairo Herrera Vargas. The task of the house is defined in these terms: “To bring the Carmelite charism to the hearts of the laity”. The newsletter of the assistants is entitled “Under Carmel’s shade”. “The teresian house of prayer” is participating in the centenary with a special edition. It is “special”, because it recalls the ten years of the foundation of the centre. It is also “special” because of the theme dedicated to our Carmelite from Dijon: a presentation of her life and message, different commentaries on her teaching, the witness of laypeople who have read the mystical Carmelite,… Elizabeth was interested in a pastoral spirituality for the laity.

THE GENERAL DELEGATION OF TAIWAN AND SINGAPORE

When in Carmel we speak of China the thought of Fr. Jerome Gracian springs to mind. On April 9, 1585, the last month of his term as Provincial, he signed a mission agreement, in 1586 together with Fr. Martin Ignacio of Loyola, a Franciscan and nephew of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Gracian published this “Vinculo de Hermandad” in the “Stimulo de la Propagacion de la Fe”. In it the two religious families promised to intesify their prayer for the evangelization of China. The actual strategy made them think of “writing a Catechism of Christian doctrine, in the vulgar latin language, and the language of China and Ethiopia”.

The first two Carmelites who put foot in China were an Italian and a German. They formed part of a delegation sent by Pope Benedict XIII in 1719, to investigate the question of the Chinese rites. With the same motive two other Carmelites took part in another papal delegation in 1724 to the court of the Chinese emperor. The first Carmelites to reach the Katai empire with a committment to evangelize were two other religious from our Order, an Austrian and an Italian. One of them compiled an Italian-Chinese dictionary for missionaries. Everthing came to an end in 1791. In 1947 nine Carmelites from the Venice Province and the first Chinese Carmelite began a new Mission to China. But they were all expelled by the communist republic in 1951, which led to the beginning of our first mission to Japan.

Moving on from the past, we come to the present situation. After his expulsion from China Fr. John Mary Chin Phen worked in the Philippines. But in 1980 he went to Taiwan. From there, with help from the Carmelite nuns, for whom he worked as chaplain, he began to recruit vocations for Carmel. He received authorization from Fr. General, Philip Sainz de Baranda to do this, who duly sent him an English Carmelite, Fr. Hugo Townsend, as his first companion. Later two Carmelite priests came from the Maltese province. This mediterranean province committed itself to the foundation. It meant consolidating Carmel with Chinese vocations from Taiwan and the diaspora. The bishop of Hsinchu offered the parish of St. Joseph, which was then given the title of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Thus the first Carmelite foundation came about on this Chinese island in 1983. The first four vocations came from Singapore. The first postulant, Joseph Koh, began his journey on June 14 1983. A month later the second began his, James Wu. A second foundation opened in 1988 in Tapei as a house of studies. In 1990 the General Delegation was established.

The Discalced Carmelite nuns have been in Singapore since 1938. The invitation to their brothers was first made in 1988. But only realized in 1997. It is a centre of vocations from the chinese diaspora of Malaysia, Thailand, and Burma (Myanmar). Another house was opened in 1999. The present situation of the General Delegation is as follows: four houses (two in Taiwan and two in Singapore), 12 priests, including one from Ireland and one from Tamilnadu (India), 2 solemnly professed, 12 simply professed and 5 postulants. The Order must be prepared when the circumstances permit for it to introduce itself to continental China, as Fr. Gracian put it, to “the honourable chinese people”.

A CARMELITE PAGE FROM CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER

All references by Pope John Paul II to Carmel have been published in “ActaOCD”, the official organ of the Order, which is published each year in Rome. In a conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Carol Wojtyla’s doctoral thesis on St. John of the Cross and the 25th anniversary of John Paul II’s pontificate, the then Card. Ratzinger wrote this memorable page:

“How can we not think about this pontificate without remembering all those saints and blesseds who have been proclaimed by the initiative of this Pope? There are, in this multitude, two women, both from the Carmelite Order, who help us to understand better the sapiential dimension that is beneath all the theological reflection of this pontiff. And perhaps it is not by chance that these young women are now linked to the pontificate of this Pope. There are a saint declared a doctor and a doctor declared a saint: Therese Martin and Edith Stein. The first, Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, is a young woman who discovered holiness through the simplicity of her young heart and revealed such wisdom that, thanks to John Paul II, she merited to be declared a doctor of the Church.

Her little way has now been converted into a great way, making the narrow gate of the Gospel more accessible. The second, saint Teresa Benedict of the Cross, is a young philosophy student who entered Carmel and learnt, through knowledge of the cross to the point of martyrdom, knowingly accepted, this mysterious wisdom, which is born from holiness lived on a daily basis. Her search for truth brought her to discover the Gospel of the cross, the source of a free and authentic love. They have taught us in this way that truth and love are inseparable. One is the patroness of Missions, a sign of universal salvation for all, the other is a Hebrew convert to Catholicism, a sign of this reunion of fathers to their children (Lk 1.17), which begins the messianic times.

Under one single name, Teresa, and in the life of both we meet that holiness which made them wise and wisdom which made them holy, in the unique plan of love and salvation for all men and women. Therese, whose wisdom comes from an ardent heart full of love for Jesus, attains to mystical knowledge. Edith, whose journey led her from a multiform philosophical knowledge of mystery, finally reaches the wisdom of the cross which lifts her up to surrender herself until death. The two are wise, that is to say, they know the wisdom that is revealed only to those who have encountered it in the cross, which is the key to its existence. And the two are saints, because their hearts have learnt, through a docile and loving following of the Resurrected Christ, to know the source of truth”.

L’Osservatore Roman, 7-11-98, 4