Saint Joseph Vaz, Catholic missionary in
Sri Lanka, rebuilt what had been destroyed by the Calvinists. Its strength was faith,
his refuge the Madonna
and Saint Joseph

by Corrado Vari

Pfirst saint born in India, priest, founder of the Congregation of the Oratory in Asia, tireless missionary and restorer of the Catholic Church in Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – after the Dutch Calvinists had done everything to annihilate its presence.  "The greatest Christian missionary that Asia has ever had", St. John Paul II defined him in his homily for his beatification in 1995.

This in a few words is the figure of Giuseppe Vaz, whom we remember on January 16, canonized by Pope Francis in 2015 even without a miracle, precisely because of the grandeur of his evangelizing action, a work in which even today the Church of that land sinks its roots. "The life of Father Vaz is a miracle", wrote one of his brothers.

Joseph Vaz was born on April 21, 1651 in Benaulim, in the territory of Goa, a flourishing Portuguese colony on the western coast of India, to a family of Brahmins (the priestly caste of Hindu society), but Christians for generations. He was baptized in the village church, a short distance from the chapel that commemorates the passage, ninety years earlier, of St. Francis Xavier.

A lover of prayer, from childhood he showed signs of a vocation to the priesthood, for which he prepared himself with the Jesuits and the Dominicans. Ordained in 1676, he carried out the tasks entrusted to him with zeal and great preparation. Meanwhile, his devotion to the Virgin Mary grew and on 5 August 1677 he consecrated his life to her with a writing in which he declared: "I sell myself and offer myself as a perpetual slave of the Virgin Mother of God, so that she, as my true Mistress and Mother, may dispose of me and my goods as she wishes. And since I consider myself unworthy of such an honor, I implore my guardian angel and the glorious patriarch Saint Joseph, the most blessed spouse of this sovereign Lady and the saint whose name I bear, as well as all the citizens of heaven, that they may obtain for me from her this favor of being included in the number of her slaves."

Joseph also began to learn about the painful situation of Catholics in what the Portuguese called Ceilão (hence the English Ceylon), the large island southeast of India almost as large as Ireland, where the beginnings of Christianity date back to the preaching of the apostle Thomas. Here the Dutch, Protestants of Calvinist faith, had taken control of much of the territory shortly after Joseph's birth, driving out the Portuguese and harshly persecuting Catholics; priests and religious were expelled and the death penalty was decreed for those who attempted to return, while Catholic believers who did not convert to Calvinism were forced to keep their faith hidden.

Joseph then began to feel a new call, experiencing a mysterious attraction towards those persecuted brothers; however, it took another ten years before he could respond. In the meantime, while continuing to carry out with total dedication the tasks he received, the desire to enter a religious order also arose in him, but those existing in Goa did not accept members of the indigenous clergy. So in 1685 he joined some Indian priests who had begun to lead a community life and who soon elected him their superior. The following year they made contact in Portugal with the priests of St. Philip Neri and thus gave rise to the Congregation of the Oratory in India.

Once the new community was started, blessed with good fruits and numerous vocations, the time came for Joseph to dedicate himself to the mission that continued to attract him. He did so by applying to the letter the act of consecration to the Madonna of many years before: in fact, to enter Sri Lanka he laid aside his priestly robes, dressing in the clothes of slaves and beggars. After a long journey, in the spring of 1687 he landed on the island in the company of João, a young servant who remained with him like a son until the end.

Father Vaz began his clandestine mission by knocking on the doors of houses to ask for alms together with João and wearing a rosary around his neck as a symbol. He thus sought to discreetly come into contact with Christians, hiding under his clothes the essentials for celebrating Mass. He then discovered and met the first Catholic faithful and began an incredible story of mission and charity, which has been defined as "the epic of a free man who becomes a slave to evangelize": he spent twenty-four years of toil throughout the island, amidst persecution, suffering, sacrifices (and miracles). Joseph always lived in great poverty, trusting only in the Providence of God, in the protection of his "mistress" Mary and in the paternal intercession of his patron saint Joseph.

Humanly speaking, a more than adventurous story, which cannot be told in a few lines; the story of a "spark" that lit the enormous "fire" of a reborn Church, with 75.000 faithful, numerous churches and about 200 chapels, a long line of catechists and, finally, a community of Oratorian missionaries, which also included a nephew of Giuseppe. In a letter, his uncle gave him the main recommendation of being like "a small child in everything and the smallest of all", so that it is clear that it is the Lord who works. And shortly before his death - which occurred on January 16, 1711 - to his companions who asked him for a message to carry in their hearts, Giuseppe said: "Remember that one cannot easily do at the moment of death what one has neglected to do throughout one's life".