Missionary brothers working with their apprentices in the Benedictine mission of Inkamana (South Africa)
"The missionary brother is the unknown apostle in the Catholic world mission. Inflamed by the love for God and the souls in the heathen world, the missionary brother sacrifices his own self and all that is dear to him to help the missionary [priest] in foreign countries in converting, teaching and educating the natives.
The
missionary brother carries out his apostolic work through the work of his
hands. The calluses of his hands spell out the sermon of the price, but also of
the blessing of Christian labor.
The
missionary brother is of the greatest importance for the missionary priest, for
the missionary work and for the missionary country. Without the dedicated work
of the missionary brothers, the work of the missionary priests would experience
the greatest obstacles. It is only through the missionary brother that the
missionary's hands are freed for the service of souls. The missionary brother
keeps many financial worries and expenses away from the mission; he takes care
of the temporal, the material work, the house and the farm; he complements the
missionary in conversion work, teaching and education. The missionary brother
doubles the missionary's strength in many respects. Without a missionary
brother, the missionary priest's hands are very often tied. The missionary
brother is really the missionary's helping, supporting and complementary
brother."
This quote
by the great missiologist Fr. Robert Streit, O.M.I. emphasizes both how
important the missionary brother is for successful missionary work and yet how
little attention and appreciation this vocation has received—one might argue
that it is virtually unknown in our days. Let us therefore take a closer look
at the essential vocation of the missionary brother using historical examples.
Tradesmen
of God
Since the
discovery of the Americas, which ushered in the modern missionary era,
missionary work has been mainly organized around mission stations that often
resemble the monastic foundations that evangelized and civilized large parts of
Europe. In addition to churches or chapels, many such mission stations had their
own farming operations, workshops, schools, and sometimes also pharmacies and
infirmaries. Naturally, this requires many skilled persons to fulfill these
tasks—or in the early days of a particular mission, a small number of brothers
who each had a great variety of skills. Before leaving for China in the
mid-1880s, Br. Joseph Overlöper, S.V.D., a carpenter by trade, learned several
other skills as well: candle making, soap making, glazing, bricklaying,
painting, farming and gardening.
As Br.
Joseph’s case shows, construction and farming skills understandably stood in
very high demand in the missions. Many significant church buildings that could
rival their European counterparts were constructed under the supervision of
missionary brothers. Br. Petrus Gernert O.S.B., one of the Martyrs of Tokwon,
oversaw the construction of Tokwon Abbey in Korea, in addition to directing the
landscaping work surrounding the vast monastic premises. He also built several
other chapels and churches for the mission in central Korea.
Some regions of the world posed particular difficulties with regard to building materials: virtually all churches in Papua New Guinea, from chapels to cathedrals, were built from wood. The wood had to be sourced from the country’s dense jungles, which meant that missionary brothers had to spend months at lumbering sites where they worked with their native crews.
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| Bishop Henninghaus with S.V.D. brothers in China |
The brothers who served as medics and pharmacists were not only able to cure
diseases for which the sick could not find help among traditional healers, they
opened the gates of Heaven to many, young and old, by instructing and baptizing
patients who were at the doorstep of eternity.
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| The cathedral of Alexishafen, Papua New Guinea |
Their trades
often brought missionary brothers into close contact with the people of the
country, with fellow workers, apprentices, patients or clients—and sometimes
even with the powerful of this world. In the early stages of a mission among
populations that lived as hunter-gatherers, the missionary brothers were the
ones who introduced the future Christians to organized farming and crafts, thus
ensuring a degree of material wellbeing that enabled a sedentary lifestyle and
instilling knowledge that helped the natives keep pace with an increasingly
Europeanized colonial society. In East Asia, missionary brothers took part in
the technological exchange, especially at the Court of the Chinese Emperors.
Brother Franz Stadlin, S.J., an expert watchmaker from Switzerland, was held in
the highest regard by the Kangxi Emperor. When Stadlin died in 1740, the emperor held a
lavish funeral ceremony for this humble religious. Many missionary brothers received deep insights into the culture and the language of the peoples of
their missions. Several S.V.D. brothers were known as excellent speakers of the
Chinese language who understood the Chinese mindset well. A popular brother could
make a great apostle and increase the reputation of the missions among
non-Christians significantly.
True
missionaries
The
missionary brothers were true missionaries, not only because they did all their
work as consecrated men in the service of God and His Church, but also in
virtue of their teaching and spreading the faith directly. Already in the early
stages of the modern missionary period, St. Francis Xavier was keenly aware of
the need for lay missionaries to complement missionary priests when educating
children. As early as his first year in the missions, Francis Xavier asked St. Ignatius
to send him auxiliary missionaries to teach children. Later he expressed the
desire that every large missionary station with at least two priests would
receive an auxiliary teacher to teach the catechism to children, visit the sick
and baptize dying children. Saint Pedro de Gante is a premier example for
a lay brother whose apostolate largely revolved around direct missionary work.
He devised an innovative pictographic catechism with which he reached thousands
of natives in Mexico in the early stages of the evangelization in the New
World.
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| Pictographic catechism by Saint Pedro de Gante explaining the Most Holy Trinity |
Men of
prayer and sacrifice
“In the
missions, they [the missionary brothers] shall love the natives with a tender
and deep love, they shall pray without ceasing for their salvation and be
willing to sacrifice everything for the spiritual benefit of their poor souls”
(Chapter 8, Article 2 of the constitutions of the Spiritans)
In the
lives of more than a few missionary brothers, we see this rule that Venerable
Francis Libermann drew up for his own religious faithfully put into practice. The
aforementioned Br. Joseph Overlöper preferred to travel at night so he could
dedicate himself to undisturbed prayer. Br. Konstantin, a missionary in Togo,
was the beekeeper of the S.V.D. mission. Countless times he was stung in the
process, but the good brother turned it into a penance that he offered up for
the success of the missions: “It does not matter. This is for the poor
heathens.” How many hours did missionary brothers spend in front of the
tabernacle after a day of exhausting work, in many cases in tropical climates!
Numerous missionary brothers sacrificed their health, dying an early death in the service of the missions. And there were brothers whom God chose for the highest form of sacrifice, martyrdom. Such was the case with St. Andreas Bauer, O.F.M., who was killed during the Boxer Rebellion in China, or the 13 Missionary Benedictine brothers who died in Communist death camps during the Korean War and whose beatification process has been initiated, just to name a few.
The
missionary brother is not only an essential handyman for the missions, but he
is also a true apostle. May we see a resurgence of this beautiful vocation.