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ANTONY CRIMINALI,SJ [1520-1549]

01). INTRODUCTION

“Where there is suffering there is holy ground” says Oscar Wilde an Irish novelist. The martyrdom place of Antonio Criminali, a contemporary of Fr. Francis Xavier, is in fact a holy ground in the sea shore of Rameswaram, Tamilnadu. He was the first Jesuit martyr in India who shed his blood in Vedalai. He was appointed by Fr. Francis Xavier as the superior of priests, in the coastal area up to Kanyakumari. He was preaching among the Portuguese and coastal fishermen of Rameshwaram area. He stayed in Vedhalai, a small village in Ramnad District, situated on the west of Mandapam camp and North East of Kilakkarai in the Gulf of Mannar on the main road from Madurai to Rameshwaram. It is a very small coastal village, with considerable Muslim population. It has a vast stretch of beautiful white sanded beach. There is a small church at the side of Madurai- Rameswaram main road, dedicated to Venerable Antony Criminali. On 14th January, 1549 just before Criminali’s martyrdom, St. Francis Xavier wrote a letter to St. Ignatius in which he beautifully mentioned that “Criminali was a holy man and most suited for this region, and he is greatly loved by the local Christian, Gentiles and Muslims.” That much appreciation he received from St.Francis Xavier. I had the privilege of visiting this holy place along with my tertian companions in 2015. The self-sacrificing act of this great Jesuit martyr inspired me to write this paper. In this paper I shall try to bring out the life, works, martyrdom and popular beliefs of the people. 02). EARLY LIFE

Criminalie was born on 7th February, 1520 at Scissa, a small village in Parma diocese, Italy. HisàÀ parents were very pious and devoted Catholics. He received his early education from the local parish school and later he went to Parma to study for priesthood. There he developed a great devotion to Eucharist and rosary. He was ordained sub-deacon at the age of 18. He became acquainted with Fr.Peter Favre who came for parish missions in 1541. Criminali made his thirty day retreat with Fr.Peter Favre’s direction. He did not join the Society of Jesus even after his thirty day retreat though some of his friend joined willingly. He approached St.Ignatiaus of Loyola with great humility and expressed his willingness to join the Society of Jesus. In 1541, September, he bade farewell to his parents, dressed like a pilgrim and walked towards Rome by begging on the way. He reached Rome after two months of journey and met St. Ignatius devoutly. He prayed to St. Ignatius, that he was unfit to be a member of the Society of Jesus and pleaded him to be a servant of all servants. St. Ignatiaus warmly embraced him to join the society. Unfortunately, Criminali’s mother died while he was in Rome and his father was deeply distressed over the death of his wife. St.Ignatius was very sensitive and kind towards Crimianli, so he suggested him to go home and comfort his father. At the same time he assured Criminali that he would accept him as a novice on his return. After spending a few months with his father, Criminali returned Rome on 9th April, 1542 and he was admitted in the Society of Jesus. On 23rd April, he was sent to Portugal to complete his studies at the University of Coimbra. Finally he was ordained priest on 6th January, 1544 on the feast of epiphany of our lord.

03). MISSION TO INDIA

Criminali and one of his companions had embarked in a ship on 22nd April but their ship was forced to return to port because of the violent storm. They finally secured another passage on March 29, 1545 and arrived in Goa on September, 2nd as per the request of St. Francis Xavier. Criminalie extended his apostolic service from cape to Paravar Desam. He was appointed as superior for those priests who were already working in the coastal region, on the western side of Mannar, known as Paravar Desam. Criminalie rendered his service and sacrificed his life for those people of Paravar Desam. His four years of work had fetched tremendous result in the increased level of the faithful. St. Francis Xavier wrote a letter to St. Ignatiaus mentioning that “There is no doubt that, you have really selected him to be a saint among the Hindus and pagans.” St. Xavier asked other priests not to do anything without the consent of Criminalie. He catered the spiritual needs of the faithful as per the direction of St. Francis Xavier. He became the successor of St.Francis Xavier as he left for Malaca in 1546. Criminali learnt to read and write in Tamil fluently.

04). CONFLICT

The Portuguese in the sixteenth century selected Vedhalai as a check post –as it was a strategic point for them– to keep a watch over the ships that would carry commercial goods to Siam, Bengal, Ceylon, Coramandal coast, and Pegu. They would not allow anyone to pass Vedhalai without paying taxes to them as they had introduced the system of CARTAZES – a sort of passport for any vessel to sail. To station their troops and servants they with the permission of Paramakudi Nayak established a temporary mud Fort. Perhaps this was the first Fort of the Portuguese in the Tamil coast. The presence and authority they exercised over the seas and the vessels were not to the liking of sailors of Kilakkarai and they in the company of Zamorin of the western coast murdered Joa Floares, the Portuguese captain who was friendly to the Paramakudi Nayak. Their second attempt to divest the Portuguese of their control of Vedhalai was with the help of Zamorin and this was blocked by Alphonso de’souza the Portuguese captain in January 1538. The Zamorin who could not brook the defeat of his forces at the hands of Portuguese after all aliens in this land, sent a formidable force along with the forces from Ceylon; and the massive forces were given a severe drubbing by Alphonso once again on 28th February 1538 In 1553, again the Kilakkarai rivals of Portuguese, to take control of the sea and its passage, attacked the Portuguese stationed at Vedhalai. The Portuguese forces under the fleet commander of Kochi Gill Fernandez de Carvalho attacked the Kilakkarai rivals at Kilakkarai itself and in a fierce battle defeated them. In the attempts of the Portuguese to keep the Kilakkarai rivals under subjugation solid support was given by Thumbichhy Nayak of Paramakudi who himself was a rebellious vassal of Vjayanagar empire. He was divested of his Seemai by the Empire for this act of betrayal. With the deprivation of Paramakudi Seemai, and with its re- assignment to a votary, the tax imposed and collected from sea was sent to Vijayanagar empire. But the Portuguese who collected Tax by their system of Cartaaz demurred. This considerably irritated the Vijayanagar Empire and its local governor at Madurai. Further the Portuguese started demanding tax from the pilgrims to the Ramanathaswamy temple. The demand for the tax imposed on the pilgrims along with the irritating presence of the Portuguese on the way to the temple considerably reduced the number of pilgrims affecting the income to the temple priest who made complaints to the Governor of the Vijayanagar empire at Madurai about the tax. The Governor who felt offended by this act ordered Vithalaya Naik to march on Vedhalai and decimate the encampment. The Kilakkarai rivals also joined them. The Portuguese could not sustain themselves against this attack. They went and took shelter in Vallai Tivu and Anaibar islands. The fort was destroyed to the ground and the trenches around were filled to the brim. They destroyed all the ships anchored in the sea.

05). MATRYDOM

The Hindu poojaries got angry upon not only the captain but whole Christianity and strongly determined to perish the ordinary Christians too. So they well planned to attack the Portuguese captain and his soldiers for revenging with the help of local Marava chiefs and Madurai Naiyakka chiefs. Antonie Criminalie begged the captain to compromise with the Hindu leaders at least for the protection of the poor Christians. In spite of his request the captain ran away from Vedhalai with his soldiers and asked Criminali to accompany with him. But Criminali didn’t accept to escape without Christians. The king of Ramnathapuram and Madurai Nayakars’ soldiers around 7000 to 8000 were sent to attack the Christians of Vedalai. Criminali was then instructing a number of families in Christian faith. Seeing the enemy pressing on, the villagers fled their boats until all were saved. Criminali fell on his knees and offered up his life to God. One of the mobs however plunged his spear into criminalie’s chest left and right then they slashed his body with their swords and finally cut off his head. After St. Francis Xavier, Antony Criminaly was the zealous missionary, killed by Badagas but still the evangelization mission in the southern part of India continued by Henri Henriques (1520-1600), Robert De Nobili (1577-1656) etc.

The Christians of Vedalai quickly covered the body of Criminal. The next day Portuguese captain Correa’s nephew came to the spot of Criminali’s burial ground. He gave him a more honourable burial on the river bed. A few months later the Portuguese came to take the sacred remains of the martyr from the burial ground but they could not identify anything. The preceding January St. Francis had written to St. Ignatiaus, "Antonio criminalie is in heaven with six others. Believe me he is a Saint.” After Antonio’s death father Henry Quez was elected. He wrote,"Dear Fathers and brothers, how lonely we feel without him. His death was saddened our Christians and all are orphans now". Fr. Anthony Gomez, upon hearing the sad news wrote, "Jesus Christ our Lord does not forget his company. Behold Fr. Criminalie crowned with martyrdom. I shall endeavour to find and to guard his remains. They are a precious treasure which God gives to the Society of Jesus". Criminali was 29 years old at the time of his martyrdom.

06). CONCLUSION

The dioceses of Sivagangai had started the canonization process for Antoni Criminali in 1901. Number miracles have been reported even by people of other faiths. A 29 year old young man Murugan from Madurai was healed from heart attack through the intercession of Antony Criminali. Like that numbers of miracles are taking place in Vedai in the martyrdom place of Criminali. Rome has elevated him to the state of venerable which is the first stage of canonization. Venerable Antony Criminali left a fearless legacy behind us. It is good to visit the holy ground of the martyr and get imbibed by his spirit. Though Criminali’s sacrifice for the faithful is highly remarkable yet the importance given to him is not appreciable like St. John De Britto who died as martyr in the same region, Oryur. The Jesuit Madurai province is also not taking much effort to popularise venerable Antony Criminali may be due to various reasons. However, history will be repeatedly speaking about the selfless sacrifice of Criminali.

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Bibliography 1.	Xavier, Alphonse, S.J (ed.), Set The World on Fire- Revitalizing our History in Today’s Context, Dindigul : Jesuit Madurai Province Publication, 2002. 2.	Ramasamy,Vijaya Historical Dictionary of the Tamils, USA: Scarecrow press, 2007. 3.	Xavier, Francis P & others, Jesuit Madurai Province Golden Jubilee souvenir, Chennai : Jeyaram Press, 2002.

4.	Fernando, Leonard & Gispert Sauch, Christianity in India-Two thousand years of faith, New Delhi: Penguin Publications, 2004. 5.	http://www.antonycriminali.com