CHAPTER XXVI


MADAGASCAR: THE MISSION TO THE INFIDELS

"Vincent de Paul... offers to send his missionaries"

Although the work for captives in Barbary was carried out in heathen countries it was still a Christian work and the missionaries limited their efforts to helping only Christians. Vincent had a deep longing to work directly for the evangelisation of infidels. [1] He thought, and this idea was current at the time, that maybe God wanted to transplant the Church from European countries where heresy had taken root, to some other continents. Even if this was a mistaken notion, any effort that contributed to the expansion of the Church would still be a great work. [2]

The Congregation of Propaganda, and its secretary, Monsignor Ingoli, in particular, were looking for missionaries to go to distant countries. The Congregation of the Mission had earlier been approved as a simple "mission" thanks to a favourable report from Ingoli and it met all the necessary requirements. The Congregation did not belong to either Portugal or Spain, the two nations that had sovereignty of these heathen lands, and it had all the dynamism of a young community. Several projects were bandied about. In the period 1643 1647 there was talk of confiding the work to the Bishop of Babylon who had responsibility for the missions in Mesopotamia, Persia and parts of India. Fr. Lambert was on the point of being named for this work. But the project came to nothing after a series of difficulties; the conditions imposed by Jean Duval, the retiring bishop, and the ambition or envy of other ecclesiastics such as Authier de Sisgau and Deslyons, the Dean of Senlis. [3]

In 1643 Arabia was the centre of attention. This time Vincent petitioned for the work although we don't know whether the Holy See had previously offered it. There are lacunae in documents relating to this subject. The petition presented by Vincent eloquently expresses his desire to have his own corner of missionary territory.

"As the three regions of Araby, Feliz, Petra and Desierta have not yet been confided to any Congregation or to the secular clergy to be developed and evangelised according to the Christian tradition, Vincent de Paul, Superior of the Congregation of the Mission, is offering to send his priests to those parts of Araby whenever it pleases Your Eminences to confide to them that said mission sub nomine proprio." [4]

In 1656 there came an offer of Lebanon and Vincent was asked to nominate one of his priests for the work. After some hesitation he named Thomas Berthe, former Superior at Rome. This project didn't materialise either, though we don't know why. [5] At some point there seems to have been talk of sending missionaries to Pernambuco in Brazil and to Canada, [6] the last country where French policy at this time was to promote a big colonisation programme. [7] Vincent was always ready to evangelise and serve the poor wherever they were to be found.


"An island below Capricorn."

Only one of these plans came to fruition and that was Madagascar or the Ile Saint Laurent as it was officially called. In one of his letters Vincent described it as "an island below Capricorn". [8]

The French system of colonisation was closer to that of England or of Holland rather than the Spanish or Portuguese ones. Trading companies were established and the state granted these the right to develop the colonial territories. Two rival societies wanted the island of Madagascar; the Indies Society or Society of the East, founded in 1642 by a group of traders from Paris which included President Lamoignon, and the company headed by one of Richelieu's cousins, Charles de la Porte, Duke and Marshal of La Meilleraye who had been a staunch supporter of the missionaries at the abbey of Saint Méen. [9] These companies were under obligation to provide their colonies with sufficient priests to serve the religious needs of French colonists and to evangelise the natives.

The French colony in Madagascar had settled in the Southern most part of the island and had built a fort which they called Dauphin. In time this became the city of Fort Dauphin.

Before the French came, Madagascar had been evangelised for a short time by Jesuits from Portugal but they had had little success. When the first French colonists arrived the place could well have been described as virgin soil.

In 1648 the Company of the Indies sent a petition to the nuncio in Paris asking for missionaries to be sent to Madagascar. The nuncio thought of the Congregation of the Mission and he went in person to suggest this to Vincent who consulted the most senior members of the Company and then accepted the offer. The nuncio believed that he was acting with the authority of the Congregation for Propaganda but owing to a misunderstanding between Paris and Rome, the Sacred Congregation had already confided the mission to the discalced Carmelites. As soon as Propaganda heard of the nuncio's concession they limited the faculties granted to the Vincentian missionaries so that these were confined to parish foundations serving French colonists. [10] The difficulty was resolved when the Carmelites withdrew. After this the missionaries of Saint Lazare assumed full responsibility for the island's evangelisation. [11]

Humanly speaking, the mission to Madagascar was an impossible one. Distances, and communications systems in particular, gave rise to many discouraging problems. Of the three expeditions that Vincent sent out therethe second one (1654), was the least behind schedule, arriving at its destination five months late. The first one, in 1648, was six months late and the third, (1655 1656), arrived nine months late. The three final expeditions never arrived at all. One was shipwrecked in the Loire before it even reached the High Seas (1656); another had to take shelter in Lisbon and when it left the port was captured by a Spanish vessel that conducted it to Galicia (1658) and the final expedition was shipwrecked in the Bay of Biscay, returned to France to begin the trip again, and was becalmed in the Cape of Good Hope so that the missionaries were obliged to return to Paris via Amsterdam, in a Dutch ship (1659 1661). As if this wasn't bad enough, there were disagreements between the Company of the Indies and the Duke of La Meilleraye and this complicated embarking procedures. The Duke was very jealous when the missionaries travelled in the Company's ships. Vincent had to go to great lengths of diplomacy to keep on the right side of both of them. [12]

Those missionaries who managed to set foot on the island found the French population more of a hindrance than a help to their apostolate. Most of the colonists were dissolute characters who had joined this overseas adventure after being enticed by the lure of easy riches. When they had to face the harsh reality of a poor country whose inhabitants were not disposed to be submissive they reacted by falling into every kind of abuse and outrage. To crown it all, there were a good number of Huguenots among them and the native people were very perplexed by dissensions between these and the Catholics. Moreover, the first governor of the colony, Monsieur de Pronis, was a Huguenot although his conduct in no way reflected the strictness of Calvinism. The second overnor, Etienne de Flacourt, was the typical colonial official concerned only with his company's commercial interests, authoritarian towards those who served under him but extremely easy going as regards morals. There was constant friction between these governors and the missionaries. [13]

A third difficulty stemmed from the climate and sanitary conditions of that exotic location. The missionaries were to pay the price of being new boys; they suffered frequent illness and premature death. Joussaint Bourdoise had the longest apostolate which lasted two years and ten months. All the others died, we might say, almost as soon as they began their apostolic labours. [14]

The natives were docile, approachable and affectionate but they were timid and mistrustful of strangers, particularly if these tricked them, as frequently happened with the military from the fortress. They practised a primitive form of religion with additional elements introduced by Arab traders who taught them Islamic practices and beliefs. Faith in a supreme God was overshadowed by a much stronger belief in the evil spirit mingled with an idolatrous polytheism directed towards the "olis", a sort of lesser gods, whose carved images were carried about by the people who attributed magic powers to them. A complicated ritual known only to the "ombiases" or sorcerers ensured protection by the good "olis". [15]




"Have courage and let down the nets."

For this difficult and perilous mission Vincent chose a succession of priests who were outstanding for their human and spiritual qualities. It is amazing how in less than 25 years, the Little Company, whose members were described by Vincent as lowly in virtue, knowledge and social status should have had sufficient men available for such varied and demanding tasks. The mission in Italy demanded talent, finesse and eloquence; Ireland and Scotland called for bravery in the face of persecution and martyrdom, while Poland would test a missionary's self sacrifice and disregard for his own life. In Algeria and Tunis missionaries would have to display compassion, business acumen, and astuteness in dealing with the Moslem petty rules. In Madagascar everything had to be started from scratch and they had to be able to improvise, to have a bent for languages as well as a sympathetic understanding of strange customs, and more than anything else, they had to be of great integrity and show tact in their dealings with the Huguenots... In spite of all these difficulties, Vincent never had any problems in finding personnel. Vincent sent as many as twenty or so missionries in successive groups to Madagascar but out of these only eight arrived at the mission. None of the priests named showed any repugnance in going to that distant island and many of them volunteered to go.

The first two missionaries that Vincent chose were Charles Nacquart and Nicolas Gondrée. The letter of appointment that he wrote to them is the model of a courteous, affectionate and pressing invitation to join this enterprise for the glory of God.

"The company", he told Nacquart on 22nd March, 1648, "has cast its eyes on you as its best victim to give homage to our Sovereign Creator by serving him in this way." "My very dear Father, what is your heart saying at such news? Do you feel suitably humbled and confused at receiving such a great grace from heaven? It is as great and wonderful vocation as that of the greatest apostles and saints in God's Church! God's eternal designs are being accomplished in our times through you! It is only humility that will help you bear this grace, together with complete abandonment of all that you are and all that you could become, with joyful confidence in your sovereign Creator. You need to have the deep faith of Abraham and the charity of St. Paul as well as zeal, patience, deference, poverty, solicitude, discretion, integrity and a great desire to give yourself completely to God; all these will be as necessary for you as they were for the great Saint Francis Xavier." "When you reach that island you will have to start by arranging things as best you can you may have to separate so that you can work in different areas but in that case it would be advisable for you to meet as often as possible to console and encourage one another."

"The main thing is that after trying to live in the odour of sweetness with the people you have to deal with, and after setting them good example, you must help these poor people born in darkness and in ignorance of their Creator, to understand the truths of our religion. You must not do this by subtle theological arguments but should take as your starting point examples drawn from nature and you should help them to understand that you are only developing the traces of God's presence which He, himself, left with them but which corrupt human nature has been obliterating by many years of clinging to evil ways."

"I would like you to show them the weakness of our human nature by pointing out that they, too, condemn bad conduct since they, too, have laws, kings and sanctions."

"If His Divine Majesty is pleased to grant you the grace of cultivating the seed of those Christians already settled there, and living in charity with these good people, then I am absolutely sure that Our Lord will make use of you to prepare an abundant harvest for the Company there. Go, then, Father, and since it is God's will that sends you there through his representatives on earth, have courage and let down the nets..."

In the postcript to this letter Vincent reveals his own feelings, "What more can I say to you... that there is nothing on earth I would like more than to go with you and be your companion, if only I could, instead of Fr. Gondrée." [16]

Really Vincent saw himself a missionary in his sons.

As well as giving them spiritual counsel, the prudent organiser had advice about essential things for the journey. The missionaries were to take 100 gold crowns for emergencies, a complete set of breviaries, two rituals, two Bibles which should be small and not too bulky, two copies of the teachings of the Council of Trent, two manuals of Binsfeld's "Morality", two books of meditations by Buseo, some copies of "The Devout Life" and lives of the saints, the life and letters of St. Francis Xavier, irons for making hosts, safety pins, three or four pocket size containers, the holy oils...

Gondrée died the very year they arrived in Madagascar. He caught sunstroke while accompaying the governor on a visit to the town of Fanshere, the home of Adrian Ramaka, a black petty king who had been baptised in his youth by the Jesuits. [17] Nacquart held out for another year, completely on his own. He died on 29th May, 1650, worn out by his apostolic journeys in the Fort Dauphin area. [18] During the two years of his apostolate he suffered a lot because he could do nothing to change the disorderly conduct of the soldiers and the French colonists. His efforts in this direction provoked many clashes with governor Flacourt who reneged on the company's agreement and reduced the amount of material aid it had promised to give the priest. He was very consoled, however, by his apostolic work for the natives. He soon learnt enough Malagaschi to be able to give catechism lessons with the help of some pictures he had brought from France. He won the confidence of Adrian Ramaka and other chiefs. He visited Fanshere on several occasions and also went to many other places though his freedom of movement was restricted after Gondrée's death since he had to be in Fort Dauphin every Sunday to say Mass for the colonists. On all sides he met a submissive people who were ready to accept the seed of the gospel. He baptised only seldom because he wanted to be sure that the catechumens were properly instructed and that they weren't acting from purely natural motives:

"You sent me to let down the nets", he told Vincent, "up to now I have only caught 57 fish and except for 3 big fish all the rest were tiny ones but there are so many to be caught that I'm sure you will send enough people to the sea to bring in nets at breaking point with so many fish." [19]

He had made a lot of plans. He thought of building a church inside the fortress and to have it served by the secular clergy, he planned to establish a community of six priests and a seminary in Fanshere, to found another mission post in Matatane with twelve priests and he even wanted to bring four lay brothers who would work as tailor, teacher, surgeon and administrator. He dreamt of bringing a group of Daughters of Charity to look after the young Malagashi girls... he was preparing a catechism in the native language...

Such fine projects were cut short by the premature death of this apostle endowed with such breadth of vision. In the space of a very short time he had understood the need for a comprehensive plan for the territory confided to his care. Carried away by the thought of the possibilities that island held for his zeal, he echoed the lament of all discoverers:


"Where are all those theologians, as St. Francis Xavier said years ago, who are wasting their time in academies while so many poor infidels are begging for bread and there is nobody to give it to them? May the Lord of the harvest send labourers." [20]




"I am the only one left to break the news to him."

More than four years passed between Nacquart's death and the arrival of the second group of missionaries. At last, on 16th August, 1654, Frs. Bourdaise and Mousnier, together with Brother Forest, landed on the island. [21]

Nacquart's work had been wiped out. They had to begin all over again. Bourdaise was ready to tackle the work. He wasn't reckoned to be very intelligent and when he was a student they thought of asking him to leave the community, so limited was his ability. Vincent had sensed his spiritual potential and refused to let him go. In Madagascar he was to demonstrate a common sense and great heartedness which more than made up for intellectual gifts. He followed Nacquart's example and began an itinerate apostolate to the native towns. This revived the enthusiasm of earlier years. The great and the lowly, petty kings and subjects, sorcerers and ordinary pagans, men and women; all rushed out to hear his teaching. The detailed reports he sent to Vincent are full of anecdotes that describe better than any learned treatise the conditions and the difficulties of the missionaries' work. His companion, Fr. Mousnier, who was the learned member of the group, died after nine months following a difficult expedition he had undertaken to serve a colonists' camp. [22] Bourdaise, like Nacquart before him, was left on his own to do all the work. This he did wholeheartedly, vey ably and with sureness of touch. In less than 3 years he baptised about 600 pagans. In 1656 he was overjoyed to have reinforcements in the shape of Frs. Dufour and Prévost. A third companion, Fr. Belleville, died during the voyage. Sadly Dufour and Prévost died, two and three months respectively, after their arrival. They were victims of their imprudent zeal that ignored the precautions Europeans had to take against the climate of Madagascar. So once again Fr. Bourdaise was left on his own. When he sent the sad news to Vincent his words seem like an echo of the biblical lamentations:

"Fr. Belleville, whom I only know by name, and by his reputation for virtue, has died on the journey. Fr. Prévost died a short while after recovering from the fatigue of his journey and Fr. Dufour, whom I met only so that I might know the value of what I was to lose, has also died. So there is only myself, your humble servant, to give you this news..." [23]

Fr. Bourdoise, himself, didn't survive his companios for long. On 25th June, 1657, he, too, succumbed to an attack of dysentery. [24] It took so long for this news to reach Paris that Vincent thought Bourdoise was still alive and he continued to write to him. Vincent obtained from the Holy See his appointment as Apostolic Superior of the mission and brandished this document in front of Marshal de la Meilléraye, to try and get him to send ships more quickly. One day, on 11th November, 1658, he sent the absent solitary missionary this greeting which in the circumstances we find poignant.

"Father Bourdoise, are you still alive or not? If you are alive, may God preserve you. If you are already in heaven then pray for us." [25]

Tragic destiny of the Madagascar mission which was to prove a constant blood letting for Vincent. But it was a glorious destiny, too, and it shows us in a way that none of his other enterprises could do, this man's unconquerable zeal and his readiness always to begin again, even at the cost of his finest sons. No obstacle, no loss, could alter his determination to serve those poor people in unknown and distant lands through the Church's mission "ad gentes."


"This retiring, humble and gentle youth"

Three other groups of missionaries were sent out between 1656 and 1660 and all these enterprises were doomed to failure. As mentioned earlier, the expedition of 1656 was shipwrecked and more than half the passengers perished. Thirty out of the 64 died. The three missionaries were among the survivors and this was partly due to circumstances and partly to the bravery and resoluteness of one of them. They were two priests and a brother. On All Souls Day the ship was anchored at the mouth of the Loire, opposite Saint Nazaire. The two priests had gone ashore so that they could say Mass more easily and the captain of the boat went with them. When they returned they couldn't get back on board because the waves were so powerful and nobody dared to cross the bay. That night the storm became so violent that but let Vincent tell the story .

"At about eleven o'clock it began to hurl the boat towards a sandbank where it was dashed to pieces. But God immediately inspired some of them to make a sort of raft from pieces of wood roped together. How did they manage this? I don't know yet but I do know for certain that sixteen or seventeen people climbed on to it and they were at the mercy of the waves and the mercy of God. Among these sixteen or seventeen people was our poor brother, Christophe Delaunay, who with his crucifix in his hand encouraged his companions.

'Have courage', he said to them, 'let us have great faith and trust in God; let us hope in Our Lord and he will save us from danger'. And he began to spread out his cloak so that they could use it as a sail. I don't know whether the others didn't have a cloak, but anyway, he spread out his, getting one person to hold out one side and somebody else to hold out the other, and in this way they all managed to reach land alive except for one person who died of cold and the fright he had in that danger."

"Don't you admire the strong spirit of God that filled that young man, our good brother Christophe, who is a retiring, humble and gentle lad. Yes, he is the most humble and gentle young man that I know. And here he is, with his crucifix in his hand, shouting encouragement to his companions... And I will say in passing, brothers, that this shows us we should never be without our crucifix. It was not he who did this, my brothers, it was God alone, working through him, who did it. But after all, even if they had died leading all those people who were in the boat, we can well believe that they would have been happy to die, serving God and leading their sheep." [26]


"God be praised for life and for death"

The final expedition was the most hazardous one of all and for Vincent it was an opportunity to show his total submission to God's will and to show how much he was in control of his feelings.

Nantes was the point of embarkation but when the travellers, three priests and a brother, arrived there they were told they had to make for La Rochelle. The Superior, Nicholas Etienne, went by sea and took the brother with him while the others went overland. Not long after they left Nantes a fierce north east wind broke the masts of the ship and shattered the main sail, dragging the ship on to a sandbank. The pilot begged Fr. Etienne to give absolution to the passengers and crew. The priest had just made the sign of the cross when the wind suddenly changed direction and blew the ship away from the dangerous reef. Two young passengers hadn't waited this long and had helped themselves to a skiff which they launched into the sea. They thought they saw the ship sink beneath the waves so when they got to La Rochelle they wasted no time in telling the news and writing to Paris. A Requiem Mass was celebrated in La Rochelle for the people who had drowned. In Paris, Vincent named somebody else to be Superior for the expedition and told the priest to keep quiet about the appointment for the time being.

Meanwhile, Fr. Etienne's ship was now without mast or sail and was at the mercy of the waves for a whole fortnight. It was dragged towards the coast of Spain, pushed back towards the French coast and eventually ran aground near St. Jean de Luz. Etienne wrote to Vincent from Bayonne and Bordeaux, bringing him up to date with the situation. The letters arrived in Paris just as the new Superior for Madagascar was having a meal before setting out that evening for La Rochelle. Vincent was in his room dictating a note to one of his secretaries telling the surviving missionaries about the change of Superior. At that moment the assistant of the house brought him the post. Vincent thought he recognised Etienne's handwriting on two of the letters. He opened them straightaway and there, right enough, was the missionary's signature and the news that he was setting off once more by sea. Vincent's heart somersaulted from desolation to joy but not a muscle of his face nor anything in his voice betrayed the transformation. He had learnt to master his feelings and all he did was to praise and bless God "for life and for death." [27]


"Are we going to abandon God's work for five or six setbacks?"

For Vincent, Madagascar was the crowning of the company's missionary labours. For this reason he held on to it at all cost in spite of a long and sad list of men sacrificed. But other people began to complain about an enterprise which up to that moment had brought nothing but disaster. Vincent countered their objections in a talk which was partly a harangue and partly prophecy.

"Can we be so cowardly of heart and so lacking in manlinness that we would abandon the Lord's vineyard that His Divine Majesty has called us to, just because four, five, or even six men have died there? Tell me, would it be a good army that abandoned everything because it had lost two, three, or five thousand men (as they tell me happened during the last attack on Normandy)? A fine thing that would be, to see such a cut and run army that thought only of its own comfort. Well, we would have to say the same thing about the Mission! It would be a fine Company, this Mission if it abandoned the works of God after five or six losses. A cowardly company, too attached to earthly things. No, I don't believe that there is a single man in the Company who is so lacking in spirit that he is not prepared to go and take the place of those who have died." [28]

In no other enterprise did Vincent display so much tenacity and put so much labour and effort into the work. When Bourdoise died there were no missionaries in Madagascar until three years after Vincent's death when the last of the missionaries sent out by the founder arrived. Vincent's successor, Fr. Alméras, continued the work until France withdrew the last of the colonists. Vincentian missionaries returned there in the nineteenth century and today they are still in Fort Dauphin, continuing the work started by Nacquart and Gondrée in such very different circumstances. [29]