Blessed Jan Beyzym,
S.J.
Missionary
(1850 Ukraine –
1912 Madagascar)
One day in 1890,
at a Jesuit community in the Ukraine, an article about lepers was being read in
the refectory. A novice pushed away his plate, saying, «I'm amazed that people
can read such disgusting things during meals.» His neighbor, who was listening
with a completely different frame of mind, was moved by the description of the
lepers' sufferings... A few years later, he spoke about it to his confessor,
Father Beyzym. The confessor, profoundly moved in turn, seized the opportunity
to ask to leave to serve the lepers. «I know very well,» he wrote to the
Superior General of the Jesuits, «what leprosy is and what I must expect.
However, all this doesn't frighten me—on the contrary, it attracts me.»
Jan Beyzym was born on May 15,
1850 in Beyzymy Wielkie, in modern-day Ukraine. Although he was loyal and
ardent in his work, his terrible shyness as a child put him at a disadvantage.
From his earliest years, he shared his family's very special devotion to Mary.
Jan thought about becoming a priest in a modest parish in the country, but his
father steered him towards the Jesuits instead. After a long interior struggle,
he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, on December 10, 1872. During
the two years of novitiate, Jan was introduced to the religious life, which
blends spiritual exercises, practical occupations and works of charity. Used to
a hard life, he did not suffer much from the discipline he had to submit to,
but remained a little unpolished in his relations with others. When his
novitiate ended, he pursued studies in philosophy and theology until his
priestly ordination in Krakow, Poland, on July 26, 1881. His ardent soul
revealed itself in these words: «We are working for God, for Heaven, and we
should not allow ourselves to be outdone in our work and sacrifices by those
who work for material goods or live only for the world.»
«Hoist the anchor,
and full steam ahead!»
Father Beyzym was designated
prefect of students at the Jesuit school in Tarnopol, then in Chyrów. After
teaching French and Russian, he was named prefect of the infirmary, a position
that brought with it heavy responsibility and a nearly maternal vigilance over
the ten rooms that accommodated the sick students. He circulated from bed to
bed, making a great effort to entertain sick and convalescent students with
stories and games that boosted the morale of the students and nurses. A clever
wit made his austere life easier. One day, a student with a very high fever became
delirious. He wanted to get dressed, saying that he had to meet the ship that
was about to sail to America. The nurse on duty tried in vain to reason with
him. Father Beyzym arrived unexpectedly on the scene. «Where do you think
you're going?»—«To the ship.»—«Good! I just happen to be the captain of the
ship. We'll leave together.» And, taking the sick boy in his arms, he proceeded
to lay him down in another room. «Here we are—it's a good thing we got on
board. Now hoist the anchor, and full steam ahead!» Completely astounded, the
child became calm on the spot.
Energy and sweetness were united
in Father Beyzym's soul. He loved nature and flowers which he grew to decorate
the altar and patients' rooms. He had an aquarium, a canary cage, and another
cage that he made himself for a squirrel to play in. Seeing these creatures
helped him to lift his thoughts and those of his students to God. He made every
effort to convey to children his devotion to Mary. One of the conferences that
he gave for them began like this: «The surest and most necessary help for our
conversion, for our sanctification, and for our salvation is devotion to the
Most Blessed Virgin.» Father Beyzym understood childhood wonderfully, its
weaknesses and its good points. The sad expression with which he responded to
an improper remark or action sufficed to fill the guilty party with repentance.
Having given everything to
serving children, Father Beyzym felt growing in himself the need to love and
sacrifice even more for the suffering. It was at this time that he asked to
devote himself to serving the lepers. His wish was granted, and he was assigned
to the mission in Madagascar. He left his country on October 17, 1898, and
arrived in Tananarive on the following December 30. He was entrusted with the
leper colony in Ambahivoraka, 10 km north of the city. The 150 lepers who lived
there led an existence that was beyond wretched. Excluded from the company of
mankind, tormented by pain, hungry and thirsty, they lived in tumbledown huts,
without windows, without floors, without the essentials. During the rainy
season, they lived in the water and damp. Faced with such suffering, Father
Beyzym prayed to God to bring relief to these needy people, and when no one was
looking, he wept bitterly, because he was unable to look at such human
suffering without compassion. At first, he lived in Tananarive and went to the
leper colony for burials (three or four a week) and Sunday Mass. But soon he
was granted permission to live permanently among the lepers.
«He's not afraid to
touch wounds!»
To obtain urgently needed
assistance, Father Beyzym wrote numerous letters to his confreres in Europe and
his friends. There can be read: «There is no one at the lepers' side, no
doctor, no priest, no nurse, absolutely no one. I am filling all the roles
here: chaplain, mailman, sacristan, gardener, doctor. As for clothing, everyone
covers himself as best he can, putting on an old sack found in a corner, or
something similar. The food is primarily rice, rationed out at one kilo a week,
which is just enough not to die of starvation. This is everything they have, no
remedy, no bandages to dress the wounds and sores. Nothing... It is difficult
to care for the sick here, because in addition to leprosy, they also have
syphilis and scabies, and they are full of lice. However, this doesn't surprise
me. How can these poor wretches bathe and groom their hair if they don't have
fingers anymore, which have fallen off because of their leprosy?... If someone
complains of a stomachache, you don't ask: «What did you eat?» but rather «Did
you eat? And when?...» I feel sick when I think of the great number of people
who spend so much money on their whims and for incomprehensible pleasures,
while we have nothing here.»
Another concern made Father Beyzym's
heart bleed: «What torments me even more is their moral poverty, a consequence
of their material state. They are exposed to a thousand occasions of sin... I
look at these little children, who not only have not learned to love God, but
don't even know yet that there is a God, while the grown-ups already are
teaching them how to offend Him!... I constantly ask the Virgin Mary to have
mercy and to help save these poor people as soon as possible... The moment that
love for and trust in the Most Blessed Virgin takes root in these poor hearts,
everything will be in place and I will be able to be confident about them.»
Father Beyzym's first concern was
to keep the lepers from dying of starvation. His long experience as a nurse
served him well. He approached these sick and bandaged their wounds, arousing
the admiration of witnesses: «When I received a piece of cloth for the first
time, and began to bandage a wound on one of them,» he wrote, «they all
surrounded me as if it were an extraordinary spectacle. They were saying to one
another: 'Look! But look! He's not afraid to touch wounds!' » However, this
service required heroic self-sacrifice: «I must remain constantly united to God
and be capable of praying always... I have to get used to the bad odor a little,
because here you don't smell the fragrance of flowers, but the stench of
leprosy... The sight of wounds is not very appealing either. When, after three
or four hours of medical treatment, I go out into the fresh air in front of the
huts, I come back home, and after washing and disinfecting myself with phenol,
I feel that everything I have on still gives off a bad odor... At first, I
couldn't look at the wounds, and, after having seen a particularly disgusting
sore, I sometimes fainted. Now, I look at my poor patients' sores, I touch them
while treating them or giving them Extreme Unction with holy oil, without being
upset. To tell you the truth, I feel something in my heart when I tend to the
sores, but only because I would prefer to have them all on me, rather than to
see them on these poor wretches.»
A manifestation of
freedom
Imitating Christ who washed the
feet of His disciples, Father Beyzym became a servant. «In today's culture,»
writes Pope John Paul II, «the person who serves is considered inferior; but in
sacred history the servant is the one called by God to carry out a particular
action of salvation and redemption. The servant knows that he has received all
he has and is. As a result, he also feels called to place what he has received
at the service of others... Service is a completely natural vocation, because
human beings are by nature servants, not being masters of their own
lives and being, in their turn, in need of the service of others. Service shows
that we are free from the intrusiveness of our ego. It shows that we have a
responsibility to other people. And service is possible for everyone through
gestures that seem small, but which are, in reality, great if they are animated
by a sincere love. True servants are humble and know how to be 'useless' (cf.
Lk. 17:10). They do not seek egoistic benefits, but expend themselves for
others, experiencing in the gift of themselves the joy of working for free» (Message
for World Day of Prayer for Vocations, May 11, 2003).
Father Beyzym's tremendous
charity aroused complete confidence in his words when he spoke about God,
eternal life, and the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a result, after several
months, a great number of lepers had requested and received Baptism. Father was
deeply grateful to the Blessed Virgin: «I don't know if I will ever be able to
suitably thank the Virgin Mary for her protection. I am not speaking of the
thousand other graces that she has granted me, but of that of using me to serve
the lepers.»
However, Father was aware that he
had only a rudimentary knowledge of the Malagasy language. He knew too few
words. To improve, he decided in 1901 to spend two months at another nearby
post, returning to the colony only on Sundays for Mass. The progress he made
allowed him to organize a first retreat. «We have just finished,» he wrote
afterwards, «a three-day retreat... according to the method of St. Ignatius:
three conferences a day, with examinations of conscience, confessions,
Communion... There prevailed among the lepers a silence and contemplation
worthy of our most civilized retreatants. I thank the good Mother
unceasingly—many of my sick will live and die as true Catholics.»
In fact, during the fourteen
years of Father Beyzym's apostolate, not one of his lepers died without having
received the Sacrament of the Sick. His apostolic fruitfulness proved the
missionary's sufferings were not in vain. In addition to the daily difficulties
of his life, he was homesick. «I long,» he wrote to one of his old confreres in
Poland, «for my homeland, especially for our house and the infirmary with our
kids.» Many missionaries go through these innermost sufferings, which often are
known to God alone. «In Sacred Scripture,» writes Pope John Paul II, «there is
a strong and clear link between service and redemption, as well as between
service and suffering, between Servant and Lamb of God. The
Messiah is the Suffering Servant who takes on His shoulders the weight of human
sin. He is the lamb led to the slaughter (Is. 53:7) to pay the price of
the sins committed by humanity, and thus render to the same humanity the
service that it needs most. The Servant is the Lamb who was oppressed, and
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth (Is. 53:7), thus showing an
extraordinary power: the power not to react to evil with evil, but to respond
to evil with good.
«It is the gentle force of the
servant who finds his strength in God and who, therefore, is made by God to be light
of the nations and worker of salvation (cf. Is 49:5-6). In a mysterious
manner, the vocation to service is invariably a vocation to take part in a most
personal way in the ministry of salvation—a partaking that will, among other
things, be costly and painful» (Ibid).
The scales fell
from my eyes
In spite of Father Beyzym's
efforts, the care given the lepers remained quite insufficient. He thus made
plans for a hospital to be built. His Superiors approved, on condition that he
find the necessary funds himself. The missionary sent letters off in all
directions; some were published by the Polish bulletin «Catholic Missions.» For
several years, donations came in. After innumerable difficulties which were
overcome thanks to a boundless confidence in Divine Providence, Father found a
suitable plot of land, in Marana, close to Fianarantsoa, in a remote and
healthy area, but about 400 km from the leper colony where he was living. A
great trial then awaited him, for he would have to abandon his lepers in
Ambahivoraka. He succeeded in obtaining a place for them in the government
colony, but his mind wasn't at ease about them. «There,» he wrote, «appeared to
me in all its crudeness the moral danger to which everyone, especially the
children, will be exposed in the official colony (700 lepers recruited from the
dregs of society are locked up there by force and guarded day and night by the
police)... I recommended one and all to our Mother of Heaven, crying like a
child. And to say that I could do nothing for them!»
He departed in suffering. When he
arrived at his destination, in October 1902, the missionary set to work, while
at the same time caring for a new group of lepers. The site progressed, little
by little. One day, an unexpected event occurred. A leprous woman and two
leprous men, exhausted by a long journey on foot, asked to see him. « 'Where do
you come from? If you want to be admitted here, you have to show yourselves to
the doctor in Fianarantsoa and come back with a certificate.'—'You speak as if
you didn't know us,' said the woman. 'But of course, I don't know
you.'—'Remember Ambahivoraka, and you will recognize us.' When I heard this, it
seemed to me that scales fell from my eyes. I hadn't recognized my fledglings,
first because I hadn't seen them for two years, then because of their shabby
appearance, and lastly because I did not think they were capable of making such
a long journey. You can imagine how my heart beat and how great my joy was at
their arrival!... When, after several days, my travelers had rested a little,
the courageous woman confessed and received Communion. After that, I gave her
as much as I could for the road, blessed her, and sent her to fetch the rest of
my dear flotsam.» Several weeks later, the old patients from Ambahivoraka
arrived, one after the other. «I welcomed them as if they were my closest
relatives.»
But at the same time as these
joys, Father received trials which he called splinters from Jesus' Cross. Some
people considered his plans too bold, and their objections influenced the local
bishop who hesitated to give the necessary authorizations. Then, in governmental
circles, there was talk of laicizing all the colonies. But Father Beyzym's
confidence in the protection of Mary, Consoler of the afflicted, allowed him to
stand firm. The prayer of Saint Ignatius, which he recited several times a day,
also helped him greatly: «Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory,
my understanding, and all my will, all that I have and possess, You have given
it me. To You, Lord, I return it; all is Yours, to dispose of it entirely
according to Your will. Give me only Your love and grace, and I am rich enough
and ask for nothing more.»
A scary faucet
Finally, in 1911, the hospital
opened its doors. «This is not a work of man,» wrote Father. «The Immaculate
Herself founded this hospital and looks after it.» Taking possession was not
made without a degree of disarray. «The first days,» he wrote, «all the lepers
moved about at a loss and disoriented... now that all of a sudden they had a
house with a floor and a ceiling, beds fitted with sheets, chests of drawers,
an image of the Virgin, and a number on everyone's place! Not to mention bowls,
cups, lamps. They were looking at each other, unable to believe it... It was
laughable the first day, on account of the thousand naiveties that showed how
little civilized they still were. When the dinner bell rang, they indeed ran to
the refectory, but they didn't know what to do there... One of them turned a
faucet and, as the water came out under high pressure, my new civilized man
became frightened. Instead of shutting off the faucet, he let go of everything
and ran away, crying for help!...»
Fortunately, «at the end of
several weeks, the house rules have been imposed, and our house more resembles
a monastery than a hospital. The residents observe the separation of men and
women, as well as silence at certain hours. No quarrels, or, if bitter words
are spoken, peace is made on the spot... Everyone works as much as health
permits. Songs and laughter are the order of the day... At present, almost all
of them receive Communion every day. In a word, may God allow this to last,
because the hospital is an islet of faith in the midst of the ever rising swamp
of sin that is the world. And don't think that I am embellishing the
picture—it's the absolute truth.»
Towards the most
forsaken
The new hospital, equipped with
all the necessary sanitary facilities, had 150 beds. Consecrated to Our Lady of
Czestochowa, it still exists today and radiates the love and hope that gave
birth to it. On the outside, it seemed that Father was bound forever to the field
of apostolate among the lepers of Madagascar. But at the bottom of his heart
remained an anguish for the salvation of souls that led him to go to the even
more forsaken poor. He thought about the prisoners in forced labor gathered on
the island of Sakhalin (in the Russian Far East) and spiritually abandoned. He
wrote to his Superior: «For some time, the thought of Sakhalin has haunted me,
and I have it constantly before my eyes. From what you have seen and heard, my
Father, you know that a good many needy men suffer terribly there... Someone
could very likely go help these unfortunate ones...»
While waiting for a decision to
be made regarding this new apostolate, Father Beyzym redoubled his catechisms
and retreats. Very sensitive to the honor given to Jesus in the Eucharist, he
gilt the altar and the tabernacle in his chapel. But his health was weakening.
He suffered from arteriosclerosis and his body was covered with sores. One day,
overcome by violent pain, he had to take to his bed. A religious priest who had
contracted leprosy while serving the lepers and who himself would die nine days
later, came to administer the last sacraments to him. Finally, on October 2,
1912, Father Beyzym rendered his soul to God. He most likely died of exhaustion
and not of leprosy.
«God, who is rich in mercy,
out of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through
our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5)... From the
beginning of her existence the Church... has preached the mercy of God. The
desire to bring mercy to the neediest led Blessed Jan Beyzym to far-away
Madagascar, where, out of love for Christ, he devoted himself to caring for
lepers... The charitable work of Blessed Jan Beyzym was an integral component
of his fundamental mission: bringing the Gospel to those who do not know it.
This is the greatest gift of mercy: bringing people to Christ» (John Paul II,
homily for the beatification of Jan Beyzym, August 18, 2002). If few people are
called to serve the lepers, we must all attest in concrete terms to the mercy
of God. To do that, a « 'creativity in charity' is needed,» continues the Pope;
«may this 'creativity' never be lacking when a needy person pleads: Give us
this day our daily bread! Thanks to brotherly love, this bread will not be
lacking. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Mt.
5:7).»
Let us ask the Most Blessed
Virgin Mary to make us, after the example of Blessed Jan Beyzym, missionaries
of the mercy of God in the contemporary world.
Dom Antoine Marie osb.
http://www.clairval.com/lettres/en/2003/11/08/2121103.htm