Text

Be My Witness to The Ends of The Earth: The Catholic Church in Indonesia before the 19th Century

---

There tiny islands - the only area producing cloves - caused Christopher Columbus to sail from Spain to the west to find them. He discovered something else; Amerika (1492). - Generations of Portuguese sailors tried hard to reach the same islands by looking for a passage south of Afrika and finally arrived in the Moluccas in 1511. Francis Xavier also endeavored hard to reach these islets, - not for the sake of spices but for the forsaken Christians living there. He found them and started organized Christianity in the Moluccas by establishing the first Christian communities in Indonesia (1545/46). This book tells the story of the beginning and the fate of the earliest Catholic communities in Indonesia.

They sailed 'to the end of the earth', half way round the globe, to bring the Good News to the islanders of the Moluccas and the Solor-Archipelago. They did not understand the languages and customs of the people. They had hardly any information on the people, the geography or the existing living conditions. They had to find out for themselves, not knowing whether the ways they used were right or wrong. Missionaries had never reached as far as this before. They often suffered shipwreck, persecution, hunger and fatigue. Many of them died early, some prisoned, others tortured. They wrote interesting letters about their experiences, which were sensational in Europe, but they had to wait for months and months to get a reply. They felt lost, but did not give up until they were forcibly expelled. They spent all their energy on helping the faithful they had won for Christ. In the end the harvest was small, and what they had achieved was destroyed by their Christian enemies who looked, not for souls but for spices and sandalwood.

This book tells the history of the first mission in Asia started by St. Francis Xavier (1546), and by the Goanese Dominicans, who for decades had to rely completely on their own resources against the mighty Dutch East-India Company. They founded the earliest Catholic communities still existing in South-Eastern Indonesia

---

Availability

Detail Information

Series Title

-

Call Number

270 HEU b

Publisher

Jakarta : Cipta Loka Caraka., 2002

Collation

218 p.: ilus.; 25 cm

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

979-97229-1-8

Classification

270

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Cet.1, 2002

Subject(s)

catholic church
church
Indonesia , Church

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment