Feast day: February 4
St. John de Britto
A Portuguese nobleman who became a Jesuit, gave up the court for the missions of southern India, dressed as a native holy man, and was beheaded for his converts.
John de Britto was born in Lisbon in 1647 into the Portuguese nobility and raised at the royal court as a companion of the future king. At fifteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and despite every inducement to a comfortable career at home, he insisted on the foreign missions, sailing for India in 1673.
He gave himself to the Madura mission in southern India, where the Jesuits had adopted the controversial practice of living as native holy men — wearing the saffron robe, abstaining from meat and wine, adapting to local custom — in order to win a hearing among Hindus. De Britto embraced this life completely, travelling barefoot, enduring imprisonment and torture, and making many converts.
Expelled once and sent back to Europe, he refused to remain in the safety of Portugal and returned to his mission. His martyrdom arose from a conversion: a local prince he had baptized dismissed all but one of his several wives, one of whom was related to a regional king.
The offended relatives seized the missionary, and in 1693 he was beheaded at Oriyur. John de Britto was canonized in 1947 and is honoured as a martyr and one of the great missionaries of India.
He adopted Indian dress and customs to reach high-caste Hindus and was nicknamed the 'Portuguese St. Francis Xavier' before his martyrdom.
Source: newadvent.org/cathen/08461a.htm
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