Subj : January 14th - Bl. Odoric To : All From : rich Date : Mon Jan 13 2020 08:50:08 From: rich January 14th - Bl. Odoric (c. 1265-1331) Even today relatively few people from the western world visit China, especi= ally far inland. Therefore, it is all the more amazing to recall that in th= e 13th century Venetian businessmen visited the present Beijing (Peking), a= nd that not long afterward a Franciscan missionary, John of Montecorvino, w= as sent there as archbishop. Odoric of Pordenone was one of a later delegation of Franciscans assigned t= o the China mission. He was a native of Udine in northeastern Italy, ordain= ed a priest around 1290. Father Odoric's first remote post in his years of missionary work w= as the Mongols of Kipchak in the south of Russia, but he also probably work= ed for a while in the Balkans. In 1314 he was transferred to the Near East,= where Franciscans had been active since the Crusades. For eight years he p= reached the gospel in Constantinople, Turkey and Iran. Then in 1322 Odoric and an Irish Franciscan named Friar James set out for C= athay (as China was then called), to come to the aid of Friar John of Monte= corvino, who had been consecrated archbishop of Peking in 1308. (It was the= Venetians Maffeo and Nicolo Polo who had first reached Peking. On their re= turn to Rome in 1269 they had passed on to the pope the request of the Grea= t Khan, Kublai, to send Catholic missionaries to China. When the Brothers P= olo made their second trip to Cathay, they took with them Marco, Nicolo Pol= o's young son. On his return to Europe around 1307, Marco wrote the= famous account of his travels.) The Polos had gone to China by land. Odoric and James took the longer route= , mostly by sea: through Persia, Arabia, Iran, to the Persian Gulf, where t= hey shipped out for India. Then they went on to Sumatra and Java, and proba= bly to Borneo and Indo-China. There they learned, however, that in order to= land at Canton, China, they must go back to Ceylon. They backtracked, got = passage on the right ship, and having reached Canton, moved up northward. T= his was in 1324. Odoric spent some time at Zaitun (now Chuanchow) assisting= the Franciscan bishop there. Finally he went on to Cambaluc (Beijing). For= three years he worked under the aging Archbishop John of Montecorvino. Sho= rtly before John died in 1328 he directed Odoric to return to Europe and re= cruit new missionaries for China. This time the friar from Pordenone and his companion took the land route, p= assing by Tibet, and going through Chinese Turkestan, Persia, Iraq, Syria a= nd probably Palestine. When he reached Venice in 1330, Odoric set out to re= port to Pope John XXII. Unfortunately, illness forced him to call the trip = off and return to Udine. But eventually 50 Franciscans were assigned to the= Chinese enterprise. Blessed Odoric published an account of his travels, an= d this book, second perhaps only to Marco Polo's travel book in pop= ularity, probably helped in the recruitment of his successors on the Chines= e mission. Regrettably, the Mongol Dynasty, which had been kindly to Cathol= ic Christianity, was ousted by the Ming Dynasty in 1368, and the Catholic m= issionary church in China was completely destroyed. Odoric was thus best known for his adventures in exotic Asia. By tradition = he was a devout and zealous preacher who brought the light of the gospels t= o hundreds of Asians. His Franciscan community long venerated him as a sain= t, and in 1755 Pope Benedict XV approved the title =E2=80=9CBlessed=E2=80= =9D for him, allowing the friars to observe his feast day annually in the l= iturgy. Blessed Odoric's patronage is invoked by long-distance trav= elers and on behalf of the Church in China. Blessed Odoric was not, therefore, the only missionary to work in medieval = China, but he exemplifies the arduous lengths to which true missionaries wi= ll go to =E2=80=9Cmake disciples of all the nations.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93Father Robert Saint Quote: Almsgiving proceeds from a merciful heart and is more useful for the one who practices it than for the one who receives it, for the man who makes a practice of almsgiving draws out a spiritual profit from his acts, whilst those who receive his alms receive only a temporal benefit. -- Saint Thomas Aquinas Bible Quote: He that believeth in me, as the scripture saith: Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Jn 7:38 <><><><> God sends his heaviest crosses To those he calls his own, And the bitterest drops of the chalice Are reserved for his friends alone. But the blood-red drops are precious, And the crosses are all gain, For joy is bought with sacrifice, And the price of love is pain. (Author unknown) --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .