11.— On the Mercy of God as manifested in our Illnesses.
" My son, in thy sickness forget not thyself, but pray to the Lord, and He shall heal thee." — Eccles. xxxviii. 9.
[Father Spinola, saint and martyr, was one of the band of missionaries who suffered martyrdom in Japan on the 2d of September 1622. Urban VIII. placed these martyrs on the list of Saints, and our Holy Mother the Church celebrates their triumph on February 5.
Father Spinola, a noble Genoese, entered the order of the Society of Jesus at Nole at the time when his uncle, Cardinal Spinola, was Bishop of that diocese. So ardent was his desire to shed his blood for the faith of his Divine Master, that he entreated to be allowed to join the band of missionaries who were ready to go to Japan. To his joy, his request was granted, and he, in company with Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans, reached Japan in 1602.
They, with an indefatigable zeal, worked for the salvation of souls and converted a large number of heathens. The Japanese authorities sent Father Spinola and others to a miserable dungeon, and it was during his incarceration, that Father Spinola managed to send the following letter to one of his relatives in Europe.
In the year 1622 the saintly Father was condemned to be burned alive. When the cords which attached his poor weak frame to the stake, were consumed, he fell on the burning embers, and his soul, now free from its prison-house of flesh, flew up to heaven surrounded by the flames of divine love.
How sweet to suffer for Jesus Christ! I cannot find words energetic enough to tell you what I feel, more especially since I have been confined in prison, where we are
