Martyr in China

Chapter 3. Mission in China

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Fr. John Botton together with some of the Xaverians working in China

Six Fathers and a Brother left on the Italian ship “Conte Verde”. Fr. Uccelli, the rector of the house in Vicenza for over thirty years, the man who had welcomed Gino as a student and who had prepared him for missionary life, was among those who had gone to see them off. Father Uccelli had worked in China from 1906 until 1919, and he surely asked Botton to take his greetings to the Christians of the places he himself had known: Xuchang, Xian-xian, Zhengzhou and, especially, Pezhoan, his first mission.

They arrived in Shangai in the evening of December 3, the feast of Saint Francis Xavier, apostle of the Orient and patron of the Congregation. Unlike their predecessors, the first Xaverians who had arrived during the Imperial period, they did not have to change their clothing and don artificial hairpieces.

From Shangai they went to the Henan region, to Zhengzhou, where the Xaverians had a house. They immediately set about studying the language under the guidance of some Chinese teachers. They had to learn to speak and write the ideographic characters with which the Chinese had transmitted their thoughts from time immemorial. There were many characters and, though the pronunciation was sometimes quite similar, the meanings differed according to the tones in which the word was pronounced; this meant that an inaccurate pronunciation could lead to one thing being said instead of another as, on one occasion, when someone asked for a drink he was given a handful of hay instead!

No matter how hard you try, you could never possibly imagine what life in China is like. My superior says that this is a good thing, since very few would come if they did know what it is like. Before coming, China is a much desired destination; once here, we have to rely on the abundant grace of God to win the heart over to China. 
Fr. John Botton

The mission entrusted to the Xaverians was in the province of Henan and included the western zone which was a mainly mountainous region, extending over 20,000 square miles with an estimated population of 7/8 million inhabitants. The first missionaries who had gone there in 1904 had found no more than 600 Christians. Thirty years on, there were more than 20,000 Christians and the mission had been divided into two apostolic Vicariates: Zhengzhou and Luoyang. Luigi Calza, one of the first four Xaverian missionaries to arrive in China, was the bishop of Zhengzhou, and another Xaverian, Aurelio Bassi, was bishop of Luoyang. Fr. Botton had been destined to Zhengzhou.

Christianity had been brought to China as early as the 7^th century by a group of Persian monks who belonged to a Nestorian community. This community was founded after the Council of Nicea (325). Some centuries later, the community died out in China as a result of isolation from Western Christianity and the persecutions.

In the 13^th century the Franciscan friar John da Montecorvino had arrived in China, accompanied by some other friars. He was appointed bishop of Kambalik, which was the capital at that time, but this mission was also destined to be short-lived.

At the end of the year 1500, some Jesuits entered China, guided by Father Matteo Ricci, marking the beginning of a new cultural exchange between East and West. Changing dynasties, wars and persecutions had made it difficult for the missionaries to stay in China; the situation improved in the second half of the 19^th century, when European governments forced China to grant some rights to free commerce and allow the missionaries to preach the Gospel throughout the Empire. From then on, there were many conversions among the country people, but the educated classes remained rather hostile due also to the mingling of politics and religion.

The insurrection of the Boxers in 1900 led to a violent anti-European reaction in China. The revolt was suppressed in a bloodbath by allied nations who went to defend the besieged Europeans from the threat of annihilation. Many Chinese Christians were killed for having embraced the faith of the foreigners, and some Catholic and Protestant missionaries were put to death out of hatred of the faith or ethnical heritage.

From 1900 onwards, many missionaries entered China and conversions to Christianity were such that in the 1930s there were three million Chinese Catholics and almost one million Protestants. Conversion to the faith was also helped by the charitable works of the Christian missionaries: schools, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the elderly, etc.

The mission of Zhengzhou was thus organized: 23 Italian missionaries, 11 Chinese priests and 93 nuns (18 of whom were foreign and 75 Chinese). 14 large churches and numerous chapels had been built, together with one hospital, two orphanages, two homes for the elderly and three primary schools.

After a year of study, Fr. John Botton was sent to Juzhou to help Fr. John Tonetto. Juzhou was the capital of the district, with about 20 Christian communities, all of them in the mountains. The lack of roads made them difficult to reach and often they were connected by paths that had been trodden by goats. The long distances had to be covered on foot through roads, mountain paths or on the back of a donkey. Only a part could be covered by bicycle.

Nevertheless, the district of Juzhou had a good reputation among the missionaries. There were 1,330 Christians, strong and resolute mountain people, and many catechumens. 180 families were completely Christian and 232 were partially so. The practice of Christian life was generally good, and the missionaries regarded them as the “first class Christians”. This was achieved in spite of the fact that the area was famous for its lairs of brigands.

The Christian community was founded in 1906 by the Xaverian Fr. Antonio Sartori thanks to the interest of a Christian who frequented the area for business reasons. The presence of the missionary was greatly contested at the beginning, but afterwards the hostility waned and the Church was looked upon with respect.

The director of the district had been in China for nine years and could be well described as a veteran: his helper, Fr. Amadio Calligaro, was prevented by ill-health from making frequent visits to the distant Christian communities and had been transferred. Fr. John Botton, who had a robust physical constitution and great enthusiasm, was appointed to replace him.

Three days after his arrival, Fr. John had to baptize a newly born and almost dead infant that had been abandoned near the mission. In times of famine it was usually girls who were abandoned; perhaps this one had been left to die because he was considered too weak to survive.

Fr. Tonetto accompanied his assistant on the first rounds of the mission. They arrived in Zhetakie, up in the mountains, and stayed there two days. Some weeks later, Fr. Botton was already going around on his own. The chronicles of the mission record that Fr. John visited four or five Christian communities once a month. He was away from home for about more than one half of each month and it is impossible to imagine what hardships he had to endure.

He spoke about his experiences in a letter to a Xaverian dated September 13, 1935: “No matter how hard you try, you could never possibly imagine what life in China is like. My superior says that this is a good thing, since very few would come if they did know what it is like. Before coming, China is a much desired destination; once here, we have to rely on the abundant grace of God to win the heart over to China. Someone in our community in Italy said that they would come and visit me if only I were not at the other end of the earth, and I cannot blame him for saying so”.

It was also humiliating for him to see how once digestible foods were no longer appetizing: “Everything is made of sesame oil, and the Chinese believe that the smellier this is, the better it will taste. I make up for this when I am able to fend for myself: I cook millet in pure water, without any salt; the end result is a kind of glue.  It may not be exquisite, but it helps me get by! Today I told the cook to buy a couple of small chicken, but this is a luxury that we cannot afford too often.

We have our problems, you know! The journeys, the beds, the food, the dirt!…But, I assure you, the Lord also gives us great joy. You would never believe, for example, how happy I was a few days ago just sleeping on my bed, which is a door torn from its hinges, without a mattress and soaked to the skin after being caught in a downpour. The mosquitoes, the flies, etc., complete the picture. However, I am filled with joy at the thought of my good smelly people dressed in rags. The perfume of heaven will make up for the smell of China”.

On the feast of John the Baptist (June 29), Fr. Botton baptized 12 adults who had been well prepared by the catechists: these were his consolations. Elsewhere, he complained about his Christians’ lack of punctuality, which forced him to exercise the virtue of patience: they were in the habit of chatting merrily in the churchyard while he was waiting for them in the confessional, blissfully unaware of the priest’s hurry, a word and a concept that meant nothing to them! In Botton’s own words: “Their slowness and imperturbability are terribly irritating to a European, but to the Chinese they are absolutely normal. They rarely lose their temper…I, instead, have to struggle more to keep my patience than to endure the fatigue of my journeys and my adaptation to this beautiful Chinese world. Patience!” (April 1937). 

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