St. Justin De Jacobis, Apostle of Ethiopia

Last updated on: July 31, 2009 at 5:16 am by Pat McNamara

St. Justin De Jacobis, Apostle of Ethiopia 2009-07-31T05:16:00-06:00 Pat McNamara

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Today marks the death of St. Justin de Jacobis, and the following is adapted from Vincentwiki:
Born in a village south of Naples in 1800, joined the Vincentians in 1818 and was ordained in 1824. After several years of working in southern Italy, in 1838 he volunteered to help start a new mission in Ethiopia. He was appointed Prefect Apostolic of Abyssinia (another name for Ethiopia) and he departed for Ethiopia in May 1839. Ethiopia was not like most missionary territories; it had been Christian since the 4th century, but had slipped into schism. At the time of Justin’s arrival there was not even one Ethiopian Catholic in the country.

Right from the start they decided to adopt the Ethiopian style of dress and accommodate themselves to Ethiopian food. They set about learning the local languages. There is plenty of contemporary evidence that Justin acquired a very good knowledge of these languages, and later on he even wrote some books in Amharic. He did not participate in religious services in the local church, but did spend long periods in the church praying by himself. He followed the Ethiopia liturgical calendar for seasons and feastdays. He visited the sick, and when people, laity and clergy, came to him in his house of their own accord, he would discuss religious matters with them. He began catechism classes for the children. It was not long before he came to the realisation that Rome’s idea that Ethiopia could be quickly converted to Catholicism was very far from the truth.

One of Justin’s great hopes was that some of the Ethiopian clergy would become Catholics. The first one to do this was a deacon. Then gradually others followed his example, as well as a young man who wanted to be prepared for the Catholic priesthood. Justin insisted that all converted clergy, as well as those studying for the Catholic priesthood, remain in the Ethiopian Coptic Rite; they were not to be Latinised. In this way of thinking Justin was alone; none of the other missionaries agreed with him. It took a century, until Vatican II, for the Church to see and accept that Justin was correct in his understanding of the missionary apostolate.

In 1860, Kedaref Kassa became the Ethiopian King Thedore II with the backing of Abuna Salama, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Church. In gratitude, he prohibited Catholicism, and De Jacobis was imprisoned for several months. He was then force-marched to the area of Halai in southern Eritrea, spending his remaining months in missionary work along the Red Sea.
He is considered an apostle to Africa, and the founder of the Abyssinian mission. He is estimated to have made some 12,000 converts.

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