Missionary Oath_Serment missionnaire

20th May in the life of Charles Cardinal Lavigerie

A young priest once came to me from France, wanting to become a missionary; do you know what I wrote on his travel warrant? Visum pro martyrio, a visa for martyrdom, and I said to him: ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ ‘I came only for that,’ he replied. And in fact, children, this year he died a martyr.

19th May in the life of Charles Cardinal Lavigerie

Quite the contrary, by all means possible, they have to be inspired by a great love of the African race, a great zeal for its improvement and for the destruction of slavery of which they themselves have been the sad victims.