1670 –
EUROPE
• Clement X becomes pope
• James II becomes Catholic.
• Kostka beatified.
• Claude de la Colombiere professor of rhetoric at College de la Trinite, Lyon (till 1673)
• The death of Francis Annat, confessor of Louis XIV for 16 years. He introduced quinine (a kind of medicine for malaria), which at that time was known as “Jesuit’s bark,” in France and was instrumental in saving Louis XIV’s life.
• Ven. Thomas Bedingfeld joins the English mission.
AMERICAS
• Jesuits establish missions on Orinoco River (Venezuela)
1671 –
EUROPE
• Francis Borgia is canonized by Clement X.
AMERICAS
• Jacques Marquette founds mission of St. Ignace on north shore of Starits of Mackinac.
• Pirate Henry Morgan burns to the ground the city of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Panamá (now Panama City), including the Jesuit public school and college, the Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, which the Jesuits had been running for almost 180 years.
1672 –
EUROPE
• From 1672 to 1678, Ven. Edward Mico is assistant to 3 successive English provincials, like Thomas Whitbread. He did his priestly ministry in England, perhaps as early as 1661, in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Sussex.
• Fr. Tirso Gonzales (future General) writes a book on Moral Theology, supporting doctrine of probabiliorism and attacking probabilism and those who held it. The censors refuse to allow its publication. But then four years after becoming General (1691), he goes out of his way to publish his book secretly in Dillingen Germany. Another version of his book will come out in 1694.
ASIA
• Diego San Vitores (Apostle of the Marianas – martyr in Oceana) (with Pedro Calungsod) is killed. Beatified in 1985.
1673 –
ASIA
• John de Brito and 20+ Jesuits set sail for India. He was later martyred in 1693, being also known as the Apostle of Madura (India).
He worked mostly in Madura. At the time Christians belonged mostly to the lower castes.
John aimed at converting the higher castes, the better to establish Christianity in the region,
and to do so he became a pandaraswami, an Indian ascetic, who could approach all castes.
He adopted the appropriate dress and life style of such an ascetic, one of the first of the
Jesuit missionaries to do so. One of his converts, Prince Tadaya Theva, upon becoming
Christian put aside all his wives except one. One of the rejected wives complained to her
uncle, the raja of Marava who eventually had Brito executed
• Cheng Ma-no Wei-hsin (Emmanuel de Sigueira), the first Chinese Jesuit priest, dies.
AMERICAS
• Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet explore Mississippi river finding that it flowed not into the Atlantic (as was presumed) but into the Gulf of Mexico.
• Francis del Castillo (Apostle of Lima) dies.
1674 –
EUROPE
• Clement X, by his brief “Ex injuncto” appoints St. Stanislaus Kostka chief patron of Poland.
• College in Poitiers is established by Irish Jesuits.
ASIA
• John de Brito arrives in Goa.
AMERICAS
• Death of Charles Lallemant, the second founder of the Missions in New France.
1675 –
EUROPE
• June 21 – first Feast of the Sacred Heart celebrated by Colombiere and Margaret Mary Alacoque to establish this devotion.
Claude de la Colombiere is superior of Jesuit college, Paray-le-Monial (till 1676).
• Philip Evans (later martyr of Wales) joins the English mission, going to South Wales.
AMERICAS
• Jacques Marquette dies.
1676 –
EUROPE
• Clement X dies.
• Innocent XI becomes pope. Louis XIV of France opposed his election (cf. 1682)
• Innocent XI condemns 65 propositions which favored laxism (consistent with Probabiliorism) (cf. 1687).
• Fr. Claude la Colombiere arrives in London to be confessor and chaplain of Maria d’Este of Modena, Duchess of York, wife of future King James II.
Later, he is imprisoned following accusations of “Popish Plot”.
He assisted St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in establishing devotion to the Sacred Heart.
AMERICAS
• Kateri Tekakwitha, who became known as the Lily of the Mohawks, is baptized.
1677 –
EUROPE
• William Ireland returns to England.
• Eusebio Kino is ordained.
AMERICAS
• First Jesuit school in the English colonies in Newtown.
1678 –
EUROPE
• In London, Claude la Colombiere is arrested and imprisoned. He was released after five weeks but was asked to leave England.
• In London, the trial of Frs. Thomas Whitbread (provincial), William Ireland and others accused by Titus Oates of high treason. “Popish Plot” (England)
The English Civil War and the Popish Plot (1678) and the Glorious Revolution (1688) would devastate the English province.
• Thomas Bedingfield, (Venerable) dies in prison. He was linked to the “popish plot”.
• Edward Mico (Venerable) dies.
• At Vilnius, Fr Thomas Ujeyski, former bishop of Chijov and senator of Poland, completes his noviceship and receives a special privilege admitting him to the profession of the four vows.
1679 –
EUROPE
• Jan – William Ireland procurator for the English Jesuits is martyred.
He was falsely accused of plotting to kill the king and was the first Jesuit martyr of the
infamous Titus Oates plot. Beatified in 1929.
• June 20 – John Gavan is martyred at Tyburn occasioned by Titus Oates, a priest spy who said he had discovered a plot (called Popish Plot) by the Jesuits (and others) to murder Charles II (king 1660-85) and re-establish Catholicism in England. Although this story was false many Catholics were executed (1678-80) on Oates’ evidence. Beatified in 1929.
• June 20 – Also John Fenwick, William Harcourt, Anthony Turner, Thomas Whitbread (English Jesuits) are martyred. Beatified in 1929.
• July – Philip Evans (martyr of Wales) is martyred (canonized in 1970).
• Aug – David Lewis (martyr of Wales) is martyred (canonized in 1970).
• Francis Nevill (Venerable) dies. He spent much of his ministry in South Wales, taking part in the English mission for more than 50 years.
