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seeking a means to heal their sick children: “On several occasions, mothers who had
no inclination for the Faith came to get me to restore their sick children to health. I
took advantage of the opportunity to baptize them, and several soared away to heaven
after having received, through baptism, health of the soul instead of that of the body”
(JR 58:241)
Apart from “medicine” of various kinds, the Jesuits also used their scientific
knowledge to predict eclipses and other celestial events to impress prospective
converts. Writing to his French provincial in 1683, Jesuit Mission Superior Thierry
Beschefer stated, “This prediction of eclipses has always been one of the things that
have most astonished our savages; and it has given them a higher opinion of Their
missionaries” (JR 62:197). When a lunar eclipse came to pass on January 21, 1674,
Father Millet at the Onneiout (Oneida) mission wrote to Father Dablon of how he used
the situation to undermine the influence of village “Jugglers.”
The poor people admitted to me that it was beyond their knowledge, and
begged me to go and notify them at the time of the eclipse. After this avowal of
their ignorance had been several times reiterated, I publicly announced on
Sunday, after mass, that the eclipse would take place on the following night;
and that, if they awoke, they must remember to look. Fortunately, the sky was
very clear; and, as soon as I noticed that the eclipse was beginning, I went to
the orator of the country, and to some others among the most notable men; they
arose and, coming quickly out of their cabins, saw that the eclipse was already
very perceptible. Immediately, they announced the event, within and without
the fort. I warned them that it would not remain as it was; that it would
increase a great deal more, and that barely one-twelfth of the moon would
remain visible. They asked me whether it would not reappear again, for these
simple people thought that it was almost lost. “It will reappear entirely,” I said,
“ and then it will be at such a spot in the sky for it continues to advance; and,
just as you now see it gradually growing smaller, so will you see it grow larger
in the same proportion. ” Everything happened as I had announced, and they
were compelled to admit that we knew things better than they. For my part, I
derived great benefit from this, in instructing them and undeceiving them about
their myths and superstitions. (JR 58:181-183)
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