7. Fr. Jerome Xavier's Persian Lives of the Apostles* 



By the Rev. H. Hosten, S.J. 



At the end of 1912, the Rev. Fr J. De Smet, S.J., drew 

 my attention to the folowing passage in Edmuri 1 Mitchell's 



Guide Book to Calcutta, Thacker & Co., 1S90, p. 105 : M Seram- 



pur College . There i* a splendid Library, containing 



some rare works, among them being an account of the Apostles, 

 drawn up by the Jesuits for the Emperor Akbar " I hastened 

 to communicate with the Principal, Dr. George Howells, who 

 at his next visit to Calcutta kindly brought the book with him 

 for my inspection. 



The result was as gratifying as expected. The book 

 turned out to be a complete copv of J. Xavier's Lives of the 

 Apostles, about the history of which I had collected some data. 



"While Fr. Figneiro was in the town of Agra [1602], Fr. 

 Xavier, who was also there, presented to the King a treatise in 

 Persian on the life, miracles, and doctrine of our Saviour Jesus 

 Christ, winch the King had himself asked, and which he longed 

 to see. Hence, he showed that he esteemed it much and he 

 had it often read by his great Captain Agiscoa ['Aziz 

 Koka], who took so much pleasure in it that he asked the 

 Father for another copy, and it was already so much talked of 

 among the Grandees that there was hope God would by fchia 

 means make known to those infidels and unbelievers His only 

 Son our Lord After this, the Kina asked the Father for another 



feof 



i 



The first life in the Serampur MS , that of St, Peter, is 

 identical with the one published in Persian, with a Latin trans- 

 lation and note3, by Lou's de Dieu, a Professor of Oriental 

 Languages at the University of Leyden, under the title : 

 Historia S. Petri | Per sice \ Conscripta, simulque myitis notis 

 rontaminata. j Latine \ Reddita, & brevibus Animadversioni- 

 bus l nolata, \ a \ Ludovico de Dieu, | Lvgdvni Batavorvrn, 



Ex-ofiicina Elseviriana, A° CJD /OCX XX IX [IJ3V] 



At p. 108, Louis de Dieu remarks that the Life of Christ. 

 written in 1602, had been preceded, two years before, by the 

 Life of St. Peter. He refers evidently to a passage in the text 



1 Cf. dn Jarric, Hisioire des chases plus memorables .... III. 6ft-67 ; 



J.A.S.B , 1896, p. 87; F. Guerreiro. BJ., Relagam Annual de 



002 & 603 . ; Lisboa. 1605 (Moguor, Ch. Vi ). 



* See it fully described in de Backer. Bibl. des Ecrivaim de la O. de 

 J. 9 Serie VII, Liege, 1861, p. 414: Sommervogel . VIII, s. v. Xavier, 

 Jerome. 



