Brother Juan as Linguist/Interpreter
The
language is not very difficult to understand, for although I am not at all
clever I know a great deal of it, at least as far as understanding it goes.
Gaspar Vilela, SJ
In a letter to Rome
dated January 20, 1548, Xavier outlines his plans for Anjiro. The Samurai will
serve as his interpreter and to prepare him for that role, he will study at the
College of St. Paul in Goa. The letter explained
that by attending the Jesuit College, “Anjiro will become acquainted with the
Portuguese manner of living and improve his ability to speak the language. Christian doctrine will be taught with the
goal of him translating it into Japanese the articles of faith.” This letter demonstrates the importance of Anjiro’s participation because it clearly shows the extent
that Xavier anticipated depending on him in Japan.
By all accounts, Anjiro
thrived in Goa. In a letter written to Ignatius, Xavier wrote “Anjiro
learned to speak Portuguese perfectly; he memorized the Gospel of Matthew and
there is no better interpreter for Japan.” In 1548 he was baptized and given the name Paul of the Holy Faith. When the missionaries arrived in Kagoshima, as
anticipated, the language barrier was indeed the missionaries chief obstacle. Xavier writes of his early frustration “Now we are like so many statues amongst them, for they speak and
talk to us about many things, whilst we, not understanding the language, hold
our peace.” Early on they could not function without an interpreter, and Anjiro was a invaluable asset to them. However,
within that first year in Kagoshima, for some reason, Anjiro’s status within the missionary
group changed, and he ceased being its interpreter. Brother Juan took up that role instead.
The local Daimyo of
Kagoshima had tolerated the Jesuits in his fiefdom in the hope that the
Portuguese would adopt his city as their main trading port. Unfortunately, Kagoshima was a small isolated and the Portuguese by passed it in favor of the port at Hirado. Eventually for the Daimyo, the novelty of the missionaries wore off and they were encouraged to move on. spent During the time in Kagoshima, Anjiro was
credited with the conversion of 100 converts including members of his own
family. As a result, Xavier left him behind to care for the small Kagoshima Christian
community.
Ignorance of the
language would have been an impossible hindrance to their evangelical work. However, while it was true that Father Cosme
de Torres and Xavier both struggled, Brother Juan demonstrated an amazing aptitude
for language learning. Amazingly he was able to quickly grasp both speaking and writing Japanese. As a result, he served as Xavier's interpreter and with the exception of the final few months of Xavier’s stay in Japan,
he and Brother Juan were constantly in each other’s company. During that time, the young Jesuit brother
s preached to ordinary people, debated Buddhist monks, and witnessed the Christian Faith in the courts of powerful
Japanese war lords. As a result,
whatever success that Xavier accomplished in Japan, Brother Juan was a
significant contributor to that success.
Xavier mindful of Brother Juan's contribution wrote of him in a letter written on March 22, 1552: “They have a good knowledge of the language and
therefore produce very great fruit.”
Throughout the
sixteenth century fellow Jesuits missionaries and others would also struggle with the
language. Of all the factors taken into consideration, most important was to learn the language at a relatively young age. For
example, in 1596, Fray Jeronimo de Jesus, a Spanish Franciscan priest in
Japan, wrote “The language is for young men only; old men can’t take it in.” Upon Brother Juan’s arrival, he was barely
twenty-three years old while Xavier and Torres were nearly twice his age. This might help explain why the young brother excelled and the older and more accomplished priests did not even though all three were multi-lingual – each being fluent in Spanish,
Portuguese and, since Latin was the language of the Church, at least
rudimentary Latin.
