Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/377

365 ODERIC AND THE HOLY RELICS. 3G5 extols. He crossed the Blue river and arrived at Han- Tcheou-Fou, which he compares to Venice ; and it was there that he deposited his precious burden which he had so religiously watched over all the way from Hindostan. "We ' already know that this Chinese city, regarded under several dynasties as the capital of the whole empire, was celebrated in the middle ages for the brilliant prosperity of its Christian church, and was the metropolis of a diocese. Oderic found here four Franciscans, who divided with Andre de Perouse the pastoral care of this new flock of the faithful, and it was doubtless great joy to them to receive from the hands of Oderic the holy relics of four missionaries whom they had expected as living men, but who had thus already obtained, almost at the com- mencement of their apostolical career, the palm of martyrdom. Oderic de Friuli admired at Han-Tcheou-Fou the beautiful cathedral, the result of the pious munificence of the Armenian lady, and, in the environs of the town, the church and monastery, built by the bishop Andre de Perouse, in the middle of a wood. The missionaries cultivated with zeal and affection that portion of their Father's field which had been entrusted to them, and God granted his blessing to their pious labours. Con- versions were numerous, and in different classes of society. Amongst the neophytes, Oderic mentions a rich and powerful man with whom he dwelt during his residence at Han-Tcheou-Fou, — and who procured for him a singular spectacle in a Buddhist convent. We are about to quote literally the narration of the Fran- ciscan monk.*
 * Bollandi, Acta Sand., t. i. p. 991.