Jesuit lay brother and missionary. He was the first European to write a grammar and lexicon of the Japanese language
.
Early life
Fernández was born Juan Fernandez de Oviedo in the Spanish city of
Cordoba
in 1526.
Before his entry into the
Society of Jesus (Jesuits), young Fernández was a Spanish hidalgo and went by the gentry appellation of Juan of Cordoba. The Francis Xavier biographer, George Schurhammer, S.J. wrote of Fernandez that he was "a sophisticated young man who he lacked a formal education, but had fine mind".[1] He lived in Lisbon, then one of Europe's most flourishing cities, where his brother was a rich merchant who owned a business that sold expensive silks and velvets on the fashionable Rue Novo do Mercadores. By all accounts, Fernández lived a comfortable life as was expected since as a caballero
hidalgo, it was necessary for him to abstain from occupations that were considered less than noble. The nature of the Spanish social structure was such that the gentry were expected to live life nobly, if they had the means to do so. Because of the family's wealth, young Juan of Cordoba was able to do just that. However, in his early twenties, these social distinctions were about to become meaningless and his life was to turn in another direction.
Conversion
A fateful event changed his life forever when a friend invited him to visit a church to "hear some excellent music". Instead, Fernández listened to a fiery sermon by the Jesuit priest,
Passion of Christ. Schurhammer describes the scene as being attended by some two hundred of the city’s most prominent men, and, "[w]hen it was ended, the lights were extinguished and the men in the church began to scourge themselves". The ceremony so affected Fernández, that soon thereafter he aspired to religious life and before too long he asked to be admitted to the Society of Jesus, only not as a priest, but as a temporal coadjutor or a lay brother in 1547.[2]
In a letter of 20 January 1548, written from
Simon Rodrigues
, Francis Xavier asked that more priests be sent to India and at the same time, described the physical and personal attributes necessary for missionary life in the Far East, writing, "I also earnestly beseech you for the love and service of God our Lord that when you arrange for the sending of some of the Society who are not preachers to these regions of India to convert the infidels, they be persons who have been well tried in the Society and have had many experiences in gaining victories over themselves during the course of some years, and that they not be of poor health, since the labors in India require physical strength, even though spiritual strength is more important."
Simon Rodrigues must have concluded that the young brother was well suited for missionary work because, on 3 September 1548, Brother Fernández arrived in Goa (the capital of the Portuguese India) from Portugal aboard the São Pedro in the company of several of his Jesuit brethren.
Missionary work in Japan
In 1549, Fernández would accompany Francis Xavier and Father Cosme de Torres (1506–1576) on the first Christian mission to Japan which by its very nature was the first substantial cultural exchange between Europe and Japan.
The early Jesuit missionaries arrived in Japan on 15 August 1549, on the
daimyōs
, or Japanese warlords.
In a letter from Portuguese Malacca, dated 20 June 1549, Francis Xavier begs the prayers of the Goa brethren for those about to start on the Japanese mission, mentioning among them Juan Fernández. On their arrival in Japan Juan was active in the work of evangelizing.
In September 1550, he accompanied Francis Xavier to
Yamaguchi, and on to Kyoto. They returned to Yamaguchi, where he was left with Father Cosme de Torres
in charge of the Christians when Francis Xavier started for China.
There was in the records of the Jesuit college at
Buddhist
priests, who stirred up a rebellion against the local daimyō, who had become a Christian. The missionaries were concealed by the wife of one of the nobles until they were able to resume their work of preaching.
Francis Xavier says in one of his letters:
"Joann Fernández though a simple layman, is most useful on account of the fluency of his acquaintance with the Japanese language and of the aptness and clearness with which he translates whatever Father Cosmo suggests to him."
His humility under pressure impressed all and on one occasion resulted in the conversion of a young Japanese doctor, who later became a Jesuit.
Death and legacy
In 1567, Brother Fernández died in
Hirado, eighteen years after his arrival in Japan at the age of forty-one. Father Cosme de Torres who died in Shiki on the island of Amakusa
on 2 October 1570, whom the Xavier biographer, Theodore Maynard, credits with saying of his fellow missionary: "If Japan has to thank Father Xavier for having brought her the faith, she has to thank Brother Fernández for its conservation after the departure of the saint."
^Schurhammer, George. Life and Times of St. Francis Xavier. p. 503.
^ed. Costello, S. J., M. Joseph (1992). The Letters and Instructions of Francis Xavier. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources. p. 80. {{cite book}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Juan Fernández". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
