September 27
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The World Book Dictionary defines Jesuit as "a person
who is like the conception of Jesuits held
by
their
opponents; a crafty, intriguing, or equivocating person, especially one
skilled at subtle reasoning...." The Jesuits were founded in the sixteenth
century
by
a Spanish
soldier and nobleman, Ignatius Loyola, who gave the religious order some of
its controversial mystique. In his youth, Ignatius was noted for his quick
temper, high pretensions, and elegant friends, qualities that have not
completely escaped some of his followers. His religious conversion propelled
Ignatius to sainthood which gave him many admirable qualities. However, he
never quite made it as lovable.
In 1973, a century-old provision in the
constitution of Switzerland was repealed which allowed the Jesuits to return
and work in that country. Switzerland was just one of the many governments
that had expelled the Jesuits in the past 400 years. The Jesuits meddling in politics and their often unbridled egoism led to their
suppression by Pope Clement XIV, and even Pope John Paul IItook steps in
1983 to curb their influence in political causes. |
Jesuits have been popular characters in films and television. In the 1981-92 TV miniseries Shogun , some of the principal villains were the Jesuit missionaries in Japan. The Mission (1986) tells the story of a, eighteenth-century Spanish Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), who enters the South American jungle to build a mission and convert a community of Guaraní Indians to Christianity. The Black Robe (1991) is the often brutal but brilliant story of Father Jean Laforge played by Lothaire Bluteaua, an idealistic French Jesuit eager to evangelize the Native Americans of seventeenth-century Canada. Antonio Banderas plays a Jesuit priest in The Body ( 2001) who is sent to examine a skeleton that some thought could be the remains of Christ.
As often portrayed in film
and television, the
Jesuits have always been aggressive missionaries. When
the Jesuits
introduced the rosary in China, they made them from the seeds of an aquatic
plant known as water caltrops, often mistaken for the water chestnut.
Because of the use of these seeds in rosaries, they became known as Jesuits'
nuts. Jesuits' nuts are used as an ingredient in many elaborate oriental
recipes. Fresh Jesuit's nuts are available in September in areas with large
oriental populations such as Hawaii and California. Oriental and specialty
food stores carry boiled Jesuits' nuts year round in cans or jars, usually
in a honey or sugar syrup. |
Roast Duck and Jesuits' Nuts Salad |
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Ingredients |
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1&1/2 cup fresh bean sprouts |
1 lb roast duck neat, julienned |
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Instructions |
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© 2012 Gordon Nary |