A Prisoner of God

A Prisoner of God tells the story of a Jesuit missionary, Fr. János (John) Havas, working in China from 1936 to 1954. At the end of the First World War, the Provincial Superior of the Hungarian Jesuits vowed that if they survived the cruelties of the Soviet Republic of 1918–19 in Hungary, they would send missionaries to China. The promise was fulfilled and in the 1930s more than thirty Hungarian Jesuits were sent to the Far East. Among these young Jesuits was János Havas. He learned the Chinese language rather well, helped by his musical ear and fine singing voice. He then studied theology in Shanghai and was ordained a priest there in 1941. His missionary work took place in a northen Chinese village, Chien-Chuang in the district of Hopei, during the Japanese occupation followed by the Communist takeover. Fr. Havas became the soul of his missionary center, where there was a church, a residence for the priest and a dispensary for the sick. His church was always full of people. His lifestyle was very poor, living only on millet and polenta. In his dispensary he kept only aspirin, chinin and penicillin. Yet he was an attractive person with a beautiful singing voice, a dramatic actor, and a very effective healer and infirmarian. He introduced the method of curing trachoma with the injection of goat-milk, and he even performed surgeries (including amputations!) whenever it was necessary. He became the house-doctor for the local Communist leaders. While in 1949 the Maoists expelled most of the foreign missionaries (who then went to Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan), a few of them were able to remain in the mainland. Among them was Fr. Havas who stayed in Shanghai for three years as the spiritual director for the Legion of Mary at the Catholic Aurora University. In the beginning he was the spiritual leader of the northern, Mandarin-speaking students, but soon many others joined him. Besides being a spiritual father for them, he organized study groups and gave retreats for them. He openly attacked the regime, so in 1952 he was arrested; he was condemned and kept in prison for almost two years, often in solitary confinement. His Jesuit brothers did not know about him, thinking that the Chinese had handed him over to the Hungarian Communists in 1953, and that he had been put in prison in Hungary. Yet the Communists imprisoned him in China, where he almost lost his sight. He was subjected to torture, brutality and solitary confinement, where he learned to be alone with Jesus Christ. Finally, in 1954 he was released and expelled from his beloved China. His superiors sent him to the United States, where he lived until his death in 1994. The story of his life in China is described in this book. The story is like a diary of those terrible years which he survived. Just as the love of Jesus inspired him to go the missions, it kept him alive for eighteen years under these incredible circumstances. His spiritual experiences made him an excellent director of spiritual exercises for the rest of his life. After reading his story, one is embarrassed to acknowledge how little we dare to do for our faith and love for the Lord. May this book inspire us to do more for Jesus and make us willing to make sacrifices for Him, like the missionaries did and do even today.