8th June 2014
Mass In A Chinese Communist Prison
Several weeks ago I told the story of a missionary priest, secretly saying Mass. So many people have asked for copies of the story an abridged version follows.
Fr Patrick Reilly had spent 14 months in solitary confinement in Communist China.
“… I saw my body withering away … I had gone from 12 to less than 6 ½ stone. My wish was to offer one more Mass before I died.”
One day in August 1953 something startling happened when his cell door opened and the guard gave him steamed bread instead of the usual rice. Now he only needed wine in order to have the essentials for celebrating Mass.
His eyesight deteriorated - he was completely blind in the left eye and almost blind in the right. He reported his condition and as examined by a doctor who said the nerves were bleeding due to lack of vitamins. He suggested he be given better food and also fruit. Being asked what food he would like, he asked for grapes!
A bunch of grapes was handed into his cell that same evening. He still had the white shirt he was wearing when arrested. He tore the cuffs from its sleeves and washed them in his ration of drinking water. When the cuffs had dried he made a little bag of one cuff, put some of the grapes into it and squeezed the juice from them, gathering it into his rice bowl. This juice he poured into a medicine bottle which he had, corked it and hid it. A few days later the cork popped. The juice had fermented; it was now wine. He had no altar, no linen, no candles, no vestments BUT he did have BREAD and WINE. He could now offer Mass.
He washed a small portion of the cell floor which would serve as an altar and spread the other cuff of the other shirt-sleeve. He placed the bread on it. He put some wine into the little mug which normally held his vegetable ration.
“Dressed only in my shirt and pants and barefooted, I knelt down, I took the bread and offered it to God. I knew I had to be as quick as possible. If they saw me saying Mass, it would be death. So I BLESSED the bread saying quickly some of the prayers of consecration, and BROKE it and ATE it. Jesus Christ was really present with me in that cell. All other visitors had been prevented from coming near me, because of many locked doors. But they could not stop the King of Kings. It had been a long 14 months without any Mass, but I could not delay. I could not savour the moment. All was over in a few moments.
Imagine my joy at receiving this Visitor into my cell. I had only the floor and the cuff of my shirt on which to lay his Sacred Body. I thought of that first Christmas night when He was willing to be wrapped by Mary in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Our God is a humble God and He comes to us in all circumstances and conditions.
Not once, but twelve times I was able to say Mass until the wine ran short…”
Fr Patrick Reilly survived his ordeal in China. He went to work in the Church of Rathfeigh, Co Meath. The original Mug and cuffs can still be seen there.
