We pray fo r our Mother, the Church upon earth And bless, sweetest Lady, the land o f our birth.
Abbe Gaignet
The main sources used for the thesis are located in the Bangkok Archdiocese
Archives (B.A.A.). Reflecting the centralised nature o f the Church in Thailand at the time, the archives house parish records, which include correspondence, wills,
inventories, as well as other miscellaneous documents ranging from share holdings in local companies, newspaper clippings of stories related to parish affairs to timetables and prospectuses of parish schools, from across the country, as well as records of the schools that the Church had established. It also includes the personal correspondences o f the Rene Marie-Joseph Perros (1909-47), the Vicar-Apostolic o f Siam at the time o f the persecution and those that were written by his predecessors and eventual successor, Louis-August Chorin (1947-65), the last Vicar-Apostolic who oversaw the creation o f the first Thai diocese and the transfer o f power from foreign bishops to Thai ones.
Furthermore, the B.A.A. holds documents that were used in the beatification processes in 2000 for the case o f Blessed Nicholas Kitbamrung. Apart from the documents relating directly to the beatification process itself, including letters, witness testimonies, and summaries of the case and proceedings, a significant part of this collection is Fr. Victor Larque’s unpublished account of the persecution, En
Thailande de 1940 a 1945, that was assembled in 1984. Fr. Larque him self was a French M.E.P. priest and a victim o f the 1940s persecution, and his account was essentially a collection o f various Thai documents from the years 1940 to 1945 with French translations. These documents range widely from parish letters, government
orders, testimonies, and newspaper articles. The purpose o f the documents was not so much to analyse the origins or impact o f the persecution but to prove that the persecution had taken place, as the first step in the beatification processes o f the Songkhon martyrs and of Fr. Nicholas Kitbamrung. One of the conditions for a successful beatification process, especially in cases o f martyrdoms, was that odium fid ei or “hatred o f the faithfiil” must have taken place and was a plausible reason for
the martyrdom. The two volumes o f documents were crucial in buttressing the 1989 and 2000 beatification cases, and establishing the existence of odium fidei.
The sources are also interesting linguistically since they reflect the developments within and outside the Mission. Prior to the 1930s, with few
exceptions, the correspondence was overwhelmingly in French, indicating the nature of the Church leadership at the time. The dominant force within the Thai Church at the time was the Missions Etrangeres de Paris (M.E.P.). Whilst the M.E.P. itself had priests o f nationalities other than French, the majority o f the M.E.P. priests active in Thailand were French or had French connections. This dominance is demonstrated by the almost continuous succession o f the Apostolic Vicariate o f Siam by M.E.P. priests since 1669.115 In effect, the M.E.P. held an almost uninterrupted monopoly on the leadership o f the Siamese Church. Notably, all o f the Siamese Vicars-
Apostolic, including those from outside the M.E.P., were French. In addition, due to the efforts of Vicar-Apostolic Vey (1875-1909), there were also other French
religious orders operating in Siam at the time, such as the Order o f St. Paul de Chartres and the Brothers o f St. Gabriel. Thus, the language used during this period in correspondences and documents essentially reflects the realities o f the Church leadership and personnel at the time. The major exceptions to this are some letters
Ui There w ere only tw o exceptions: V icar-A postolic Louis Champion de Cice (1700-27) and his successor, V icar-A postolic Jean-Jacques Tessier de Queralay (1727-36).
and wills from the parishioners themselves, which are mostly written in Thai, an indication perhaps of an imperfect interface between the shepherd and his flock.
After the 1930s, there is a marked increase in correspondence using a romanised version o f Thai with the use o f accents, similar to the system that had been introduced to Vietnam. Although thisphasa wat (‘Church language’ or Church Thai) was used before this period, there were very few examples o f this usage in the correspondence. The change was gradual and could point to transitions in the local leadership o f the Church or the adaptation o f the predominantly French leadership to local conditions. After all, local conversions and vocations into the priesthood would be impossible if all operations within the Church were conducted in a language that is incomprehensible to the local population. Even so, there are some idiosyncrasies in the correspondence written in Church Thai; for example letters start with a Latin address, months are still written in Latin or French, the majority of the content will be in Church Thai, but the letter itself will be signed off in the French form.
A further aspect that present Thai Catholics would find strange from this period is the fact that, contrary to present practices, the Thai priests were known and signed their correspondence with their given Christian names rather than Thai names. Indeed, amongst Thai lay Catholics as well as within the priesthood, the present normal practice is to address each other with Thai rather than Christian names. Thus, for example, a Thai Fr. Gabriel would be better known to his parishioners as Father Supot and enquiries for a Fr. Gabriel would most likely be met with puzzled
expressions from his parishioners. In the present, the few times that the Christian name would be used fleetingly would be in Church ceremonies, such as baptisms, marriages, and funerals or on occasions where there are Vatican officials present.
The 1940s saw another change in the language o f correspondence, where documents written in the Thai script proper conies into increasing use. Given the surge of Thai nationalism under Pibul during this period, the development is
arguably a reflection o f the prevailing circumstances. It is also during this period that the more nationalistic or recalcitrant priests, depending on one’s perspective, began to use their Thai names as opposed to their Christian names in correspondence.
The second relevant collection in Thailand is at the Sakon Naklion Mission Archives (henceforth S.N.M.A.). The collection consists o f the documents sent to the Vatican for the 1989 beatification cases involving the Seven Martyrs of Songkhon and again consists of letters, witness testimonies, and summaries of the proceedings. There is a major problem for the treatment o f sources from this collection since they have not been formally organised and catalogued.
The third collection is a private one, assembled by Fr. Bruno Arens
(henceforth C.B.A.), a priest of the Missionary Oblates o f Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.). The thesis does cite some documents from this collection, but all of the cited
documents can be cross-referenced at the Thai National Archives. The usefulness of the Thai National Archives itself, however, is limited since there was no official policy on paper advocating persecution against Catholics. Furthermore, the relevant government policy documents have already been kept by the Mission archives and these, as well as material from other sources, have been drawn upon and
incorporated into the two beatification cases. Thus, between the archive documents, beatification documents, and the analyses conducted by secondary sources, the stance o f the Thai government at the time can be established. Although the Church faced persecution o f varying degrees across the country, it seems that in many cases the acts were perpetrated by criminal and thuggish elements in the local society or
local Thai officials acting in an ‘unofficial’ capacity. Local networks played a greater role in the persecutions and whilst Thai officials were involved in some of the incidents, the ‘unofficial’ nature of their involvement makes it less likely that there will be a documentary trail at the centre.
In addition, there are also relevant archives outside Thailand. While a case can be made for the Church being an “imagined community”, the bureaucratic nature of this community has made locating documentary evidence much easier than other more nebulous global ‘communities’. Thus, in addition to the archives o f the
Bangkok Archdiocese, there are also the Archives of the Missions Etrangere de Paris in Paris (henceforth M.E.P.A.). The M.E.P. was founded by Bishops Francois Pallu116 and Pierre Lambert de la Motte,117 both o f whom were missionaries to Siam under Pope Alexander VII in the mid-seventeenth century, specifically to deal with missionary activities in Asia. The organisation was also the headquarters of the Vicars-Apostolic o f Siam-Thailand and Laos (which also covered northeastern Thailand).
Another potential line of investigation was the Vatican archives, particularly the records o f the Propaganda Fide, but the documents from that period are still not open for public viewing.118 However this does not pose a problem for three reasons. First, the Catholic Missions did not have an intimate connection with the Propaganda Fide in day-to-day affairs. Secondly, copies o f the more important letters and reports
116 Born in Tours in 1626, during his life Bishop Pallu w as to take charge o f the territories o f Laos, Tonkin, and southwestern China. He also co-founded the General Seminary in Ayutthaya in 1665 with Pierre Lambert de la Motte, w hich after much peregrination has becom e the present day General C ollege in Penang. H e died in China in 1684.
117 B o m in La B oissiere in 1624, i n i 658 he w as appointed as the V icar-A postolic o f Cochinchina. He w as a co-founder o f the General Seminary in Ayutthaya in 1665. In 1670, w h ile he w as in Tonkin, he created the order o f the Amantes de la Croix de Jesus-Christ (the Lovers o f the H oly Cross). He died in Ayutthaya in 1679.
118 The m ost recent opening w as for the documents from the pontificate o f Pope Pius XI, who reigned from 1922-1939, by the current Pope, Benedict X VI, see Zenit, ‘Benedict X V I Opens Archives on Pius X I’, 2 July 2 0 0 6 , http://w w w .zenit.org/article-164697Lenglish [Last A ccess: 11 October 2008].
that were sent out have been preserved in the Bangkok-based archives and, in some cases, also at the M.E.P. Archives. Finally, the beatification documents, some of which were drawn from the archives o f the Propaganda Fide, cover many of the relevant documents from this source.
Finally, given the wide variety o f languages used in the correspondence in these archives, including French, Thai (Church and official), English, Latin, Italian, and Chinese, the quoted sources have all been translated into English by the author for easier reading.