France and the Fishers of Men

In establishing the fundamental outlook of the Jesuit missionaries that may have influenced their attitudes and writings about their experiences in Southwest Asia, this chapter evaluates the importance of the Society’s relationship with the French monarchs, and how the Jesuit educational system prepared priests and brothers for missionary work. Chapter 2 analyzes how the Spiritual Exercises, Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, and the Ratio studiorum influenced and shaped the apparent capacity of the Jesuit missionaries to temper hostilities and attitudes toward the Other (whether they are non-Catholic Christians or non-Christians) and to create levels of detached engagement. It also establishes how direct experience in the educational and missionary fields of Europe also influenced their mentalities and reporting of injustices in Syria, injustice and violence were ubiquitous in Europe and Southwest Asia. Much of what was learned in Europe was employed in the missions of Syria such as the establishment of congregations of lay persons, conducting schools with an inherent flexibility in curriculum, and engaging with elites in society for greater access to political and material support.