Tradition attributes St. Francis of Assisi with the powerful quote: "Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary!" This statement is very Franciscan in its spirit and has certainly been lived by the members of the Franciscan orders. One Brother, Jacobo de Testera, certainly provided a very literal example of this adage. He was one of the first missionaries in Mexico, well before the languages of the indigenous peoples had been learned. Jacobo pioneered a technique that used pictorial stories to describe basic teachings and spread the Gospel. These catechisms were therefore called Testerians. One of these Testerian Catechisms, from 1524, has been added to the World Digital Library; an internet project to make significant primary materials from across the world available to as many people as possible.Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Testerian Catechism
Tradition attributes St. Francis of Assisi with the powerful quote: "Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary!" This statement is very Franciscan in its spirit and has certainly been lived by the members of the Franciscan orders. One Brother, Jacobo de Testera, certainly provided a very literal example of this adage. He was one of the first missionaries in Mexico, well before the languages of the indigenous peoples had been learned. Jacobo pioneered a technique that used pictorial stories to describe basic teachings and spread the Gospel. These catechisms were therefore called Testerians. One of these Testerian Catechisms, from 1524, has been added to the World Digital Library; an internet project to make significant primary materials from across the world available to as many people as possible.
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