Storia do Mogor 132: Death of a Friar, a Martyr called Frey Jacinto [121].

132

When he entered Aurangabad, one of the fugitive friars of whom I spoke (II. 61, 66, 67, 117) was living there; he had apostatized from the faith, and had turned Mahomedan. After he had been married for many years, finding himself scoffed at by Mahomedans and Christians, who wished neither his company nor his conversation, he determined to give public proof of his penitence, and remove the scandal he had caused. He went, therefore, to the qazi, to whom he said that, recognising the religion of Muhammad was not good, he found there was in the world no other religion by which man could save his soul except the Christian religion. He informed him of two things: one, that he was not a Mahomedan; the other, that if he (the qazi) wanted to be saved he must become a Christian.
The qazi was much put out at this talk, and, imagining him to be deranged, kept the man in prison for several days. Then he called him into his presence, and asked him if he was still of the same mind. He replied as boldly as before. The qazi made efforts to make him change his mind, but the holy man, firm as ever, persisted in the truth. For this he had him bastinadoed and beaten on the face. Then, desisting for several days and reducing him by hunger, he sent for him once more and dealt with him as before, treating him most cruelly. But at the end of five or six interviews the man was always the same, and the qazi reported the case to Shah 'Alam, Bahadur. The prince informed the king, and Aurangzeb answered, as a strict Mahomedan, that they must endeavour in every way possible to make the man recant. Let them give him women, horses, and liberal pay, and see if in this method they could overcome him. But if he remained obstinate in his opinion, he was to be publicly beheaded.
Verily Shah 'Alam, Bahadur, did his best to overcome the resolve of the holy man. But he had already felt within his heart the effects of grace, and rejected wealth and promises. He spoke ill of Muhammad, and declared clearly in the Moors' tongue, which he could speak sufficiently well, that there was no other true religion but our Christian faith. The qazi sent for a Portuguese renegade named Antonio Fernandez to catechize the man in Portuguese. He was known as a good talker, and it was thought that in the maternal tongue he could easily persuade the other man.
But the holy man, speaking with inspiration from God, told him at last [122] to withdraw, since he (Fernandez) did not wish to listen to the truth. Thus the story comes to an end by the public beheadal of that holy man. If he caused some scandal by his evil life and his apostasy, he gave equal edification by confessing the truth, weeping over his sins, and dying for love of Christ. By this event the Christians were edified, and the Mahomedans and renegades confounded. His body was cast upon a dunghill, and a year afterwards the Portuguese managed to get the bones carried to Goa, the Christians having concealed their intention of burying them until the opportunity arose of which I speak. God avails Himself many times of men's sins to exalt them, and to show that, although to some it may appear that He has forsaken them, He may yet save us as long as we are still alive. He can make the greatest saints out of the greatest sinners.