SX 

Massacres 

and the Catholic 

Missionaries 

Adana 

Society for the Propagation 
of the Faith, 

627 Lexington Ave., 
New York City 



• 



A & I 0 2 . H 

THE ADANA MASSACRES 
AND THE CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES 





T H E 

ADANA M A S S A C R E S 
J\-phi t_ ' 

AND T H E 

Catholic Missionaries 

ACCOUNT OF EYE-WITNESSES 

Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring' 

the needy and the harbourless into thy 

house: when thou shalt see one nakedr 
cover him, and despise not thy own 

flesh. 

(Isa. lviii. 7.) 

P R E S S OF T H È 

S O C I E T Y FOR T H E P R O P A G A T I O N OF T H É F A I T H , 

6 2 7 L E X I N G T O N A V E . , N E W Y O R K C I T Y . 

/ f'o 





PREFACE 

Some may be surprised perhaps at our making a new appeal 
to their chanty on behalf of the victims of Adana. It is 
now almost a year since those heart-rending events took place. 
Since then, generous assistance has come from different parts of 
the world, and we now thank, in the name of the Armenian 
population of Cilicia, those who, by their alms, have kept these 
poor people from starving. 

However, the town of Adana is not wne of those powerful 
cities,—such as we have seen in recent years—that can rise again 
promptly and unaided after a cataclysm. The inhabitants of the 
town and of the surrounding district have been completely ruined. 
The care taken by the assailants to bum after having pillaged and 
massacred (statistics show that at Adana 1,075 houses or shops 
have been burned: in the whole district 4,823), the fact of their 
having killed nearly all the able-bodied men, has caused the direst 
misery amongst a numerous population composed of women,, 
children, and decrepit old men. How are these poor unfortunate 
people to build up their ruins, or find means of earning their 
subsistence? They have no money, there is no work for them, 
misery stares them in the face. 

Up to the present, they have been kept alive by chanty. 
During the fine weather their needs were few, they slept in tents, 
in wooden huts, or even under the shelter of trees. Then winter 
came with its heavy rains and its long nights, that are cold even 
in Cilicia. A few houses, it is true, had been repaired, but by far 
the greater part were just as the fire had left them. 



Here is a description of the winter at A dana ; it was written 
by one of the Jesuit missionaries: " The bad weather and 
the cold have set in. From Jhe whole countryside poor, ruined, 
decimated families are coming into Adana, which has only its 
blackened ruins in which to receive them. The sight of these 
poor people huddled together in squalid holes is touching. In 
a courtyard of not twenty square yards I counted sixty persons. 
There they were on the bare ground, they had not even one of 
those mats that used to be found even in the poorest houses. 
Their roof was a dilapidated terrace, through which the rain 
passed as through a sieve. Poor things, they would be better 
off in an open field, there at least they would not have any mouldy 
walls, and the air they breathed would be purer. In the districts 
ravaged by the fire you see crouching shadows under a low and 
blackened roof, so low that it escaped the fire: there throughout the 
cold days of winter they shiver, and wait for the fine weather to 
come back again." 

We must remember, too, that Adana is not the only town that 
has been devastated; in Tarsous, Hamidie, Osmanie, Hadjin, Sis, 
Baghtche, Durt Yol, famine is raging. The whole district of 
Djebeli Bereket is in sore straits too. 

It is in behalf of the works of charity established by the 
Catholic Missionaries, that we now appeal to the generosity of 
American Catholics. In the general summary which precedes the 
recital of the massacres, will be found a detailed account of the 
Catholic charitable works at A dana. 

JOSEPH F R E R I , 

Director General, 
Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 



Meaning of some of the Turkish words used in this 

narrative. 

VALI ': G o v e r n o r . 

ICONAK : Palace of the Governor, and seat of the municipality. 
IMAM: Mussulman priest. 
REDIF : Soldiers of the Reserve. 
BACHI-BOUZOUKS : (literally, bad heads) a body of Turkish irregular 

soldiery, raised in case of national peril. 
FELLAH : a p e a s a n t . 

•GIAOUR : infidel; an expression of great contempt when applied 
to Christians. 





GENERAL SUMMARY OF 
THE MASSACRES. 

THE LOSSES AND NEEDS. 

IT was in the town of A d a n a that the massacres were 
carried out with the greatest violence. T h e following is 
the number of Christians killed by the Mussulmans, accord-
ing to the official statistics published in the Stamboul, 
August 13th. It is impossible to have the exact number. 
However , our list shows fairly accurately the proportion 
of the losses sustained by the different elements of the 
population. 

Women. Men. Total. 

Armenians (Gregorians) 226 1545 1771 

3 ' V jo 173 „ (Catholics) 
„ (Protestants) 

Greeks 
Chaldeans 
Syrians (Catholics) . 

I 32 33 
7 I 2 6 133 

4 5 8 6 2 

39 379 4 l 8 

11 138 149 

„ (Schismatics) 

T o t a l (Armenians) . 240 1853 2093 
51 595 646 ,, (Other Christians) 

291 2448 2739 



— IO 

O U T S I D E OF A D A N A . — I n t h e p l a i n o f A d a n a , s e v e r a l 

-thousands were killed in the farms and vi l lages; the exact 
number is not known, but in some villages on the road from 
Adana to Missis, Father Rigal , S.J., counted about 3,000 
"victims. 

A t Missis, 1,600 (Report of Father Rigal, S.J.) 
A t Osmanie, 570 ,, ,, 
A t Hamidie, 1,100 „ „ 
In the region of Djebel i Bereket, in a group of ten 

villages visited by this Father, he counted 926 victims, 
almost all fathers of families (for details of this Report 
of Father Rigal , see last chapter). 

A t Tarsous and neighbourhood, 700. (Report of Father 
Jerome, Capuchin, see Les Missions Catholiques, M a y 28,1909.) 

A t Antioch, in the town alone, not counting the 
surrounding district, 300. (Report of Father Celestine, 
Capuchin, Missions Catholiques, June 11, 1909.) 

A t Kassab, in the mountains to the south of Antioch, 
130. (Report of Father Sabatino, O . M . , Missions 
Catholiques, August 6, 1909.) 

T o all these must be added the number of victims, not 
yet known, who were killed at Sis, at Hadj in , in the 
province of Kozan, at Durt Y o l (near Pajas) , and in a great 
number of villages. 

F o r the whole region the number 20,000 killed is a 
minimum according to the Jesuit missionaries of Adana. 
A secretary of the Bible House of Constantinople wrote : 
• " T h e number of killed in the Provinces of Adana and 
Aleppo can be given only approximately: 20,000 is the 
number ordinarily admitted." A person of note coming 
from A d a n a wrote in the Journal de Salonique, " 20,000 lives 
were sacrificed by the fault of the Vali , D j e v a d B e y , of the 
Commandant , Moustapha Remzi Pacha, of the Mutessarrif 



WsJII —Si 

•of Djebeli Bereket, and of three or four others." (Stamboul, 

August 5th). 

T h e Armenian member, Babikian Effendi, a member of 
the Commission of Enquiry sent to A d a n a by the Turkish 
Government, estimates the losses of the Christians at 21,000 
killed. (In the Chamber of Deputies, Constantinople, 
J u l y 26th.) 

O f this number, the m a j o r i t y — a t least t h r e e - q u a r t e r s ^ 
were men. T h e assailants knew that by killing the fathers 
-of families, " the bread-winners," the rest of the population 
would be reduced to famine and exterminated. 

Slaughter w a s everywhere accompanied by fire and 
pillage. In Adana 1,075 houses were burned. Those that 
•escaped the fire were pillaged, so that nothing is left of 
them but the- four bare walls. A l l the public buildings of 
the Christians have been burnt. 

F o r the Catholic missionaries—the church, residence, 
college, day-school of the Jesuits. T h e chapel, boarding-
school, day-school, dispensary of the Sisters of St . Joseph. 

F o r thè Catholic Armenians—the Cathedral, Bishop's 
palace, presbytery, boys' school, girls' school. 

F o r the Catholic Chaldeans, church and presbytery. 
F o r the non-Cathol ics—a church and two colleges 

belonging to the Gregorian Armenians ; the church of the 
S y r i a n Schismatics ; the Protestant church. 

In the plain of Adana it is said that 300 farms belonging 
to Christians have been destroyed (some of them were 
so considerable that they had over 100 workmen 
employed). 

In the whole region it has been calculated that 4,823 

houses have been burned, as well as many churches, 

schools, and other public edifices. 



— 12 -3a 

A f t e r the massacres from 12,000 to 15,000 people with 
nothing to eat and without house or home were camped in 
the immediate neighbourhood of Adana. More than 20,000 
others are scattered through^ the district in the deepest 
misery. 

In the month of August (see La Turquie, August 16th), 
there were still around Baghtche 800 families without houses 
forced to live in the open air. 

Around D u r t Y o l goo families without houses forced to 
live in the open air. 

Around Kassab 1,000 families without houses forced t o 
live in the open air. 

In the K o z a n 400 families without houses forced to l ive 
in the open air. 

It is impossible to estimate exactly the value of the 
material losses of the Armenians. In the very beginning 
an eye-witness of what happened at Adana, and only during 
the first part of the massacres estimated the losses at more than 
$5,000,000. (" U n ancien Diplomate," in La Nouvelle Revue, 
July if 1909.) A f t e r w a r d s , when the full extent of the 
disaster was known, it was said that the losses amounted to 
$25,000,000, or $30,000,000. T h e s e evaluations, or rather 
guesses, are, we think, inferior to the reality. W e have 
only to consider that in these Provinces, once so fertile, the 
commerce, industry, and agriculture of the Armenians are 
destroyed for years to come. Most of the families that 
were formerly rich are now in misery, and many of them 
have to beg their bread. W h a t is the indemnity of 
200,000 Turkish pounds (about $900,000) voted by the 
Parliament, in comparison to these losses ? A n d we must 
not forget that up to the present only a small part of that 
aid has been distributed, and also-—as often happens in 
T u r k e y — t h a t a large part of these official bounties wil l 



— 13 — 

never come into the hands of those for w h o m they were 

meant. 

In the beginning of winter, another sad accident has 
brought new distress to the poor Armenian inhabitants of 
A d a n a . T h e N o v e m b e r rains, which were exceptionally 
heavy this year, caused the river to overflow, and a con-
siderable part of the town w a s flooded. A b o u t 500 houses 
have been wrecked. A l t h o u g h this disaster afflicts Moslems 
a s wel l as Christians, still the latter, on account of their 
miserable situation, suffer more. M a n y a poor family is 
deprived of the shelter which it had procured only with the 
greatest difficulty. 

* 

T h e missionaries, Protestants as well as Catholics, have 
shown the greatest charity and self-sacrifice in aiding these 
poor people. B y them the refugees were taken in and 
saved from the massacres. Clothes, provisions, alms, are 
distributed, dispensaries and hospitals have been established. 
Special praise is due to the Relief Committee founded by 
the British Consul, M a j o r D o u g h t y W y l i e , and the 
American Protestant mission of Adana. N o r can I pass 
over in silence the heroic charity of the Catholic mission-
aries scattered here and there in these districts, the 
Trappists and Lazar is ts at Akbes , the Capuchins at Tarsous, 
Antioch, K o r d e b e k — a t the mouth of the Orontes—the 
Franciscans at Alexandretta and Kassab, the Carmelite 
Fathers at Alexandretta and Beilan, &c. 

W e will be pardoned, however, if in this booklet w e call 
attention especially to the Jesuit mission at Adana. It was 
in this town and in the immediate neighbourhood that the 
ravages caused by the massacres were most severely felt, 
and the missionaries there have more suffering to relieve 
than elsewhere. Although the Relief Committee has its 



head-quarters at A d a n a and distributes its aid to all, w h e t h e r 

Protestants or not, with real impartial i ty , still, even y e t r 
and especial ly in winter, the sufferings of the inhabitants 

are great. T h e y wi l l last for years ! 

T h e n again, even though the unfortunate of w h a t e v e r 

creed they be, receive assistance f r o m the C o m m i t t e e 

individual ly , still establ ishments that are professedly 

religious cannot receive anything . T h e churches, presby-

teries, and schools of Cathol ics can be rebuilt only b y the 

a lms of Cathol ics . 

F ina l ly , even if w e consider the aid g i v e n to individuals , 

is it not the duty of the Cathol ic C h u r c h not to leave to-

other creeds the monopoly of the exercise of charity > 

S u c h is the persuasion of the missionaries of A d a n a , and 

this is w h y they wére anxious to establish their charitable-

institutions too. 

Immediate ly af ter the massacres they began to distribute 

provisions ; they opened a dispensary and a hospital. T h e 

aid t h e y distributed to all alike, to schismatics as wel l a s 

to Cathol ics , has, wi th the grace of G o d , produced a 

salutary effect. In gaining their hearts they enlightened 

their minds, and m a n y are the G r e g o r i a n Armenians who,, 

at the moment of their death, instead of the absolution of 

their derders, asked to h a v e that of the Cathol ic priest. 

T h e n the missionaries turned their thoughts to t h e 

establ ishment of churches and schools. T h e s e poor 

affl icted people, a lmost in despair, needed a church w h e r e 

they could come and pray in the presence of the D i v i n e 

M a s t e r ; these crowds of unoccupied children, w h o s e thoughts 

were concentrated on their misfortunes, needed a school as-

the only means of distracting them f r o m their sad reflec-

tions and teaching them the lessons of the Gospel . 

A s soon as they could, the missionaries improvised 



— 15 — 

within the ruined walls of the late flourishing colleges,, 
temporary chapels and schools. These latter were able to 
be opened for girls in October, in November for boys. 

A t the same time they devoted their attention to those 
who were left orphans. T h e y began with about on& 
hundred. Soon they had many more, and according a s 
their means allow it they will enlarge the orphanage. 

Actual ly the most pressing needs', besides that of extend-
ing the orphanage, are the reconstruction of houses and the 
founding of beds at the hospital. 

T h e following detai ls—taken from a letter of one of the 
missionaries—show the sum thought necessary for the 
continuation of these different good works. T h e sum will 
certainly appear very small when compared to the expenses 
necessary for similar undertakings in America, but it is-
enormous if compared to the actual resources of the 
Catholic Mission in Adana. 

THE ORPHANAGE.—-The cost of the keep and clothing of 
an orphan child in Adana has been carefully calculated, 
and the missionaries consider 150 frs. ($30) as adequate 
to cover this expense for a twelvemonth. T h e person 
who gives ten times this sum assures the keep and 
education of a child during ten years, thus enabling that 
child to arrive at an age when he will be able to earn his-
bread. 

T H E E C O N O M I C C O T T A G E S . — T h i s w o r k t o b e e f f e c t i v e -

must be undertaken at once, as the wet and cold weather 
has come. T h e cost of one of these cottages has been 
carefully considered, and is estimated at 700 frs. ($140) for 
an average family, i.e., one composed of five persons. TO 
furnish the cottage; five mattresses and. five blankets are= 



— 16 — 

necessary; that is enough for the five persons, and they want 

no other article of furniture. A mattress and a blanket cost 

about 25 frs. ($5). Therefore the furnished house would 

c o m e to 825 frs. ($165). 

" I t would be a good thing to add some kitchen utensils 
and tools; a carpenter or a boot-maker cannot do much 
without tools, neither can a dress-maker if she has no 
scissors nor sewing-machine. Such presents as these are 
what is best and most needed: they enable the workman to 
earn his subsistence." 

T h e missionary adds: " T o the benefactor who founds 
a n economic cottage and who expresses the wish, we shall 
be happy to send a photograph of the house built by his 
liberality, and also one of the family who lives in i t ." 

THE HosPiTALB-Founded at the time of the massacres, 
the hospital responds to a perpetual need of the Christian 
population of Adana. U p to the present it has been 
kept going from day to day, thanks to the gi f ts made to the 
missionaries. T h e universal desire of the inhabitants of 
Adana is that it should be founded permanently. T h e 
keeping of a hospital demands considerable resources. 
It has been calculated however, that for the permanent 
foundation of a bed about 10,000 frs. ($2,000) would be 
sufficient. 

" W e are praying that G o d may inspire to some generous 
and compassionate souls the foundation or the semi-founda-
tion of one of these beds for $2,000 or $1,000. T h e name 
and the intention of the founder will be written at the head 
of each of these beds." 

W h o is there that in reading the demands of the 
missionaries does not feel himself impelled to aid in the 
education of an orphan, in the support of a family, in 
assuring in a permanent w a y , devoted care to a sick' person, 



— 17 — 

•especially since all these good works can be accomplished 
a t a relatively small cost in Adana ? 

W e know that there are not very many Catholics 
possessing sufficient means of accomplishing this aspiration 
of their hearts as generously as they might desire. T h o s e 
a m o n g s t them who are able to do so, have other needs to 
supply , and are ever responding nobly and generously to 
the many and daily appeals made to them. 

W e hope, however, that our appeal in favour of this 
abandoned and unfortunate people will not be made in 
vain. 

A l m s for this most worthy charity may be addressed 
to the 

R I G H T R E V . M G R . J O S E P H F R E R ^ 

Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 
627, Lex ington Avenue, 

N e w Y o r k City . 
T h e y will be grateful ly received, and acknowledged, and 
promptly forwarded. 

JB 



H ü — 



THE ADANA MASSACRES 
and the Catholic Missionaries 

A C C O U N T O F E Y E - W I T N E S S E S . 

" POOR, unfortunate A r m e n i a ! " were the words of th& 
late Ambassador of France on his return from Constanti-
nople ; " poor, unfortunate A r m e n i a ! Everywhere , at a date 
apparently fixed in advance, and at some mysterious word 
of command, fanaticism flares out, and Christian blood is-
spilt. . . ." 

T h i s time the blood of Christians has only reddened the 
soil in the country districts around the Gul f of Alexandretta 
and on the slopes of the mountains of Antioch. B u t 
although the massacres in April of this year were not so-
general as those of 1895, they were more horrible and more 
barbarous. 

M . Roque-Ferrier, the French Consul in Aleppo, w h o 
visited all the places affected between Aleppo and Adana,. 
s a y s : 

" I n 1895, at Erzeroum, where I w a s Vice-Consul at the 
time, I thought I had seen everything that was to be seen 
in the w a y of atrocities; what I have seen this time is even-
worse." 



•— 20 

Except for some coast towns, all the region. between 
T a r s o u s and Antioch has been devastated. B u t the district 
m o s t affected has undoubtedly been Adana and its 
surroundings. 

A D A N A . — T H E RESIDENCE OP THE JESUITS DESTROYED BY FIRE 

APRIL 26TH. 

In the distance the town of Adana with the Sisters' Boarding-School on the right. 

Adana, the capital of Cilicia, had 70,000 inhabitants, of 
"whom 30,000 were Armenians; it was situated in the 
•centre of a plain of unusual fertility, in the midst of wheat 
and cotton-fields; " t h e one prosperous spot in the Turkish 
Empire , " as an Engl ish Government official. of high 
standing in Constantinople said not long ago. 



Adana was prosperous; it was industrial, as well as-
agricultural ; it was shortly to be linked to the Constanti-
nople-Bagdad railway line, and its future seemed assured. 

To-day , Adana, practically and commercially speaking,, 
no longer exists. It will take many years to return to its-
former prosperity. 

T h e Catholic missionaries had established in Adana two 
great educational centres. T h e one, the Residence and 
College of St . Paul , received 500 pupils, and was in the 
hands of the Jesuit Fathers, seconded by four M a r i s ! 
Brothers. 

T h e other establishment, called " Notre D a m e de 
Bethanie," was under the management of twenty-five 
Sisters of St. Joseph, of L y o n s ; 600 children were educated 
m the school, and besides, there was also a small orphanage,, 
a dispensary, and the beginnings of a hospital. 

E v e r y t h i n g has now been burnt to the ground, a n d 
entirely destroyed. 



I. THE FIRST MASSACRES 

14 - 17 April 

T h e Ottoman Constitution was granted in July, 1908, but 
af ter the rejoicings and protestations of brotherhood and 
good fellowship, the ancient animosities between T u r k s and 
Armenians had soon reappeared. During all the winter in 
Adana, relations remained Very strained, hatred gathered 
upon hatred, and the missioners began to fear the worst. 

It is said that on Good Fr iday, in a quarrel, two or three 
Moslems having brutally illtreated a young Armenian of 
fifteen, the latter, in desperation, fired his revolver at his 
aggressors; one of these died almost at once, another some 
days later. T h e excitement and resentment amongst the 
Moslems was great, and the Governor vainly sought to lay 
hands on the young Armenian, w h o had fled. 

A t the funeral of the Moslems, the imams made violent 
speeches against the Armenians, and the result seems to 
have been that in twenty-four hours two Armenians had 
been killed. 

" On Easter T u e s d a y , " writes Father Benoit, S.J., " our 
four Marist Brothers, taking their usual walk together, 
noticed an unusual animation in the Turkish quarter of 
the town. T h e streets seemed to be invaded by a crowd of 
Musulmen who had come in from the surrounding country ; 

(') W e do not give the causes of the massacre, they are apparent to all. 



H 2 3 WKs 
a l l wore a white turban, whereas, as a rule, the Moslems, 
a s well as Christians, wear the ' fez, ' or the ' tarbouch ' of 
the A r a b s . " 

These countrymen all carried rifles, scimitars, or 

weapons of some kind. 

Dur ing that night, numerous patrols passed through 

t h e streets of A d a n a ; no one thought of going to bed. 

T h e fol lowing day, from early morn, the T u r k s 
assembled in their mosques. It was reported to the 
missionaries that a third Armenian had been killed, and 
t h a t in the countryside murder and arson were rampant. 
T h e Christians in Adana were now thoroughly frightened, 
a n d did not dare to go out or to open their shops. 

Seeing, or hearing this, the V a l i (Governor), called to 
his konak some of the Armenian notables, including the 
Cathol ic Bishop, Mgr. T e r z i a n ; the V a l i reassured t h e m ; 
begged them to calm their excited countrymen. S o as to 
rstill further tranquillize the crowd, the V a l i himself went 
•down into the streets, accompanied by the officer in 
command of the troops. It took a long time to get the 
shops opened that morning; some of -t-heArmenians seemed 
suspicious and anxious up to the teit-Pinoment, and they 
•opened the shutters very, very s lowly. 

It was a hot, stifling morning. 

T h e clock tower in A d a n a shows Turkish time. It had 
j u s t struck four (about eleven o'clock in the morning, 
European time). 

Suddenly the sound of firing w a s heard coming from 
the market-place. A n instant's pause, then firing was 
a g a i n heard, this time in every direction. There was now 



— 24 — 

a terrible and long-sustained shout: " D e a t h to the giaours.r 
Death to the giaours ! ' ' 

O f the first moments of the panic several facts are-
recorded. A T u r k suddenly attacked a rich Armenian, 
Mr. D a v i d Ourfalian, who had just left the Val i ' s palace • 
stabbing him to the heart, the T u r k shouted : " In the n a m e 
of the Great God, we will begin with thee." 

A man on horseback w a s shot down and his b o d y . 
thrown into the river. Several Armenians were killed in 
the courtyard of the Governor 's palace. 

A t the residence of the Jesuit Fathers, the R e v . F a t h e r 
. Superior,, Père Jouve, was absent; he had gone down t o 

Mersina the previous evening to bring back ten or t w e l v e 
boarders, who were returning after the holidays. 

Hurriedly, whilst the two Jesuit Fathers, Pères R i g a l 
and Tabet , with the Marist Brothers, started to organize 
some kind of an attempt to defend the College of St . P a u l 
against the excesses of a mob, the two other missionaries, 
Fathers Benoit .¿ind Sabatier, went over to the Sisters o f 
St . Joseph to re^sspre them and to stand by them in c a s e 
of danger. Upon arrival at the Sisters' school, the priests-
found a multitude of terror-stricken Armenians who had 
already crowded into the buildings. 

" A s soon as the massacres commenced," writes S i s ter 
Marie-Sophie, " several of our nuns fell on their knees r i 

their arms crossed upon their breasts, invoking the M o s t 
High, and offering themselves to His most holy W i l l . T h e 
Mother. Superior said to us : « G o ! open the doors to all 
who wish to come in.' F i v e minutes later, and our h o u s e 
was filled; our neighbours came in from all sides. A 
woman fainted in the arms of Sister Marie Antoinette ; t h e 
firing in the streets around us increased; we saw m e n 
falling right and le f t . " 



— 25 — 

F r o m the windows of the convent dormitories fugit ives 
could be seen rushing along the streets; children w e r e 
observed to run straight against walls and to fall, their 
faces bathed in blood. Bachi -Bouzouks were seen, in parties 

A D A N A . — S C H O O L AND CHAPEL OF THE 

SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF LYONS, 

BURNT ON THE 2ND OF MAY. 

T o the right, chapel where the fire started. 
On the top floor, dormitories from which the 
course of the massacres was observed. 

of thirty and forty, and it was noticed that they fired low 
at the fugitives to hit them in the legs and bring them, 
to a stop ; perhaps with the intention of torturing them 
later. 

Bullets were now humming around the school-buildings; 
the window shutters were closed, and the fugit ives were in 



— 26 — 

s. state of indescribable panic. T h e y were crowded and 
huddled together in groups all over the buildings. 

T h e firing continued the whole of this afternoon, with 
a. lull of some minutes now and again. T h e noise of doors 
being broken open could be distinctly heard ; also a terrific 
hanging, which was most likely the efforts being made to 
hurst open safes ; one could hear the clatter of furniture 
being thrown out into the streets, and above all the din, the 
wind brought to the ears of the listeners at the convent the 
long-sustained savage shouts and cries of the mob at their 
work. 

T h e pillaging was carried out methodically. T h e rabble 
seem to have used their hatchets to burst open the doors ; 
•everyone inside was killed ; cries of despair were distinctly 
heard. 

T h e next thing that w a s done was to take everything of 
any value, furniture, linen, and divers objects, and to throw 
them into a cart waiting in the street, the house was then 
•drenched with petroleum, by means of a hand-pump, 
a n d set on fire, the rabble then passing on to the next 
house. 

Moslem women were seen to run along with the rabble ; 
they carried armfuls of loot, and their strident cries, " h i ! 
hi ! " were particularly noticed. 

A l l the B a z a a r w a s thus given up to pillage, from the 
•" B o n Marché " up to the neighbourhood of the clock-
tower. 

A t the College of St . P a u l the crowd of refugees w a s 
•equally great. 

" A t the first sound of firing," writes Father Rigal , 
8 there was a rush for the shelter of our buildings ; a 
struggl ing mass of terrified humanity came in upon us 
f r o m all sides, from the high terraces of the surrounding 



— 27 — 

houses, as also from the streets, as all doors were open 
wide to receive any one w h o came." 

B u t in this part of the town, the Armenian quarter, as 
soon as the first moments of panic were passed, the defence 
o f the district w a s quickly organized. Smal l troops of 
y o u n g Armenians, well armed and ful ly resolved to die 
fighting, went down to the outskirts of the Armenian 
quarter to repulse the attack of the Musulmen. And, as 
a matter of fact, they were able to keep them at bay until 
the evening. 

In the obscurity of the evening the firing slackened, but 
i t was then that the houses were set on fire. It was the 
houses near the vineyards that were burning, and the part 
o f the city called Yeni Mahalld. T h e night w a s spent at 
the college watching in fear of an attack or of fire. Sleeping 
w a s out of the question in any case amidst the clamour 
and lamentations of some 5,000 or 6,000 refugees, w h o 
completely blocked every available space, including the 
priests' refectory, bedrooms, and studies. 

" T h e fol lowing day, Apri l 15th," writes Father Rigal , 
" the battle recommenced with the same fierceness, and 
the pillage also continued. M a n y wounded were now being 
brought in to us. . . . There were ten Armenian doctors 
amongst our refugees, and they did the best they could in 
the w a y of surgical operations with the aid of pocket-
knives and old scissors. W e had nothing in the shape of 
dressings for wounds at hand, and all the chemists' shops 
in our district were naturally ^closed." 



— 28 — 

Refugees continued to straggle in all through this day. 
Father Riga l himself went out into the streets to bring 
several of them into safety, and bullets frequently struck 
the pavement just in front of him. In the words of F a t h e r 
R i g a l : 

" There was now not a square foot free to move about 
in, in our house; extraordinary gymnastic feats' had to be 
resorted to, to get from one point of the house to another 
amidst this solid mass of suffering humanity, estimated at 
8,000 souls. 

" Several people assured me they had not been able to-
sit down for the last twenty-four hours. T h e church w a s 
full to overflowing, there was even a crowd on top of the 
high altar. It was at this moment, in the choir-stalls, that 
a faint cry was heard, and a tiny baby came into the world 
this day when so many thousands were so tragically on the 
road to Eternity. W h a t an entry into life for this baby 
child! 

| A n d a young girl had just died of fright, and we, being 
unable to bury her in the earth, had to carry her to the 
sacristy, to deposit her body on the sacristy table, and then 
to return to other more pressing duties." 

Being nearer to the Turkish quarter, the Sisters were, 
the more exposed to the attack of the Mohamedan mob. 
A t about four o'clock in the morning, Father Sabatier , 
wishing to see how near the danger had come, ascended the 
stairway leading to the terrace at the top of the school 
buildings. Scarcely had he opened the doorway when he 
w a s fired upon by someone in the watch-tower of an 
adjacent Turkish house. One bullet just grazed his head, 
the other wounded him in the side. Upon examination of 
the wound, an Armenian Protestant doctor who w a s 
amongst the refugees, declared that F a t h e r - S a b a t i e r had 



— 29 — 

had a very narrow escape; " It w a s a miracle," he said. 
T w o other doctors seem to have been equally impressed by 
the fact that Father Sabatier had had such a hair-breadth 
•escape. 

Seeing Father Sabatier's blood-stained hand, the Mother 
Superior and Père Benoit both exclaimed : " H o w fortunate 
y o u are to have already shed your blood ! " 

In the afternoon, H i s Britannic Majesty 's Consul, 
M a j o r D o u g h t y W y l i e , paid" a short visit to the convent. 

I N AS IA M I N O R . A T U R K I S H D E R V I S H (ON THE RIGHT) 

A N D COUNTRYMEN. 



— 3° 

H e had come up from Mersina upon the first rumours of 
trouble; he had acted with splendid gallantry, riding-
through the streets in the thick of the fight and trying t o 
assert his authority. A s he had been accompanied by 
a f e w Turkish soldiers from the Konak, the Bachi-Bouzouks-
were cowed in his presence. T h e Consul had received a 
bullet wound in his right arm, but shortly afterwards h e 
w a s again seen riding along with his arm in a sling. 

" Nothing will be done to y o u , " said the Consul, " as-
long as there is no firing from your house." 

T h i s precaution had already been taken by the Fathers , 
who had insisted on all fugit ives giving up their a r m s ; and 
these bad been piled away under lock and key, so that the 
Fathers could assert with absolute conviction that no shot 
had been fired from either of the Catholic establishments 
during the whole course of the massacres. 

T o w a r d s the evening, the arrival of the Redifs (the 
reservists) from Tarsous was reported, which news only 
increased the panic amongst the refugees. Of the latter 
there were now nearly 3,000 at " Bethanie," the convent, 
and amongst them were some of the wounded, whose open 
wounds added to the terror. 

T h e Sisters kept the people praying all the time. I t 
was edifying, but almost painful, to see all these people 
passionately invoking the intercession of the Sacred Heart 
and of the Ever-Blessed Virgin. 

T h e second night at the convent was still more dreadful 
than the first; an immense semi-circle of flame, more than 
half a mile in length, was slowly rolling up towards the 
school buildings, as if menacing utter destruction and 
annihilation. 

* * * 



— 3i — 

Friday, Apri l 16th. " A day of agony and fear , " writes-
Father Rigal . " N o news from our Consul ; no chance of 
reaching the Val i . T h e refugees are discouraged and 
down-hearted ; hunger is beginning to be felt ." 

W h a t Father Riga l does not write is that he himself 
again and again risked his own life during this day, going 
down into the streets under fire on one or another errand 
of mercy. 

S o far the Armenians who were defending the Armenian 
quarter had not fallen back an inch; they had barricaded 
the streets, and standing at their posts they had bravely 
held out against the fire of the Turks . B u t their ammunition 
was beginning to give out, and their physical powers o f 
resistance were likewise on the wane. T h e y had been two-
whole days and nights defending their positions. T h e 
firing became more intense; it was felt that a supreme 
effort was being made on both sides. If the Christians had 
given w a y , it was a case of extermination. There were 
more than 20,000 men, women, and children crowded 
together in the Armenian and Catholic churches, in the 
Protestant settlement, and in the two Catholic school 
buildings. A l l these thousands would have been an easy 
prey to the massacring, plundering, Mahometan rabble 
if once let loose upon them! There would have been n o 
safety in flight, the Christians being in the centre o f 
the town and the T u r k s holding and closing all t h e 
outlets! 

It was in the course of the previous night that t h e 
missionaries had sent an urgent letter of entreaty to the 
V a l i ; a friendly Moslem had* volunteered to take the letter 
himself, but so far there was no reply ( J ) ; the only news that 

(') Great thanks are due to this gallant Moslem; his house was-
burnt to the ground some days later, perhaps accidentally! It must 
be recorded that several Moslems protected Christian refugees, and 



— 32 —< . 

had come in was that some 10,000 fellahs (countrymen) had 
•made a raid on the ammunition-stores' at the K o n a k (the 
•Governor's Palace), and-had seized and carried off all the 

rifles. T h e French flag was now hoisted over both the 

Catholic settlements. 

one of the number, Osman Bey, placed his house at the disposal of 
some Armenians who were without shelter. 

Considering the undoubted racial animosities between Turks and 
Armenians, the conduct of these Moslems cannot be" too highly 
extolled. 

A PORTION OF THE SISTERS' ESTABLISHMENT AT ADANA. 

A t the right, the Boarding School destroyed by fire on the night of May 2nd. In the 
centre, the galleries in which the terrified Armenians sought refuge on April 14th 
and 25th. A t the left, the Orphanage and the Dispensary spared by the flames. 



33 — . 

T h e flames had now come to within a few yards of the 
Sisters ' school buildings: to leave would have meant 
being shot down by the Bachi-Bouzouks, to stay meant 
perishing in the flames. A n d now the refugees in the 
Sisters ' courtyard were under fire; in the chapel a bullet 
-came through the window, grazed a bench, and rebounded 
into the wood-work of the confessional. 

T h e Mother Superior, perfectly calm amidst the intense 
•excitement, now passed word to the nuns that they were to 
•change their linen and to put on their best Religious 
habits, those of great feast d a y s : " N o one knew what 
might happen," were her words. 

Death was now staring hard in the face of the crowd 
:at the convent. 

Suddenly Father Benoit, pale but calm, made a sign to 
•one of the Sisters. 

" Sister," he said, " the time has come; I am now about 
to consume the Sacred Elements. G o and see that the 
refugees are grouped around u s ; exhort them in Turkish to 
repent of all the sins of their past lives, and tell them that 
I will give a General Absolution." 

It was just about this time that the American Protestant 
•College, some thirty yards away, seems to have been 
•especially singled out for destruction. 

T h e wind had risen, and the flames were already close 
to the American building. Father Sabatier, . from his point 
o f observation in the upper storey of the convent, noticed 
that two Americans had come out on to the small terrace 
immediately in front of their school, and that they were 
vigorously engaged throwing pail-fulls of water on to 
the walls of the building, drenching them so as to render 
them better able to resist the heat of the flames 
•close by. 

c 



— 34 — 

Suddenly Father Sabatier noticed that the Amer icans 
were under fire. Instantly he shouted out to them in 
French, " L o o k out, my friends! Y o u are being fired a t ! ' r 

H e shouted in French and again in T u r k i s h ; but the 
Americans did not seem to hear, and went on with the-
utmost vigour with the work they had in hand. 

Father Sabatier was then called below, and he had 
scarcely been five minutes in the courtyard when a quick 
succession of shots was heard, as if a volley had been 
fired somewhere close to the American schools. ' . -. . A few 
seconds later and one of the doors of these schools w a s 
quickly opened, and several fugitives came rushing into the 
convent to give the news that two Americans had been 
shot! 

B u t now things were going from bad to worse at the-
convent; bullets were striking the inner walls of the court-
yard, ' where the thousands of refugees were crowded 
together. E v e r y time the walls were struck a cloud of 
dust was raised, and the smoke from the flames close by 
was settling down over the courtyard and blinding every-
one. 

T h e mob had broken into the houses opposite, and 
could be seen, hatchets in hand, bursting open the doors o f 
the dwelling rooms. 

It w a s at about this time that the nuns, all on their 
knees, with bowed • heads and arms crossed upon t h e i r 
breasts, led by their Mother Superior, recited nine times-
the Salve Regina in the same simple, calm manner as if it 
had been an ordinary day in the school term. 

It was now noticed that groups of Bachi-Bouzouks were-
s lowly coming up the street towards the house, very 
cautiously and stealthily taking cover against any possible^ 
surprise. Some of them seemed to be making -their way" 



m 35 — 

towards the American schools, others seemed bent on setting: 
fire to the convent. 

Father Sabatier, and also one of the Sisters, heard a 
short dialogue in Turkish in the street just under the 
windows at which they were watching : 

" L e i us burn this house also." 
" N o ! not this house ; this is the house where they g i v e 

remedies when we are i l l ." 
" It does not matter; let us burn i t—let us burn i t ." 

A certain number of the Bachi-Bouzouks made a. 
circuit of the convent and took up stations at the rear of 
the house. It can only be surmised that this w a s done so 
as to cut off the retreat of the refugees when driven out of 
the house by the flames, and to exterminate them with 
more certainty. 

Père Sabatier had made the bold suggestion to the 
Mother Superior that he would escort the Sisters and the 
orphans by some back streets to the College of St . Paul,. 
Père Benoit remaining at the convent with the refugees. 

T h e plan, though risky, seemed feasible at first, but as-
the building w a s being surrounded by the Bachi-Bouzouks-
the idea w a s given up. 

A l l human hope seemed past ; it was now a matter of 
minutes and all would be over. Father Benoit a second 
time gave a General Absolution in a loud, clear voice . 
Some of the refugees are hysterical, crying out loud ; others-
have fainted. 

T h e Sisters are perfectly quiet, calm and collected. 
" T h e Sacred Heart will save us ," says the M o t h e r 
Superior; " t h e Sacred Heart will save us," repeat t h e 
nuns. 

A l l eyes were fixed on the large entrance porch b y 
which the mob were expected to break in. T h e Mother 
Superior, quick as thought, called the nuns around her. 



— 36-

"Sis ters , those of you who wish to come to the post of 
honour, follow m e ! " and in a body, these twenty-f ive 
-women passed down through the awe-struck crowd of 
refugees, and took up their stand close to the doorway. 

A n d the crowd waited; a minute, perhaps two minutes, 
perhaps longer; a stillness seemed to have come over the 
•district. Suddenly there was a bugle-call, then another, 
•somewhat nearer, coming from the street. 

Then a knock at the porch. T h e Mother Superior, 
turning to Father Benoit, said: " Father, will you please 
•open the door." Father Benoit opened it and stepped 
-outside; the Mother Superior was for fol lowing : 

1 1 will show m y s e l f ; t h e y will respect the garb of a 
poor nun." 

T h e door was now opened, but there w a s no mob to be 
s e e n ; the Bachi-Bouzouks had fallen back, and were at 
the further end of the street. A small troop of regular 
-soldiers were coming up rapidly. T h e officer in command 
•dismounted at the d o o r w a y ; he had caught sight of the 
Mother Superior and the thin line of white faces. H e 

shook hands with the Fathers, the Mother Superior, then 
with several of the Sisters. 

In point of courteous demeanour, the Turkish officer 
has no superior. 

B u t a sergeant, close behind him, had seized Father 
Benoit somewhat roughly, and began searching him for 
arms. T h e soldiery crowded round—the pale, thin face of 
the man of God was seen as he towered head and shoulders 
a b o v e them. 

" Friends ! " he said, " these are my only arms," and he 
offered them his crucifix. 

" T h e s e are the only arms of a priest." Instinc-
t ively the sergeant and soldiers fell b a c k ; there was 
something in this man that compelled respect. 



— 37 — 

T h e officer left four of his men on duty at the d o o r w a y , 
giving them short, stern orders, saluted, and passed down 
the street. 

Father Sabatier, with the help of several volunteers, at 
once set himself to the task of getting the flames under in the 

adjacent houses, as 

started off with several 
soldiers, and Father 
Sabatier rejoined them 
a f e w minutes later. 

Together they passed: 
two mosques; T u r k s ful ly armed, were standing in crowds-
on the steps, and stared at the priests in astonishment. 

" C o m e ! a l l ' i s o v e r ! let there be p e a c e ! " called the. 
missionaries. 

Some of the leaders of the T u r k s came forward and 
shook hands with the missionaries, 
town, they came to the College of St. Paul 

ADANA AFTER THE MASSACRES. 

A street in ruins. The district in which the Sisters 
were established. 

A f t e r traversing t h è 



- 3« -

Father Rigal was absent ; He was in the streets, trying 
to allay the anger of the incensed Turkish element 
of the population. It w a s an act of great daring on 
Father Rigal 's part ; he had started out alone, in spite 
of the entreaties of the Marist Brothers, that at least 
one of them might be allowed to accompany him ; he 
said that by going quite alone he would be showing the 
T u r k s that the Christians sincerely wished for peace; 
Father Rigal 's object seems to have also been to reach the 
Konak, to beg the Val i for assistance. It is known that 
on his round he frequently extended his hand as a mark of 
friendship towards fierce-looking Moslems, ful ly armed, 
and who, instead of returning his advances, clutched eagerly 
a t their rifles ; he smiled kindly at men whose eyes glared 
-with hatred and murder; he often heard words that were 
menaces of death ; near the bridge, at one moment, several 
rifles were levelled at him, but then voices of protest were 
raised by other Moslems, and it is either here, or rather 
later, that a gallant young Turkish officer came forward 
•and shook hands with him, acting as his escort till the 
Konak w a s reached. 

Upon Father Benoit and Father Sabatier arriving at the 
•College of St . Paul , the 7,000 or 8,000. refugees there were 
worked up into a state of frenzy at the sight of the Turkish 
soldiers, and the two priests had an anxious moment at 
first, fearing for the safety of their escort. Father 
Sabatier remained in the college to calm the excitement, 
but Père Benoit pushed on in his walk alone, two soldiers 
.being with him, and a young man carrying a Turkish flag 
preceding him ; as a rule, he met with a friendly reception, 
but in one place, in the Turkish quarter, he was turned back , 
the Moslems barring the w a y threateningly and saying : 

N o ! no! no Giaour shall pass here," so he turned back. 



— 39 — 

I n the Christian part of the town all was dead silence ; the 
shops had been pillaged to the uttermost; the houses were 
w i d e open ; of doors and windows only fragments remained ; 
in the side-streets the fires continued ; corpses were lying 
about in pools of blood ; the number of corpses was very 
.great. T h e soldiers who accompanied Père Benoit, without 
consult ing him, led him to the Governor's P a l a c e ; in the 
forecourt some 1,200 T u r k s were assembled ; again, as this 
tall, haggard man in black passed through the crowd, every-
one near made w a y for him ; some called out : " the monk ! 
the monk ! " others, seeing the Turkish flag preceding him, 
a n d soldiers at his side, broke out into cheers. 

Père Benoit , went straight up to where the V a l i was 
standing, the general in command of the troops at his side ; 
h e thanked him for sending the soldiers to the relief of 
the Missions. T h e V a l i remained unmoved, and did not 
s a y a word ; the General bowed and said : 

" W e have only done our duty." 
In coming a w a y from the interview with the Vali , the 

soldiers and crowd of T u r k s again acclaimed Père Benoit, 
And several of the younger officers came up to him and 
shook handsj complimenting him. . .0._-

A n hour or so later the two Fathers met at the convent, 
a n d then, at last, the Father Superior, Père Jouve, appeared; 
the three men were so affected that they could hardly speak. 
P è r e j o u v e seemed to have had the worst time of the three; 
he was deadly pa le—he had completely lost his voice. H e 
had received the first news of the troubles as he was on his 
w a y to the station in Mersina with the pupils ; the officials 
a t the rai lway station in Mersina had warned him not to go 
up to Adana. L e a v i n g his pupils in safe custody, he had 
taken the first train, but on arrival at the station in Adana 
¡he was forcibly detained, as the T u r k s had barred all 



— 40 B 

communication with the centre of the town, and all his-
efforts to get through to one of the Catholic houses had 
been of no avail. H e had thus passed three days at the 
railway station in the most acute mental agony, not know-
ing what had happened or what had been the fate of t h e 
missionaries. 

In the evening there were still some houses on f ire; the 
night was calm, but there was still occasional firing from 
the minarets. 

T h e following day, Saturday, there was really a cessa-
tion of hostilities. F r o m the earliest hours of the morning,, 
long, open carts were seen passing down the streets,"and' 
the corpses were thrown in, probably including some o f 
those mortally wounded, but whose life was not yet extinct';, 
the carts were emptied into the waters of the river Seihoun 
that flows through the town. 

But , although there was no further slaughter in the town 
of Adana itself, it is not easy to determine when it ceased in 
the surrounding districts. ' A l l the farms of the Christians-
were pillaged, and there were 360 of these farms. O n the 
estate of Mgr. Terzian, the Catholic Bishop, 160 people 
were massacred and the bodies were thrown into the wells -r 
it was the same not only on the other farms, but also in the 
numerous country houses and vineyards belonging to the 
better-to-do Armenians in the neighbourhood of Adana. 

It was just the time of the harvest and of the weeding 
of the cotton fields, and for this work some 15,000 or 20,000-
Christian labourers were accustomed to come down into 
the district from different points of Anatolia, some from 
parts needing ten, twenty, or even thirty days for the-' 
journey. Although reliable statistics will probably never 
be available, it is certain that a very great number of these 



¡SgsM-1 — 

unfortunate people, many of them fathers of families, 
have perished. C a u g h t unawares in the open country or 
in the farm houses, these people were quite unprepared for 
an attack, a;nd had not the slightest chance of resistance. 

A N A R M E N I A N FAMILY OF COUNTRY-FOLK FROM 

THE' NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ADANA . 

It is owing to this custom of the migration of so m a n y 
field-labourers to A d a n a for the harvest, and to the number 
of victims amongst these men, that the effects of the 
massacres were so severely felt all over Anatolia. T h u s , 
all the Christian villages between Sivas and Cesarea suffered 
great losses. A t the vil lage of Tchepni some hundred men 
— a l m o s t all married and fathers of large famil ies—have 
disappeared. In the neighbouring village of Bourhan f o r t y 



— 42 — 

out of eighty have succumbed. F r o m the township of 
Guémérek 250 have not returned, and so on in the surround-
ing places. Great distress is the result. 

A pathetic incident is recorded at one of these places. 
Just about sunset a riderless mule came climbing slowly 
up the dusty hillside and stopped at the gate of a small 
cottage. A woman and two children came out and stared 
at the mule. T h e y stared for some t ime—then they under-
stood, and they went indoors. A n d it is amongst these 
•country folk that the massacres were particularly atrocious ; 
the marauding rabble, being quite free from all supervision 
and safe from any possible counter attack, indulged in 
«very kind of abomination, the very details of which make 
one shudder with horror. 



II. THE DAYS BETWEEN THE TWO MASSACRES 

1 7 - 2 5 April 

Seeing that there were to be two distinct and separate 
massacres, it may be said to have been providential that 
there w a s a clear interval of about a week between the t w o 
•events. In consequence of t h i s — w e may call it breathing 
space—it w a s possible to thoroughly examine into the 
effects and the results of the first massacre and to form 
general conclusions. 

W e are well aware that there are good people who 
believe it to be a mistake to give details of horrors and of 
atrocities. On our part, we think it is far worse to ignore 
such facts and to lead people to think that manslaughter 
and arson were the only misdeeds committed; the truth is 
that numbers of Armenians were done to death in the 
most fiendish manner. 

A high Engl ish official at Constantinople, referring to 
the well-known devilish brutality of the Kurds, made the 
remark: " It made one inclined to take one's sporting gun 
and to hunt the brutes down." 

T o us it would appear that if the whole of Christendom 
ful ly realized the facts of the atrocities committed, and 
were shocked out of its apathy by the enumeration of these 
atrocities, it would be far better for humanity at large, and 
there would then be some likelihood of definite steps being 



— 44 — 

taken to prevent such ghastly occurrences ever again being 
repeated. 

T h e number of wounded at the Residence w a s v e r y 
large; the wounded lay about on the ground on the 
roughest of canvas cloth and on old jute sacks. T w o or 
three doctors g a v e the first aid as far as possible; the 
Marist Brothers.washed the wounds and did the bandaging. 
Brother Marc refers to seeing an old man whose head 
showed numberless knife-wounds, and who had been beaten 
so fearfully that his legs were a mere shapeless mass, both 
knees being broken. Brother Marc also saw a girl of t w e l v e 
w h o had been stabbed right through her chest, and w h o 
died a few hours later. H e saw a baby of two or three 
that had had a blow from a hatchet cleaving its skull open,, 
and another baby that had several bayonet wounds in the 
abdomen ! 

A t the other end of the courtyard, Brother Louis Xavier 
was seen binding up the wounds of a baby of three in its-
mother's arms. It was horrible to notice how its tiny left 
arm was Govered with cutlass wounds; the bones w e r e 
broken at three different points, the hand pierced, and the 
tips of the fingers cut off. It was found to be necessary 
to amputate this arm, and as soon as this was done the 
baby child began to caress its mother with its remaining 
hand. T h o s e who saw this burst into tears. 

Brother Marc tells of another case he witnessed: a 
woman with so many wounds that the doctor did not seem 
to know where to begin. A bullet had entered by the 
shoulder and penetrated the lungs, both arms were mutilated,, 
head and legs showed traces of blows from a yatagan^ 
numerous bullet wounds had torn the flesh off the back. 
W h e n e v e r the doctor was about to pass to the next patient she 
kept on saying: " Y o u have still to do this—stil l to do that."' 



1 " 45 — 

Some Armenians were undoubtedly crucified on tables, 
door-posts, and window-frames. Y o u n g girls and mere 
children were not respected. T h o u g h facts of this nature 
are well-known, they cannot be put into print. B u t we 
repeat there is no doubt whatever that they occurred. 

And that Moslem women encouraged their sons to the 

slaughter of Christians is also 

il pensary, horrible wounds were 
j l i l l ^ ^ ^ H also in evidence. T h e place 

* ^ S j ^ ^ ^ H was crowded, and Sister 
Marie-Sophie, in a letter on f ^ f f y ** Hatchet and knife-wounds 

seem to have been the worst ; 
fingers, arms, and legs had 

I to be amputated in many 

be bandaged in five or six 
places. 

On the Monday following, 
the Sisters were as indefatig-
able as ever. T h e y began to 

organize a small ambulance, placing it under the protection 
o f Our L a d y of Fourviere. T h e house of the Armenian 
fami ly Chadrizian was placed at their disposal for this 
purpose, the family having decided to emigrate, as the 
father had been murdered in the Governor 's Palace at the 
beginning of the massacres. 

T o provide the necessary sustenance for their establish-
ment, full of sick and wounded, the Sisters then went 
through the streets begging from house to house, accom-

ADANA AFTER THE MASSACRES. 

A street leading to the former College of 
the Jesuit Fathers. 



— 46-

panied by t w o members of the Conference of St . V i n c e n t 

de Paul , and followed by two carriers carrying sacks. 

A man acting as a kind of crier went with them, and called 

out in Turkish, under the windows, in the courtyards, and 

even in the streets as they passed along: 

" M y brothers, my friends, help us as much as you c a n ; 

give us some old clothing or some l inen; g ive us a little 

rice, or some bourgoul (shelled corn), or some haricot beans "r • 

some old kitchen utensils; g ive us some onions; w e 

accept everything; it is for the first needs of the ambu-

lance which our Sisters have just opened." 

Sometimes a copper coin, four or eight metallics ( a 
halfpenny or a penny) would be thrown out of a w i n d o w 
and eagerly picked up. . 

Butchers and bakers generally gave something of their 

store, fruiterers gave salad and oranges. T h e Sisters w e n t 

into the 'cof fee houses also, much to the astonishment of 

the inmates. 

T h e y even risked going into the Moslem quarter, and 

the Val i , with a not unfriendly gesture, gave them two-

medjidis (about seven shillings). Several of the Turkish 

notables also gave small sums . . . for who has ever been 

able to resist the pleadings of Sisters of Mercy and of 

the P o o r ! 

* * * 

In the course of this week, several officers of the English, 
and French men-of-war lying off Mersina visited Adana. 

One of them, an officer of the Victor Hugo, in a long 

letter home, gives some of his impressions. W e give brief 

extracts: 



~~ 47 — 

" Mersina, Apri l 23rd. T h e Consul tells .us that the-
interior of the country is being put to fire and sword. . . . 
In going up by train , . . we notice the country has been 

well cultivated, but as we go along we see a farm that has-
been burnt down and pillaged, then another, and others in-
quick succession. 

" T h e desolation appears greater as we get nearer to-

COURT OF ONE OF THE SISTERS' SCHOOLS IN ARMENIA. 

The good Sisters teach Catechism, sewing, embroidery, and many things 
besides. 



m a 

Adana. . . . In every one of these farms, Armenians have 
"been put to death. . . . 

1 A crowd of Moslems comes around us, rather out of 
curiosity than anything else, as w e enter the main street of 
Adana. . . . A t every step we pass a shop that has been 
pi l laged—frequently only the safe is still to be seen, burst 
open, and lying amid the debris. W e went to the Mission, a 
large and fine-looking establishment in the heart of the town. 

" T h e Fathers receive us almost as their saviours, for 
until now they have not ceased to be anxious, in spite of 
the apparent pacification which has followed upon the three 
4 a y s of the massacres. Their house has been under fire. 
T h e y had 7,000 or 8,000 refugees at the time. . . . A Father 
"was wounded . . . it seems to have been a miracle that he 
-escaped death. ; . . 

" T h e missionaries conducted us to the community or 
the Sisters of St . Joseph. W h a t a spectacle ! T h e courts, 
parlours, and class-rooms full of Armenians, unkempt, lean, 
.and dejected . . . T h e day before yesterday there were still 
s o m e 3,000 of them. Yesterday and to-day many have 
been reassured and have gone h o m e ; those too frightened 
t o leave, and those without homes, have remained. . . . 
T h e women are lamenting their lot in a state of desolation ; 
the men are silent, and appear serene; children are playing 
about as if nothing had happened. 

" Agile, daintily clean, and smiling, the Sisters pass in 
.and out amidst this crowd; they seem astonishingly calm, 
and when they say that they were riot frightened, even at 
the worst moment, I quite believe them. . . . I can, how-
ever, see bullet traces on all sides; one of the dormitories 
was riddled through and through. . . . T h e rooms they 
take us in are clean and sweet, . . . how do they manage 
to look after everything—to give sustenance to so m a n y 
.refugees, and to keep them in such a state of cleanliness? 



S 49 — 

" W e are conducted to the inf irmary; an Armenian 
re fugee , something of a doctor, is dressing the wounds of 
an old Armenian woman, sitting in an armchair. She has 
•eight head wounds, some as large as one's finger. S h e 
has a foot cut off . . . and an arm hacked to pieces. 

H e r daughter had, it seems, been outraged and massacred 
under her eyes. . . . T h e poor mother had lost her 

reason. 

" W e go through a courtyard; women, mostly old 
w o m e n , fall down on their knees before us, and touch our 
uniforms as if they would act as a talisman against the 
T u r k s . T h e y are all crying, and entreating us to save 
them. Several seize hold of us as we pass, embrace our 

D 

T H E BAY OF M E R S I N A AT THE MOUTH OF- THE 

SE IHOUN R I V E R . T U R K I S H BOATMEN. 



~ 5° — 

feet, and kiss the very spot our feet have trodden. . . . T 
have never felt so unnerved in my life. . . . 

" Fr iday, Apri l 2 4 t h . — T h e river in which some 3,000-
corpses may have been thrown is beginning to carry them 
down into the B a y of Mersina. T h e corpses float about 
. . . in a state of decomposition . . . hideous. One of a 
little girl of five w a s noticed, another of a man, completely 
severed in two from the abdomen to the chin . . . arms-
and legs cut off." 

This ends the extracts we give of the long report of the-
French officer of the Victor Hugo. It is valuable corrobora-
tive testimony to the accounts of the missionaries and 
Sisters themselves, and would seem to us to give the lie-
direct to any one who suggests that atrocities were not 
committed. 



III. THE RENEWAL OF THE MASSACRES 

25 - 28 Apri l 

It is almost impossible to conceive how the second 
massacre originated, and w h y it occurred. 

A s the British, French, and other men-of-war were l y i n g 
at Mersina, and able to land 500 or more men at any 
moment, quite enough, in fact , to cope with any possible 
emergency, it seems to us that there must have been foul 
play somewhere, or that the situation must have been 
entirely misread and misunderstood by those in authority. 
Some day all will be known. 

W e now merely deal with the facts of the second 
massacres as w e know them. 

T h e massacres started afresh, and if possible even more: 
violent, more savage than before, and this time they led t o 
the complete destruction of all the Catholic Mission 
buildings. W e have again the testimony of eye-witnesses. 
Father Benoit writes, that in spite of promises of peace 
made by the Moslems, many Armenians begged us at both 
houses to keep them a little longer. " W e cannot trust the 
T u r k s , " they said, " they have so often deceived us . " 

I t is known that at about this time many Armenians 
who were anxious to leave Adana were detained, their 
houses were being searched, and any arms .found were 
confiscated. In the mosques, the Imams were exciting the 
populace to further acts of violence. 



— 52 — 

On Wednesday , Apri l 21st, the day of the arrival at 
Mersina of the three men-of-war, one Engl ish, one French, 

o n e German, the T u r k i s h newspaper, the Ittidal, had again 
indulged in menacing language respecting the Armenians. 
T h i s statement can be verified by reference to the news-
paper of that date. 

On the same day a Mussulman Commission called on 
the British Consul, begging him to prevent the landing of' 

-officers and men from the war vessels, as it would have a 
bad effect on the populace. 

T h e fact of this Mussulman Commission calling on the 
British Consul, is one that must not be lost sight of. T h e 

-one Consul who had at once, in a most gallant manner, 
personally intervened on the first massacres, was the one 
man to be hoodwinked if a second massacre was intended. 
W e do not affirm that this was the intention, but one cannot 
help feeling that it may have been, and the further course 

•of events has to be carefully considered in this con-
nection. 

*. * * 

It was the day after the French officers had left Adana, 
that the Moslems again took up their arms. Sister Marie-
Sophie writes, that from the Convent on Sunday evening, 
A p r i l 25th, firing was suddenly heard in the direction of the 
Armenian school. Father Benoit, at the College, was that 
S u n d a y afternoon about five o'clock conducting the service 
•of the Stations of the Cross. It w a s the eighth Station, 
Chr is t prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem. Suddenly 
here, also, firing was heard, and men came rushing in with 
•the w o r d s : " The soldiers are firing on us." 

A t both houses there w a s now again a panic-stricken 
c r o w d of Armenians rushing in at every opening, climbing 



' F A M I L Y AND TENT OF NOMADIC MOSLEMS. 

Brothers, and the Sisters, all trying to calm the frightened 
crowds, beside themselves with terror. W e may here: 
remark that for a foreign subject in T u r k e y to show 
personal courage in time of trouble is only natural, but for 
unprotected Armenian Christians in As ia Minor during the 
reign of Abdul Hamid to have been courageous, would 
have been nothing short of miraculous. T h e Sisters w e r e 

— 53 — 

over walls and balustrades, crushing and falling over one-
another. 

A n d so in a f e w moments the whole tragedy was being 
enacted over again, — the Jesuit Fathers, the Marist 



— 54 — 

often asked by the Armenians: " A r e you not a f r a i d ? " 
T h e i r acts were their answer. 

T h a t night incendiarism was begun again. T h e houses 
•of all the leading Armenians were the first to be set aflame. 
Near the Sisters the vast buildings of the Armenian schools 
were ablaze. T h e fire seems to have been extremely rapid 
in its progress in the Armenian quarter of the town called 
the N e w Bazaar . This quarter was the one that had been' 
so well defended during the first massacres, now it seems 
t o have been singled out for destruction: at least two 
hundred houses were burning, and half Adana was 
enveloped in smoke and flames. W h a t with the flames, 
the incessant firing, and the angry shouts, interspersed with 
shrieks, it seemed as if a vision from Hel l had come to 
strike terror into the hearts of the bravest. 

T h a t evening six of the Sisters had not returned to the 
•convent. T h e y had been down in the temporary hospital, 
-which could just be distinguished shrouded in heavy clouds 
of smoke. These six women were on their w a y to the 
•convent when a panic-stricken crowd of Armenians came 
rushing past t h e m ; some hundred yards behind came a 
troop of Bachi-Bouzouks, villainous ruffians indeed, for six 
poor nuns to meet with. " L e t us pass," said one of the 
Sisters, in Turkish, " w e are French." " F r e n c h or 
Armenian, it does not matter, you cannot pass," was the 
xeply of the leading Moslem. S o these six women went 
back to pass the night in the hospital, overcrowded as it 
already was by the latest influx of refugees. It was, 
however, fortunate for the sick and wounded that the 
Sisters had returned, for, after a short time, it was the 
Sisters who had to carry all their patients down into 
the courtyard, as the house was in danger of catching fire 
•every minute. Thus , the greater part of the night w a s 



passed in the courtyard. It was only in the morning that 
al l the inmates of the hospital could be conveyed to the 
Col lege close by. Father Rigal kept guard in the street, 
whilst the Marist Brothers took the sick and wounded, one 

by one, and carried 
them to the College. 

& JipiUSt f ? T C V , 1 Those who had taken 
i p W | l § I p refuge in the hospital 

p ' ^ B ^ g f c ' C < 'k^éj"- came also. T h e Sisters 
• were the last to leave 

K a i l I I " ' the hospital, and on 
;',**' ~ \ j, ' -5-J ' their arrival at the 

w r ^ 1 1 1 College, their only 

' 1 C ^ B request was that they 

^ ' ^ ^ ! b e a l l o w e d t 0 

r J w hospital buildings col-

I t a j S l t f - S ^ flames! T h e C o l l e g e 
| | fc " ^ j j ^ H y ^ i M also-... ; was gradually 

- 0 ' b^ésmiïîg encircled by 

to remain, so Père 
ARMENIAN ORPHANS . R iga l called one of 

the ruffianly - looking 
T u r k i s h carriers near at hand, and pointing to the Sisters, 
•said, " There, take these Sisters to the convent ; I entrust 
t h e m to your care." T h e man stared at the Sisters for a 
moment, then accepted and faithfully discharged his 
mission. It was more dead than alive, however, that the 
Sisters reached, their destination, for they had been quite 



— 56-

close to the flames all the t ime; several times rifles were-
levelled towards them as poor Armenians were seen hanging-
on to their skirts. Again and again " F ire on them," cried a 
Moslem to his companion. " H o w can I fire on the 
Giaours," said the other, " w i t h o u t hitting the French 
women ? " 

| In the meanwhile at the College a stubborn fight was-
being waged to keep the flames from the buildings, but the-
fire w a s getting the upper hand. T h e Marist, Brothers and 
some Armenians had gone out on the terraces to throw 
water on the flames, but the position was untenable, as-
Moslems from the minarets close by were firing at them. 
Several of the Armenians were wounded. N o w again it 
w a s Father Benoit who approached the altar and consumed 
the Sacred Elements and gave a last General Absolution to-
the Christians w h o thronged the church. There seemed to 
be no hope left. It is recorded that a Protestant doctor 
said to Father Benoit, " H o w is it, Father, that you seem 
so happy now at the hour of death ? " 

W h e n every thought of deliverance had been given up 
at the College, his Britannic Majesty 's Consul, M a j o r 
D o u g h t y W y l i e , appeared on the scene accompanied "by 
some twenty soldiers. Father Benoit writes: 

" T h i s admirable man comes riding down the street 
towards u s ; his right arm is in a s l ing; he holds the reins-
in his left hand. I am to be the privileged spokesman; I 
thank him on behalf of all for coming to our rescue.; he 
has saved thousands of Christian l ives." 

A n d two months later, Father Benoit, when in Constan-
tinople, still referred to the British Consul with something-
approaching veneration. " L o n g will the memory of this-
brave man live in the hearts of the poor suffering Christians-
of Adana, and of all those who were witnesses of his-



B 57 — 

heroism. His name will be ever mentioned with sentiments-
of gratitude, admiration, and love, for it recalls the memory 
of his charity and bravery. T h e very assassins of the: 
Christians themselves cannot deny their tribute of respect 
and esteem to the man who showed himself as brave a 
soldier as he is a perfect gentleman." 

T h e Consul 's words were short military commands v 
" Conduct all the refugees to the Governor 's P a l a c e ; the 
soldiers will accompany y o u . " 

T h e Consul then rode rapidly away to the convent. 

T h e refugees, however, began to hesitate, until Father 
Benoit , accompanied by the three Marist Brothers and 
Brother Balian, placed himself at the head of the procession,, 
and the crowd then followed, in a compact body, every one 
wishing to be as near to the priest and Brothers as possible. 

On arrival at the K o n a k all the men were searched f o r 
arms and then let go to take shelter for the night at t w o 
European spinning-mills, as best they might. T h e triumphal 
arch that, had been erected in the public gardens a year a g o 
in honour of the Constitution was brought to the ground 
and completely destroyed in the course of this afternoon. 

Father Benoit makes a special note that no sooner had 
the Armenians arrived than they were searched (roughly in 
some cases) and even their pocket-knives were taken f r o m 
them. T h e only thing said w a s : " Remain here ! " and this-
order was enforced against the French missionaries as-
well, who, during the day, were in reality prisoners of the 
Turks . 

" W h y keep all these poor people here ? " asked F a t h e r 
Benoit. 

" So that the Turkish soldiers have a free entrance to-
their houses," replied an officer ; " we shall inspect the 
houses, confiscate any arms we may find ; we shall seize and 
kill any Armenian rebels whom we may still find hiding." 



— 58-

Father Benoit also refers to the fact that bread and a 
little water was given them, and that it tasted delicious 
af ter the long, compulsory fast. 

* ' * 

T h e Jesuit Fathers and the Marist Brothers who 
remained in the College were still intent on making a final 
effort to save the building from the flames, but all was in 
vain, as the soldiers refused to help, and even stood in the 
way, obstructing the work. It is at about this time that 
the Marist Brother, Brother Antoine, accomplished a feat 
which shows how much one man can do in an emergency. 

Noticing that the Armenian Church of St. Stephen, in 
which there must have been 2,000 refugees, was becoming 
enveloped in the flames, he went up to a young Turkish 
officer, a young man of twenty-two and a former pupil 
a t the school of the Brothers at Kadikeuy, and said to 
h i m : 

" I n the name of humanity do not allow all these 
innocent people to perish." 

T h e officer consented, and calling on three soldiers to 
accompany them, he went to the church, walking hand-in-
hand with the Marist Brother, and succeeded in getting 
•everyone out of the building; not a soul was lost. A very 
short time afterwards the church was burnt to the ground. 

These refugees were also sent in batches to the Konak, 
accompanied by soldiers, and it appears nothing was done 
to molest them on the way. 

B u t the whole Armenian quarter w a s now at the - mercy 
-of any one disposed to pi l lage; some of the soldiers at the 
Jesuits' Residence certainly had ideas of loot, and they 
seemed anxious to see the Fathers leave the premises. 

T h e Fathers, seeing all hope of saving the buildings 



— 59 — 

completely lost, hurriedly collected the sacred vessels and 
vestments and any articles of particular value, and carried 
them as best they could to the convent as the safest place 
within reach. 

Scarcely had they arrived there when they noticed a 
thick, black column of smoke rising from the very spot they 
had just left . . . and thus in a f e w hours the chapel, 
college, Residence, library . . . and everything . . . the 
fruit of twenty-nine years of labours and privations, was 
lost and completely destroyed. 

A t the convent the danger of fire was also growing, so 
that as the evening came on, the Father Superior himself 
conducted the Sisters and the orphans first to the Konak, 
where some bread w a s given them, and then to the British 
Consulate, to the house of Mr. Trepani, where the night 
w a s passed. B u t as the Mother Superior could not resign 
herself to abandon her beloved convent, " B e t h a n y , " she 
insisted on returning there, and so Father Riga l went back 
to the house with her. 

T h e following day all the Religious were re-conducted 
to the convent by the second officer in command of the 
French vessel, the Victor Hugo ; this gallant officer himself 
c a m e to keep guard over the house, having obtained an 
escort of twenty-four soldiers from the Val i , and all night 
long he was on the watch, seeing everything was done 
properly. 

B u t the incendiarism had not ceased, and it was even 
during the stay of this French officer at the convent 
that the house of the dragoman of the French Consulate 
was burnt to the ground. T h i s dragoman had been most 
devoted in his services during the massacres. 

T h e fol lowing day, April 29th, the commander of the 
Victor Hugo sent word that the F a t h e r s and Sisters were to 



— 6o S 

leave A d a n a for Mersina, as " he could not answer for their 
s a f e t y . " 

L u c k i l y , the second officer did not take the order too 
literally, for to abandon the place entirely at this moment 
would have had a most deplorable effect on the native 
Christ ians; so the three Fathers , F a t h e r Jouve, the 
Superior, Father Benoit, and Father Sabatier remained 
with Brother B a l i a n j S.J., whereas the Marist Brothers 
and the Sisters,- escorted by Père Rigal , went down to 
Mersina. • 

T h e Sisters, however, were not long absent. T h e very 
next day, the 30th of April , two or three of them were back 
in thejr convent at A d a n a again, with some orphans. Most 
of the other Sisters came back soon after, as we shall see 
later on. 

* * # 

T h e massacres had in fact ceased ; the second officer 
had now to leave to rejoin his ship ; thè convent was thus 
left standing, guarded by the twenty-four soldiers ; it really 
looked as if this building, which had protected so m a n y 
thousands of unfortunate people, might yet be spared. 

B u t it was not to be so. O n M a y 2nd, towards mid-
night, Father Benoit woke up and noticed a dense column 
of smoke in one corner of the chapel ; quickly everyone 
w a s a w a k e n e d ; but the fire seemed to envelop the chapel 
in a very few minutes, and it was impossible to reach the 
altar to consume the Sacred Elements. Once more in the 
darkness the missionaries, taking on their shoulders the f e w 
things left to them, turned wearily to the street to seek a 
shelter ; a Greek khan w a s opened to them ; there they 
deposited all they possessed. 

B u t they were back again shortly, fighting the flames 



— 61 -—• 

to the last ; a young naval officer from the English man-of-
war who had reached Adana the night before, took charge 
of the operations, and though he and those under his orders 
did their very utmost, there was no stopping the flames, 
and at five o'clock a.m. all was over. 

T h e large school building of B e t h a n y was a mere 
blackened skeleton; the bakery and a small part of the 
orphanage building were all that remained standing, and 
also the statue of the Blessed Virgin in the courtyard, 
which as a Sister said, " seemed still to smile benignly in 
the midst of all the desolation." 

T H E BOARDING-SCHOOL OF THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 

AFTER THE F IRE . 



IV. THE RUINS 

It was now only from the ruins of the convent buildings, 
that the Fathers, having no personal cares to attend to, 
were able to realize the extent of the ruins of the whole 
city. T h e aspect of the once rich and populous city of 
A d a n a was almost terrifying ; it seemed to be the ruins of 
Pompeii over again, but still smouldering and slowly burn-
ing itself out in the basements of the houses. 

Father Jouve estimated the part of A d a n a that had been 
burnt at a square kilometre; thus nearly three-quarters of 
a square mile of buildings had become a prey to the 
flames. 

B u t the missionaries were now totally destitute. F a t h e r 
Riga l writes: 

" W e have only the clothes we had on on the day of 
the fire, and the breviaries which we each of us carried 
in our pockets." 

" I have lost everything," are Father Benoit 's w o r d s ; 
" m y sermons, my conferences, my retreats, my manuscript 
work on the Greek schism, the labour of many years. I 
have only my crucifix, left, for I a lways carried it with m e 
in the days of agony we have gone through. . . . M y firm 
conviction is that this total loss of all things will be no dis-
advantage to me in my future work. I have only an old 
cassock left, a girdle, and no biretta at all. 

" H o w all this consoles me, for it is, as it were, a sort 



— 6 3 -

of compensation for the martyr 's crown which was so near 
my grasp! " 

And yet the loss of twenty or more years of manuscript 
work is a grievous loss to any man. In Constantinople, some 
months later, Father Benoit was asked as to how this loss 
had really affected him. His answer was clear, and it w a s 
immediately g i v e n : 

" N e x t to life, what can be more precious to a Religious 
than his life's work ? Many a time during the massacres 
I had offered the sacrifice of my life to the Divine Wil l . 
W h e n I knew that my manuscripts were burnt, I offered 
these as my poor sacrifice to God, and now I am perfectly 
resigned." 

T h e blow was none the less a staggering one. F a t h e r 
Benoit must have been at the K o n a k protecting by his 
presence the crowd of refugees at the time- that his work 
was being burnt; and he must have been conscious at the 
time of what was going on. 

T h e resignation of this priest strangely affected his 
interviewer in Constantinople; so much so that this gentle-
man decided to give up a life of, business for a vocation 
more definitely religious. 

A n d the nuns' thoughts were not less generous. 
Sister Marie - Sophie writes: " T e n days ago I w a s 

begging in the streets for- our wounded, to-day we resemble 
them; we have no longer a home, and scarcely any cloth-
ing. W e ourselves are now beggars on the h i g h w a y ; all 
m y notes, all m y music, so many manuscript copies written 
during the holidays in the course of the last sixteen years, 
all are gone. . . . W h a t a retreat these past weeks have 
been for m e ; I shall never again make such a profitable 
retreat; of that I am quite certain, thanks be to G o d ! " 

* * *• 



— 6 4 -

And scarcely was all past when the thoughts of the-
Heligious turned to the future, and the resolve to begin 
.all over again seemed quite natural. 

One nun wrote home : 

" Our Superiors have decided not to abandon the place, 

• 

ADANA AFTER THE FIRE. 

A t the left centre, ruins of St. Paul's College. 

but to struggle on at all costs to the end ; and if the end is 

-to be death all the better; the martyr 's crown, just missed 

a first time, will be the more glorious on the second 

•occasion. . . . " 

T h e Mother Superior, when officially invited to leave 

Adana for fear of new disturbances, had answered 

br ief ly : 
" I shall remain here, even if it costs me my l i fe." 



— 65-

Another nun writes: 
" W e have nothing left, but that does not matter. W e 

tshall begin again at Adana, on a smaller scale this time 
than nineteen years ago, when our Mother House was able 
t o help us so bountifully. . . . W e have found a house 
near the station; five of our Sisters go down there 
to-morrow to start a dispensary. . . . " 

A few days afterwards there were fifteen of the Sisters 
a t A d a n a . 

A n d thus it is seen the Catholic missionaries determined 
to keep the flag flying. 

A s soon as the news of the fire;-.reached Beyrout, the 
R e v . P . Cattin, Rector of the University of St . Joseph, at 
once despatched Father D u p l a y and Brother Cotel with the 
first necessaries of life. T h e French Consul-General at 
Beyrout also generously sent help, and so did the officers 

„and men of the French w a r vessels, even the poorest of the 
sailors contributing their mite. 

A list of those who kindly helped in the first days of 
-calamity must necessarily be incomplete. T h e British 
•Consul has to be put in the first place, but his good wife 
must also be gratefully remembered. Mr. Trdpani was of 
the greatest help when most needed; Mr. Godard, 
Mr. Tridoglou, Mr. Barbe, Mr. Sabatier, of Hamidie, 
Mr. Luighi , and so many others. 

And may we not dedicate a f e w words in special 
remembrance to the courageous F r e n c h Consul-General of 
Aleppo, the much-lamented M . Roque-Ferrier, who has 
since passed away amidst such signs of general mourning, 
both of Moslems and Christians, as Aleppo had never before 
witnessed. F r o m so far away, a five days' journey on 
horseback, he came to Adana, passing through the whole 

•of the devastated countrysides-helping and consoling every-

E 



— 66 — 

one as he went along. H a v i n g procured the relief of t h e 
Trappists and the Lazar is ts of Akbes , surrounded as they 
were by armed bands of Moslem ruffians, he pushed on t o 
Adana, where his bearing excited general admiration. 

Shortly after his return to. Aleppo, he fell ill of fever r 
probably caught through exposure in the course of this-
journey . . . and thus he passed to his r e w a r d . — R . I . P . 

It w a s thus, owing to generous help and at g r e a t 

personal sacrifice, that t w o houses were rented near to t h e 

station, and a dispensary and small hospital were very soon 

reopened. S o that on M a y 29th, one of the Sisters could 

wri te : 

" A t the dispensary w e are able to attend daily to s o m e 
100 t o 150 wounded, and we give relief to more than 1,500 
people. A dreadful feature is the number of those out o f 
their minds; one of our women invalids was hiding two-
whole days down in a well with seven corpses around her 
is it to be wondered at that her mind gave w a y ? " 

T w o of the Sisters were now requested by the wife o f 
the Brit ish Consul to help her at the infirmary she hersel f 
had generously started; Sisters Sa int -Cyr and St. Jean 
were appointed for this work. 

T h e missionaries and nuns also began forming plans as-
to scholastic work, pending the re-erection of the colleges ;. 
and the nuns seemed bent on again starting their 
orphanage, though the absence of means rendered the 
execution of these good intentions almost impossible f rom 
the first. 

T h e last thing the Religious thought of w a s their own 
dire distress; one instance is related of a nun askings 
for something for herself, and that something she did not 
get. H e r e is the story: Owing to their extreme exhaustion, 
it had been decided to send several of the nuns away f r o m 



- 6 y -

T H E HOSP ITAL OF ST. R O G H NEAR THE STATION. 

nation. Concluding, he told them not to hesitate to a s k 
for anything they might require whilst on board his vessel. 

One of the Sisters, the merest little girl-nun, stepped 
forward and s a i d : 

" W i l l you please give me a rosary ; mine was burnt 
during the massacres.' 1 

There was a moment 's silence; the admiral 's face w a s 
a study. A n off icer—somewhere in the front rank—said : 

A d a n a for a few days. A s soon as the nuns came or* 
board the F r e n c h man-of-war Jules Ferry, the admiraL 
in full dress, surrounded by all his officers, received them 
in his state-saloon, and expressed his admiration for their 
heroism, thanking them for thus honouring the French 



— 68 — 

! ! Sister, I have a rosary, but . . . I . . . cannot . . . part 
with i t . " 

T h e deep-set race-hatred between T u r k s and Armenians 
cannot be denied for a moment, but once the massacres 

ADANA AFTER THE FIRE. 

Oil the left, the residence of the Catholic Bishop, Mgr. Terzian : 
on the right, the Protestant church. 

had commenced, they became distinctly anti-Christian in 
character, and many proofs of this are at hand. In fact , 
i n almost every case, the alternative of apostasy or 
death was offered to the Armenians, by the infuriated 
Mahomedan mob. F a t h e r Benoit is thus right in say ing 

t h a t a very great number of Christians, even schismatic, 
a c c e p t e d death rather than deny Christ. 



B 69 — 

A young woman, recently married, saw her father, h e r 
mother, and her husband, killed before her eyes. " N o w , , 
become a Mussulman ; we will g ive you another husband," 
she w a s told. 

T h e answer w a s unf l inching: " I am a Christian and 
I mean to remain a Christ ian." S h e w a s slaughtered 
without further discussion. A young man was summoned 
to become a Moslem. A s an answer he made the sign of" 
the Cross. H e w a s summoned again, and g a v e the same 
answer. A third and final summons; the Moslem mob w a s 
closing round h i m ; fierce, eager faces glared death, but 
he did not flinch . . . he raised his hand high up above 
his head, brought it down along his body, and then with 
a last effort, threw both hands wide oiit, as he fell stabbed 
to the heart. 

A y o u n g Armenian girl, educated at the Sisters' school, 
had gathered a crowd of poor people, men and women,, 
round h e r ; they seemed to be thinking of apostat iz ing; the 
mob w a s in the next street; she kept repeating aloud: 
" Sacred Heart of Jesus, in T h e e do I put my trust ," and 
the poor people repeated her words. T h e mob had turned 
the corner, and bore down upon the helpless Christians;.. 
in a few moments no one w a s left al ive. . . . It is said 
that a whole Christian vi l lage was blotted out for refusing; 
to deny the Fa i th . 



T . SOME DETAILS OF THE MASSACRES IN 

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF AD ANA 

W e shall in this chapter merely set down a summary of 
the report of Father Rigal , who accompanied the caravan 
o f relief organized at A d a n a by the French Consul-General, 
M . Roque-Ferrier, and which caravan was intended to 

•succour the sufferers in some country districts between 
Adana and Aleppo. Starting from Adana on M a y 27th, 
the caravan was composed of the R e v . Father Etienne, 
P r i o r of the Trappists of Chekl6, F a t h e r Rigal , the intrepid 
Mother Superior of the Sisters of St . Joseph, two of the 
:Sisters, and of an adequate escort of Turk ish soldiers. 

A sum of 1,500 francs had been collected and was 
taken on the journey, also some seven waggon-loads of 
provisions and medical stores, a large part of Which were 

^generously furnished by Admiral P i v e t . 

T h e places visited were as follows : 
Close to A d a n a : the vil lage of Christian-Keui, burnt 

on Apri l 14th; no one left. (The massacres here and at 
Indjirlik were known to have been horrible.) 

A n hour or so further on Indjirlik, also entirely 
-destroyed; 145 Christian houses, all burnt to the ground. 
O f 800 or 900 inhabitants, only twenty-eight men and thirty 
women were left. 

Further on, of a scattered community, said to have 
i ieen one of 1,240 Christians, thirteen men and sixty-seven 
w o m e n remained. 



— 7i — 

A t A g h z e - B e u y u k , ten houses, all razed to the ground. 
A t Guemi-Soura, twenty-four houses, all destroyed. 
Missis, a small town of some importance on the banks 

o f the river Djihoun : not a single Christian to be seen any-
w h e r e ; only Moslems, whose every gesture and look showed 

T H E KIVE;R D J IHOUN JS^I^SIS. 

hatred and defiance; such remarks as these were over-
heard by the missionaries: " W h a t are these giaours here 
f o r ? " " S o there are still some of the giaours a l i v e ! " 
O f the i,800 Christians, it is said 400 were massacred in 
the town, and; 200 in the surrounding country. 200 only 
were said to have survived, and but ten of these were men 
w h o managed to make their escape. W e sincerely trust 
these figures for Missis may prove exaggerated; at present 
there is no reason for thinking so. 



— 72 — 

• Hamidie. T h e Christian population had been 1,500» 
souls; thirty men and 370 women had survived, and had 
been able to take refuge in Mr. Sabatier's factory. The-
massacre was said to have been so well planned that 600 
men were taken by surprise in the market-place and were 
killed on the spot; some 500 others were hunted down in 
the country near by. 

A t Osmani6 the military commander had supplied the 
Bachi -Bouzouks with Martini rifles, and had ordered the 
troops to fire on the Armenians. 

Of 800 Christians, thirty men and 200 women remained. 
F o u r houses only had remained standing in the Christian 
quarter. 180 persons, women and children, were said to-
have taken refuge in the church. A party of T u r k s poured 
petroleum into the building and set fire to the whole place, 
whilst another party of T u r k s were grouped at the church 
doors and prevented any escape from the building. On the-
flooring and on the white-washed walls black shadows as 
of human forms : could be clearly traced, and seemed to tell 
the tale of victims slowly roasted to death. . . . 

A f t e r Osmariie, the caravan began to ascend Djebel-i-
Bereket. L e a v i n g the waggons in the plain, the provisions-
were put on thirty-seven pack-horses, and the journey 
continued. 

Hassan-Beyl i was the first place reached—once a rich 
and prosperous centre, now a heap of ruins. 

In all this mountainous region the marauding bands,, 
brought together by the mufti of Baghtche and armed with 
Martini rifles, had marched to the work of pillage and 
arson, quite methodically and to the sound of the beating of 
drums, like a regiment of soldiers. A t their approach the-
Armenians, too f e w and too weak to defend themselves^ 
had sought safety in flight. Only at Hassan-Beyl i had. 
there been any show of resistance; whilst the women and. 



— 73 — 

children hid a w a y in the caves and clefts of the mountains,-
the men fought for two days behind improvised ramparts,. 
but Moslems armed with modern rifles had come down on 
them on all sides, so that in the end the Armenians w e r e 
forced to give way, and were no doubt killed to the last 
man. 

CAB IN OF A POOR A R M E N I A N FAMILY IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

T h e regular order of events was, first massacre, then 
pillage, then incendiarism, and whilst the houses were being 
burnt down, parties of country folk took possession of all 
horses and cattle, driving them before them until they had 
reached a certain distance, so that such robbery could not 
be traced afterwards. 

Noble examples of martyrdom were reported in this-



•district; those that survived assert that the victims, before 

being sacrificed, were invariably summoned to deny our 

Lord. 

In many places the women were spared. T h i s m a y 
have been a preconceived p lan—and the motives may have 

"been various. T h a t many young girls were captured and 
•detained in Turkish harems there can be no doubt. 

T h e same thing has been done before. B u t it is a real 
-satisfaction to be able to record that in this instance a 
-considerable number were traced and recovered, M. Roque-
Ferrier and Pere Etienne having taken up this matter with 
an energy and thoroughness that entailed great personal 
risk to themselves. 

E v e n at the present moment isolated cases of Christian 
women being detained in Turkish harems are extremely 
likely to exist, but the difficulty.of bringing such cases to 

l i g h t is necessarily extremely great. 

F o r the whole of the district of Djebel-i-Bereket, 
Father R i g a l gets at the following figures, necessarily 
.approximate: 

C a z a of B a g h t c h e : 
B a g h t c h e : 102 houses burnt out of about n o , 771 

"Christian inhabitants, 641 remain; 113 men killed. 
Hassa.n-Beyl i : 412 houses; seven remain standing. 

2,186 inhabitants, of w h o m about 1,890 remain. 265 fathers 
of families disappeared. 

L a p a c h l e : a church and 145 houses all burnt. Of 747 
Inhabitants, 581 remain alive. 

Kharne: two churches, 131 houses, forty-one shops, all 
±>urnt. 795 inhabitants, 619 remain. 

K o u r t l a r : 101 inhabitants, 75 remain. 
Gueuktchayir : forty-one houses burnt; 185 inhabitants, 

j 3 0 remain. 



C a z a of Is lay6: 
Islay6 did not suffer so much, thanks to the energy of 

the Qaimmakam, the Governor of the district. 
A t Killer, there were fifty houses, twenty-seven were 

burnt. O f 258 inhabitants, about 230 survived. 
A t Intilli, thirty-two houses, all burnt; of 167 inhabi-

tants, 136 remained. 

K o u c h j o u : twenty-four houses, nine of which were 
b u r n t ; ninety inhabitants, e ighty-two still al ive. . . . 

It is to the survivors in the foregoing places that the cara-
v a n brought some relief, and it was necessary in the extreme. 
A great number of refugees at B a g h t c h e were supposed to 
be nourished at the expense of the Government, but the 
provisions had soon given out, and communications with 
other places were interrupted owing to the absence of 
security on the high roads, so that outside relief w a s 
imperative. 

T h e G e r m a n Protestant missionaries had, however , 
been at Baghtche before the arrival of the caravan from 
A d a n a , and had taken a number of orphans with them to 
educate them at their orphanage at Marasch. 

T h e French Fathers would gladly have taken charge 
of some hundreds of orphans on this journey, and the 
•difficulty would have been one of selection only, but even 
in good works money tells, and the absence of money is a 
terrible h a n d i c a p ; where w a s the money to come from ? 
where is it to come from even now, if rich Catholics in 
Europe and America do not have compassion and come to 
the rescue ? 



— 76-

It is by totalling all the foregoing figures and comparing 
estimates of loss of life in A d a n a itself that the immensity 
of the disaster is s lowly realized. T h u s a figure of 20,000 
to 25,000 Armenians killed during the massacres seems, 

T w o CHILDREN WOUNDED IN THE MASSACKKS. 

now to be admitted as approximately reliable, and the loss 
of life in consequence of the massacres, continues up to 
the present day, and may continue during the whole of the 
winter months. T h u s as late as August , a Father in a 
report says that during the last few weeks as many as. 



-632 orphans had died of insufficient nourishment and 
•exposure in the villayet of A d a n a alone! It is heartrend-
ing to think of these things, and the Catholic missionaries 
•earnestly beg for help. 

T h e F r e n c h Fathers are actuated by no selfish mot ive; 
t h e y desire scrupulously to avoid the diversion of funds 
from any other charitable purposes. B u t they believe, 
and many good Cathol ics bel ieve with them, that at this 
m o m e n t in the whole Catholic world, in the whole of 
Christendom, there is no more pressing necessity than 
the speedy relief of the Armenian Christians. T h e y are 
o u r brethren : for them, too, Christ died, and can w e now 
a l low them to perish miserably ? 

T h e Armenians h a v e certainly made many mis takes ; 
as is now well known, they have had ambitious plans, 
particularly since the granting of the Constitution, which 
s e e m e d to offer scope for the development of legitimate 
ambitions. 

E v e n conceding that the ambitions of some Armenians 
h a v e exceeded the limit of what is legitimate, the. words 
may well be a p p l i e d : " If it were so, it w a s a grievous 
fault, and grievously hath the Armenian race answered i t ; " 
so grievously indeed, that there is probably in the history 
of the last thousand years nothing that can be at all 
•compared to the slaughter of the t w o to three hundred 
thousand Armenians in T u r k e y during the reign of 
Abdul H a m i d . 

B u t , leaving the dead to bury the dead, we have our 
duty to the l iving sufferers of the great catastrophe this 
spring. T h e s e sufferers still number their thousands; among 
them are innocent and helpless o ld. men, women, and 
•children, many of whom will most certainly perish this 



— 78-

winter unless prompt relief on a generous scale be forth-

coming. 

It is to the Cathol ic Christians all the world over that 
the Cathol ic missionaries look for help ; and they earnest ly 
pray that their appeal will not be in v a i n ; G o d ' s blessing 
will rest for ever on the generous giver. 



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