BERSE (BARZEO), GASPAR

BERSE (Barzeo), Gaspar. - Disciple and companion of St. Francis Xavier, born at Goes (Holland) in 1515. After a turbulent youth, he entered the Society of Jesus at Coimbra (1546), and, having been ordained priest, in May 1547 he was sent to the Indies. He began by teaching at Goa, then St. Francis Xavier entrusted him with the evangelization of Ormuz, giving him specific instructions (published in Monumenta Xaveriana, I, pp. 858-70, and in the new edition, Epistolae S. Franc. Xaverii, II, pp. 80-101). Berse worked there for two and a half years (1549-1551) with notable success, even disputing with Muslims and Jews (cf. G. Schurhammer, Die Trinitätspredigt Mag. Gaspars in der Synagoge von Ormuz 1549, in Archiv. hist. S. I., 2 [1933], pp. 279-309). St. Francis Xavier, who had recalled him and intended to send him to Japan, later kept him in India as rector at Goa and vice-provincial of India when he himself departed for China (instructions in Mon. Xaveriana, I, pp. 900-23, Epist. s. Franc. Xaverii, II, pp. 391-434). But Berse, who knew no moderation in his labors, died on 18 Oct. 1553, just as the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier, who had died a year earlier at Sancian, were expected in Goa. He had lived only seven years in the religious life and five in India, yet, like St. Francis Xavier whom he strove to imitate, he profoundly stirred souls by the example of a zeal carried to the uttermost limit. His letters have been collected in Documenta Indica, 1540-49, (Mon. Historica S. I., 70), Rome 1948.