the key to theosophy…

“Mr. B. Keightley:  The second section is on “Self-sacrifice.” (Reads)

 
Mr. Old:  That section is very beautiful.

 
A Lady:  I don’t think there is anything to be added to it.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  Did I make it comprehensive enough?

 
A Lady:  Perfectly clear.

 
Mr. Johnson:  I thought the attack on the Roman Catholics was rather severe, Madam, to single them particularly.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  The priests are self-sacrificing. It is not against any particular priest, but such a pernicious system.

 
Mr. Kingsland:  Say simple missionaries, not Roman Catholic missionaries.

 
Mr. Old:  Call them Christian missionaries.

 
Mr. Kingsland:  I think you are quite right not to single out one particular sect.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  Were there any Christian missionaries who were killed in China?

 
Mr. Old:  Any amount of them.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  This Damien, I tell you I was going to start for a collection among we Theosophists just to send him, and the poor man dies. (Father Damien – Jozef De Veuster – a Roman Catholic Priest from Belgium who devoted his life ministering to the leper colony of Molokai). I just got some shillings, and he died. Let him be any religion, such a man is the highest Theosophist possible.

 
I am perfectly sure the Roman Catholic Church will not recognize it. They recognize Labro, who for forty years allowed himself to be devoured by vermin. I say it is positively ridiculous. They make a saint of this Labro, and the unfortunate Damien they won’t make anything of.

 
You won’t find a Jain who does not lie in the sun and allow vermin to come upon him, because they say: “They are our younger brothers.” They allow all the vermin to come upon them, fleas, and all the less comely animals.

 
(Laboreaux – Probably Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, known for his subsistence living: The Key to Theosophy describes him as “Labro, St.  A Roman Saint solemnly beatified a few years ago. His great holiness consisted in sitting at one of the gates of Rome night and day for forty years, and remaining unwashed through the whole of that time, the result of which was that he was eaten by vermin to his bones.)”

 
H. P. Blavatsky