We call the attention of our Roman Catholic contemporaries to
Professor Max Muller's assertion that St. Josephat, whose festival is celebrated in the Roman Church on the 27th November, never was a Catholic or a Christian at all, but only an alias for Buddha, —his story being at least precisely identical with that of Buddha as given in the Buddhist books. St. Josephat's history was written by Johannes Damascenus, and he was spoken of as a young prince of whom it had been prophesied that he should embrace Christianity. To prevent this his father excluded him as far as he could from all knowledge of human misery, trying to absorb him iu the pursuit of pleasure. But at length Josephat took three drives, and beheld old age, sickness, and death, after which he became a hermit, and was canonized by both the Eastern and Western Churches, without any sufficiently authentic identification of his personality. Professor Max Muller asserts that his history is only a recast of that of Buddha. Can the Roman Catholic antiquarians refute him ? We admit that it is hard on them to have questions of personal identity raised at this distance of time.
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