Catholicism and Buddhism

[Jeremy Osner]

Well here's what Mr. Borges has to say on the subject. I'm paraphrasing,
and occasionally quoting, from his 1952 essay, "Forms of a Legend",
printed in "Selected Non-Fictions".

The legend of Siddhartha's attainment of enlightenment is that, on
successive trips away from his father's castle, he saw first a lame man,
then a leper, then a corpse, and finally a monk, "who desires neither to
live nor to die. Peace is on his face; Siddhartha has found the way." In
the seventh century AD, a Christian monk wrote the history of *Barlaam
and Josaphat*, which is just too close in theme to the legend of the
Boddhisattva for the similarity to be coincidental; except at the end,
instead of enlightenment, Josaphat attains Christianity. "In 1615,...
Diego de Couto denounced the similarity of the spurious Indian fable to
the true and pious history of St. Josaphat"; who had apparently been
canonized in the intermediate time if he is referred to as Saint here.
However I can find to reference to him as a saint in the Catholic
Encyclopaedia online; it does have an entry for the story of Barlaam and
Josaphat, which it calls "a Christianized version of one of the legends
of Buddha"; and says that the name Josaphat is a corruption of the
Persian name Budsaif, Boddhisattva.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02297a.htm

"Barlaam and Josaphat found their way into the Roman Martyrology (27
November)" -- what is the relationship between the Martyrology and the
Canon? Is one a subset of the other?