India is Calling! Part 2
Tuticorin
From June 16 to July 2, 1863, 6 Reparatrixes, 5 Indian Religious, and 4 young orphans traveled with 3 Jesuits to Tuticorin where there were more Christians. The climate was less oppressive than in Trichinopoly.
A week later, their simple house had been organized and Mass was celebrated in their chapel. They opened a school which soon counted 160 students and gave sewing lessons to the women. On Saturday afternoon they helped people prepare for confession and communion. Groups of “Apostolate of Prayer” and the “Holy Child” began to take roots. M. du Saint Sacrément began to offer retreats for which the participants had to stay in part of the convent. It was highly unusual for women in India to stay overnight anywhere other than in their homes.
M. des Saints Apôtres cared for up to 80 persons daily in the dispensary. While attending to their needs she talked about Jesus and sometimes baptized those close to death.
Adeikalabouram
Fr. Jean Bossan, SJ had opened an orphanage in Alatali in 1854. It was very poor, maintained mostly by donations. Two years later he transferred it to Adeikalabouram. A few buildings were added to receive the elderly. The orphans were trained to work in agriculture, industry, and domestic work. Often there were marriages among the orphans, some of these young families chose to establish themselves nearby and continue to work with the Jesuits.
Our sisters were invited to take part in this ministry which was new to them. Henri de Gensac, SJ describes it as a “distant replica of the Reductions of Paraguay.” You may have seen the movie “The Mission,” released in 1986. It is a wonderful, strong, and sad, depiction of the end of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay during the 16th and 17th centuries. The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone stays with you. If you haven’t seen it, look for it online. The movie will give you some sense of the ministry of this mission in India.
Our sisters arrived in Adeikalabouram on February 21, 1864. One of them describes that reality:
“After Mass and breakfast everybody goes to work, the men under the leadership of a missionary who is at the same time priest, father, medical doctor, plus mayor and judge. With the Widows Religious we direct the work of the women.
The men cultivate the land and climb the palm trees to gather the liquid that would be processed into sugar. The women boil the sugar, make baskets, and make cotton into thread, water the fields, and crush the seeds.
Catechesis takes place every day and everybody comes.
Sundays are very solemn. The orphans happily beat two or three drums calling everybody to the Holy Sacrifice. People come from the neighboring villages to participate at Mass. Often the women spend the whole day here, we talk with them about their life and teach catechism to their children.”
After receiving more religious instruction and making a retreat, some Widows Religious were put in charge of visiting the sick, comforting the dying, and baptizing in case of need.
Two years later our sisters wrote in the Community Annual Letter: “24 retreats were given to 385 women; 137 children were prepared for First Communion. We received 65 patients, 70 catechumens, and 127 children in the orphanage.”
Concepción González Cánovas, smr
conce_gonzalez@comcast.net
Sources:
The Life of Mother Mary of Jesus. Emilia d’Oultremont Baroness d’Hooghvorst, 1818-187; Peter Suau, SJ. 1913.
Emilie d’Oultremont and Her Two Daughters; Manresa Press, London, 1932
The Beginnings of the Society of Mary Reparatrix (1855-1858). Journal of the beginnings of the Society, house of Paris, house of Strasbourg. Introduction and notes by Anne Marie Bertaud, smr. Translated into English by Emma Gravlin, smr. 1993
Historical Perspectives. Autobiography of Mother Mary of Jesus, Foundress of the Society of Mary Reparatrix. Compiled by Jacqueline Desormeaux, smr. Rome, 1974
Présentation Historique de la Société de Marie Réparatrice (1818-1953). Henri de Gensac, SJ. Rome, 1992.