FR ALEXANDER CAMISA S.J. (1868-1955)

Fr Alexander Camisa, SJ

Fr Alexander Camisa was one of those chosen souls to whom God entrusted a special to work among the poorest of the poor. For twenty-seven years he laboured among the Korgars, a tribal people living scattered in the coastal district of South Kanara, the Karnataka State. They have been considered the lowest of human beings in the district, the most untouchable among the untouchables. Fr Camisa lived among them, worked with them, taught them the truths of faith and gave them a modicum of culture. In doing this heroic work, no doubt, he was inspired by those words of our Lord: "As often as you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to

Alexander Camisa was born at Cortemaggiore, near Piacenza, Northern Italy, on April 10, 1868. He is said to have been baptized the same day, as if to afford him a chance to fight the devil right from the beginning. The more prosaic fact was that his mother, a pious lady, who had nine children in all, wanted each of them to be baptized the day it was born. Pious by nature like his mother, Alexander was helped by friendly priests to do his early studies. He joined the seminary at Piacenza and then the Collegio Alberoni, a Spanish Foundation. After completing the usual course of philosophy and theology, he was ordained priest in 1890 at the age of twenty-two, against the canonical age of twenty-four, which is a tribute to his intelligence and maturity.

For five years Fr Camisa worked with great zeal in the Diocese, serving as curate in different places. However, he soon felt that God wanted him to follow a more perfect way of life and so he decided to become a religious by joining the Society of Jesus. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Soresina on November 4, 1895.

A man always full of fervour, Fr Camisa threw himself heart and soul into the exercises of the novitiate and tried to reach the summit of perfection which St Ignatius demands of his sons. He had for his novice master no less a person than the saintly Fr Richard Fried! who constantly encouraged him in his efforts to acquire perfection. He was under Fr Fried! for about a year until the latter was appointed Provincial of Venice. It was during this period that a further call came to him-this time to dedicate his life to the missions after the manner of St Francis Xavier and his successors. Eighteen years had passed since the Jesuits from Venice had established the Mangalore Mission. Fr Camisa offered to join them in order to bring the light of the Gospel to those still walking in darkness. But he had within him some doubts and a latent fear lest he should prove unfit for such work. He therefore asked the advice of Fr Fried! who answered: Yes, go in God's name. Jesus for whose sake you take up this cross will be with you".

Fr Camisa reached Mangalore on December 30, 1897, almost exactly nineteen years after the Jesuits first landed there on December 31, 1878. After a brief stay at St Aloysius College, he was sent to the Cathedral, where he began his study of English. In one of the many notes, he left behind about his own life, he offers to God 'this little suffering'. To begin a new language at the age of thirty was, no doubt, a little suffering, in addition to the change of climate and food, but there was more to come. soon realized that if he had to preach to non-Christians, Fr Camisa which was the goal he had in mind when he came to India, he would have to study their language which was Tulu, a dialect without script and written grammar, while the language of the local Christians was Konkani. Fr Camisa made up his mind to study Tulu. But on this point he seems to have come into conflict with his immediate Superiors who did not want him to take up the study of two languages at the same time. Moreover, they were not very enthusiastic about his studying Tulu. Fr Camisa was not to be baulked. He wrote to Fr Friedl, who as Provincial was also in command of the Jesuits in Mangalore. Fr Friedl, after carefully considering the matter, wrote to him that the Jesuits in Mangalore should not only preach to the Christians, but also to the non-Christians, and therefore a study of Tulu was necessary. He told Fr Camisa that he could go ahead. This letter of Fr Friedl gave him great encouragement, and he always kept it with him and read it often.

In order to learn the language within the shortest possible Fr Camisa went to Suratkal, a station outside the town, as assistant to Fr Denis Coelho. Here he worked hard to gain a working knowledge of the language. After a few months, he came back to Mangalore and was appointed chaplain to Fr Muller's hospital and a little later assistant at the Cathedral. In 1900, he was sent to St Joseph's Seminary, Jeppoo, to teach moral theology and at the same time continue his study of Tulu. It was while he was at the Seminary that he first came into contact with the Korgars for whom later he was to work for many long years.

Some of the first works the Jesuits undertook after reaching Mangalore in 1878, were to reopen the Seminary and start a Catechumenate for non-Christians who had no one to look after them, and also orphanages for boys and girls, and subsequently a workshop. A few Korgar families came and set up their tiny thatched huts near the Seminary compound in the hope, probably, of getting work and help from the Fathers of the Institution. Basket-weaving and cane-work is a speciality of theirs. Fr Diamanti, then the Director of the Catechumenate, interested himself in the Korgars and converted a few of them. But the work at the Seminary and Catechumenate was too much for Fr Diamanti, and so he asked Fr Camisa who was already associated with him in the work to look after the Korgars. Fr Camisa readily accepted the task, for this was what he had been longing for: to bring succour to the lowly and down-trodden. more in need of help than the Korgars. There were none more in need of help than the Koragars.

The Korgars are an aboriginal people found scattered in the villages of S. Kanara, living mostly in forest areas. Nomadic by nature, they live by hunting and weaving baskets, which is, as it were, their caste occupation. They are unaccustomed to farming and therefore unwilling to settle down in any particular place. As Fr Camisa tells us, they are a quiet, peaceful people, said to be incapable of doing harm to any one and noted for truthfulness and unfailing loyalty to their word. At the same time, however, they are. the lowest among the out-casts and as such avoided and despised by others. It was for such people that Fr Camisa offered to work; he wanted to dedicate his life entirely for their spiritual and material uplift. However, for the time being he had to continue teaching at the Seminary and could devote only his spare hours to work for the Korgars. He attained sufficient mastery of the Tulu language to be able to teach catechism and preach to them on Sundays.

At the beginning of 1905, Fr Camisa was sent to Ranchi to do his Tertianship. He returned to the Seminary at the end of the year but could not be released from his teaching work even though he longed to go and work among the Korgars. He took his final vows in 1906.

Meanwhile the Christian community around the Seminary was growing in numbers. Though practically all of them were converts from the low castes, caste prejudice was so strong among them that the Korgar Christians could not easily be assimilated into the Christian Community. It was therefore thought advisable to form a separate colony for them. Four hundred acres of land were obtained from the Government at Pavur, 10 miles south of Mangalore. Fr Camisa, now freed from his work of teaching at the Seminary, was able to devote all his energies to the uplift of his beloved Korgars. He undertook the task of building up an agricultural colony at Pavur. That was in June 1913.

Unfortunately, the land selected was an arid plateau, unsuitable for cultivation. To keep a people, accustomed to roam the jungles, tied down to a land which was exposed to the fierce monsoon rains and the long dry summer, with little prospect of growing food on it, was a task of turning what he called his desert into a habitable land. He succeeded in building a few huts and also a small church and got the Korgar families to move to the colony. Thereafter his life was patterned on that of the Korgars themselves.

In one of his letters to his Superior he tells us how every day he would collect his people for morning prayers and Mass. After breakfast of conjee they would work together in the fields. At 10 a. m. there was a brief rest under the shade of a tree and Fr Camisa would teach them catechism. It was a catechetical rest. The noon meal consisted of rice and vegetable curry, and this was followed by half an hour of catechism for all, followed by school for the boys; after that, more work in the fields. In the evening, after a wash, all the people assembled in the church for rosary and evening prayers. Prior to that, however, Fr Camisa would visit every family in its hut and comfort and encourage the members, speaking to them about our Lord and our Lady. He worked with them, ate with them, prayed with them and lived in a small hut like them, sleeping on a mat on the ground-so completely did he identify himself with them at the beginning he could not partake of the food prepared by the Korgars without a feeling of great revulsion, because of the total lack of cleanliness among them. But with determined effort he got used to it and incidentally also taught them a little cleanliness. It is said that

Basket-weaving was the main occupation at the colony. The baskets when ready were sent to Mangalore and sold there. A tannery was opened and that gave work to a few. Gradually the Korgars learnt to cultivate their land, Fr Camisa himself giving them the lead and working with them in the fields. But the land itself was not merciful enough to yield what was necessary to keep them alive, and so Fr Camisa had to beg for money from friends at home and particularly from benefactors in Italy, and dole out rice and money each day so that they could have at least the minimum to live upon. Nevertheless, the colony grew in numbers so that he had over two hundred of them at one time and more asking to be admitted. This increase in numbers created a grave problem and made it necessary to look for another place where they could be settled.

At Sullia, some thirty miles south-east of Mangalore, a station had been established for converts from the low castes, and a church built. The land here being a forest area was fertile and just right for his Korgars. Accordingly, he had a few huts built near the church and shifted some of the families from Pavur to Sullia. That was in 1936. Fr Camisa was happy not only because his Christians would have a brighter future there with regard to their material needs, but also because by then they had acquired a certain degree of social standard. He wrote of them: "The Korgars, who only a few years ago were not even allowed to approach a Catholic church, now serve my Mass in long altar boys' dress, read prayers in common, sing the sacred hymns in Latin or in Tulu. And when the Father is not there, they gather in the church all the same".

Fr Camisa looked after the two colonies himself, spending some days of the week in each place. At last, he thought, a glorious future had dawned for his Korgars. Unfortunately, it was not to be, for World War II broke out, and Fr Camisa was interned at St Joseph's Seminary, Mangalore, in 1940. His work had to be taken over by Diocesan priests.

The year 1940, when Fr Camisa, as an Italian, was interned at the Seminary happened to be also the year of the Golden Jubilee of his priesthood. The Jubilee was celebrated on December 20, 1940, with due solemnity. The Jubilarian sang the High Mass in the Seminary Church and he and the many that assisted at his Mass gave thanks to God for the countless graces bestowed on him during the fifty years of his priesthood. For Fr Camisa that was the best part of the celebration. But his Jesuit brethren would not be satisfied with it. There was the usual Jubilee dinner, followed by the 'seance' when the members of the community and the guests who had assembled on the occasion celebrated in song and verse the varied achievements of the Jubilarian during half a century of his priesthood. The Seminary magazine 'Unitas' observed: "The chief theme of the poetic effusions was, of course, the magnificent work done by Fr Camisa as the missionary of the Korgars for more than a quarter of a century. Of this work did his brethren sing in Italian, English and Tulu, the language of his dear Korgars, the language he had made his own".

Fr Camisa rendered service to the Seminary as Spiritual Father till the end of the war in 1945. He was seventy-seven then, and so it was no longer possible for him to take up his work for the Korgars once again. He was therefore asked to go to Marikunnu, near Calicut, to be the chaplain of the Bridgettine Sisters. As soon as he came to know that he had to go to Malabar, Fr Camisa took up the study of Malayalam in right earnest. Ten words a day was his target, no mean task at the age of seventy-seven to learn ten new words and remember them. But what helped him most was the fact that Malayalam had affinities with his adopted mother tongue, Tulu. It is said that he made his valedictory speech at the Seminary in Malayalam.

For eight years Fr Camisa stayed at Marikunnu, doing what spiritual ministry he could, but above all giving to everyone a noble example of a life of prayer and penance. In November 19 5 was his Golden Jubilee in the Society, but the event seems to have gone almost unnoticed, probably because of his reluctance to have any celebration. In December 1947, however, he completed fifty years of missionary life in India, without having gone back to Italy even once. This time the Jesuit community at Christ Hall, then the novitiate and which happened to be only a couple of miles from Marikunnu were Fr. Camisa lived like a recluse, would not leave him alone. They prevailed upon him to come for dinner on New Year’s Day, 1948, fifty years and two days after he reached India. Before dinner he gave an exhortation to the Novices and Juniors. After recalling his first days in the Society, he spoke eloquently on what was his and the Society's favourite theme- Obedience'.

During the seance after dinner, a dramatic scene with a 'Korgar singing in Tulu held out that having wrought the conversion of so many Korgars, this other Alexander was greater than the Great', and having been the forerunner of Mahatma Gandhi in the uplift of the Harijans, rightly deserved to be called a 'Mahatma'. 

About 1953 Fr Camisa's health began to deteriorate! chiefly due to the very warm climate of the place where he then was. He was therefore shifted to Chundale on the hills, at the shrine of St Jude. But the end was not far off and it came two years later in 1955. Having fallen gravely ill, Fr Camisa was taken to Fr Muller's Hospital, Mangalore, for treatment. When the Korgar Christians came to know that their beloved father had come back, they came in streams to visit him. When he calmly breathed his last in the early hours of 7th September, the Korgars were his chief mourners. They stayed round his bier in the Seminary chapel the whole day, shedding profuse tears and accompanied his body to the Jesuit cemetery the same evening. Fr Camisa had gone to heaven on the eve of the Nativity of Our Lady, whom he always loved as a mother.

One of the achievements of Fr Camisa which perhaps is not so well known is a book of meditations prepared by him in Tulu, in Kannada script. One may laugh at the idea that he should have written a book of meditations for such primitive converts. But that was Fr Camisa all over. The book contains a series of eternal truths, embodying the ideas of Fr Camisa on death, judgement, hell, humility etc., and is based on the doctrines of St Robert Bellarmine and St Alphonsus Liguori. The book was meant to be of use for all Tulu converts and is probably the only spiritual book in that language.

The best tribute to Fr Camisa's work is given by his immediate successor at Pavur, the late Fr William Sequeira, Diocesan Priest. Writing in the Seminary magazine 'Unitas' of 1940 he says:There was once a Philosopher who said, Nothing that is human I count as strange to me". What a philosopher said boastingly, Fr Camisa could say truly. Korgars are strangers to everybody in their own country. But Fr Camisa, though a stranger in the locality, was no stranger to them. Nay he became one of them. He used to call himself a 'white Korgar',

Speaking of Fr Camisa's work, Fr Sequeira says: "The Church, the sacred edifice where Our Lord dwelt, was kept decently clean by him. The congregation of his faithful converts was well instructed. They knew their catechism perfectly, recited their prayers devoutly, and frequented the sacraments regularly. In a competition in Christian doctrine, I am sure, Fr Camisa's converts would have won prizes, though their names were a trifle difficult to pronounce Petronilla, Bibiana, Timoteo etc. whole estate was less attractive. But his own house and the It fell to the lot of the present writer to succeed such a holy Father, and it seemed to him that he had succeeded a Father of the Desert. The whole place lacked every amenity of life, and he wondered how Fr Camisa could pass twenty-seven years in such a place and in such circumstances.

He adds: "Whatever be the success of Fr Camisa's mission among the Korgars in the eyes of modern critics, just because he blazed a trail by working for the conversion of the Korgars, he justly deserves our praise and admiration. He opened a way, a thing which none before him had dared to do. For this alone he unquestionably deserves the title of the Apostle of the Korgars'. But he did more: Walking up and down in search of Korgars in the scorching sun, teaching catechism with admirable patience, breathing the fetid air in dirty huts and unclean surroundings, and passing the nights on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament, Fr Camisa, by his unceasing prayer and unremitting labour converted and baptized about a thousand Korgars. It was only the outbreak of the war that forced Fr Camisa to leave his much-loved converts".

A Jesuit missionary, also doing great work in another field even now, says this of him: "Fr Camisa was a man gifted with extraordinary qualities of prayer, mortification. meekness. I never heard him speak ill of his Superiors even in the midst of his greatest trials. However, he could give no education to his Korgars, which could make them independent. With no proper schooling and no permanent work, they depended on him for everything. But what he did was already much. if one reflects on their condition when he began to take care of them. Fr Camisa's success in his work is extraordinary; one does not recognize the Korgars anymore. They are well dressed, obedient, and most faithful, clean and polite. They have lost that natural shyness which has given place to a childlike trust in their 'Father who is everything to them. Their faithfulness in spiritual matters, their well-tried patience and their meekness make them attractive and lovable". This tribute comes from one who also works for low-caste people and who knew Fr Camisa's work well.

Fr Camisa was a man of great prayer and penance. He had built a small oratory, far from the dwellings of the people, to which he would sometimes repair for undisturbed prayer. And he spent long hours at night before the Blessed Sacrament. Equally great was his love of penance. His catechist bore witness to the pain the Father inflicted on himself by taking the 'discipline' every day. He wore a chain with sharp points round his waist. Once when the wounds became infected the doctor had to order him not to wear it any more. When at Chundale he was being escorted down the steps, the Father who was supporting him felt that Fr Camisa was wearing an iron chain on his arm. He remonstrated with him pointing out that at his age he ought not to wear a chain. He retorted that at his age the chain caused no pain. He was 87 then. He kept up his practices of penance till the last days of his life.

Like most saintly people, however, Fr Camisa lacked practical abilities in material things, or maybe he did not bother much about them. His one aim in life was to make his Korgars, whom he called his children', good Christians, matter. God-fearing and morally upright. Considerable sums seem to have been wasted on an arid land which, however, he was told was good for cultivation by some so-called experts from Mangalore entirely his fault if he tried to cultivate a desert, Such was his simplicity that he was often duped by people around, not however by the Korgars who were generally loyal to him. He did not pay much attention to cleanliness either in matters of food or dress, because he wanted to be like the Korgars who could not be transformed overnight. But these faults of his cannot detract from the merit of his pioneering work for the most downtrodden of people, hundreds of whom received the grace of supernatural life through his ministrations. 

There is little that we can add to this life story of Fr Camisa. His life and actions speak for themselves. They reveal to us his great self-renunciation, his spirit of deep humility, his perfect obedience and, above all, his spirit of prayer and penance. These are days when we speak of social justice, make efforts to live among the poor and to identify ourselves with them. It is good to know that seventy years ago, a man coming from a highly civilized society and occupying the chair of theology at a major seminary, gave it all up in order to live among the poorest of the poor, among those who were shunned by their fellowmen. He lived like a Father of the Desert, far from the amenities of civilized life. unknown and unsung, but not unloved by those for whom he worked- his beloved Korgars. The heroic example of his life teaches us the sublime lessons of humility and poverty and inspires us with zeal, not to go for fame and name, but to labour for the lowly and the poor. As often as you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to Me."

This above material is taken from the book "Restless for Christ - Lives of Select Jesuits who toiled in the Karnataka Province" Series - III