FR ANGELO GAVIRAGHI (1871-1938)

Fr Angelo Gaviraghi, SJ

Forty miles east of Mangalore, as the Western Ghats rise from the coastal plains, there was a twenty mile stretch of jungle, fifty years ago, difficult of access but calling to the adventurous agriculturists of the Deccan plateau and the West Coast to clear it and convert it into coffee plantations which would reward them bounteously from the sale of the berry both within and outside the country.

In those days of the bullock cart, malaria and ignorance, a kind of feudalism was practiced in the coffee-estates as well as in the jungle strip of land at the foot-hills by the land-lords who were the Jains, Brahmins or those of the upper caste, and their serfs were the Harijans who, having served their masters for hundreds of years and accustomed to their servitude, never thought that there was the need of any liberation from their state.

It goes to the credit of just a few Italian Missionaries who worked in this region bringing Christ to these oppressed people that, as a fruit of Christ's message, the process of liberation began. Fr Corti had begun his pioneering work at Naravi among those oppressed people in 1905, with the intention of bringing the gospel message to the poor and simple ones, since the higher castes had not accepted it. Within eight years he received an able assistant in Fr Angelo Gaviraghi, who, moved by the same zeal, continued the hard work with good success.

Today Fr Gaviraghi is fondly remembered as the founder of Arwa, Badyar, Belthangady and Madantyar missions. As one travels today to these stations on broad and black-topped roads, still running through dense jungles, one can imagine the hardships of the foreigner who without any means of communication, except the bullock-cart, moved tirelessly from village to village bringing Christ to the Harijans.

Father Angelo Gaviraghi was born on the 29th of December, 1871 in Agrate Brianza, a village near Milan, of a simple and poor family. The very same day he was baptized at the parochial church. When he was but seven, the Jesuit Province of Venice-Milan sent to Mangalore the first band of Missionaries- young men who volunteered to leave their home-land in order to make Christ known to those in faraway India.

Inspired by the example of missionaries from his early years, he entertained the idea of becoming a priest and possibly a missionary in a faraway land. So, at the end of his schooling, he joined the seminary at the age of twenty. It was in this seminary at Monza that he heard of the missionary adventures of the Missionaries of the French Foreign Mission of Milan. But his Missions for some time were the diocese of Milan. Having been ordained in 1897, he devoted thirteen years of his energetic priestly life for the diocese which had educated him, keeping continually alive his desire to join a religious order, which later on would send him to India as a missionary.

So, in September 1910, he joined the Jesuit Novitiate at the age of thirty-nine. It was here that the priest-novice came to hear of reports received from Mangalore about the apostolic activities of the missionaries sent from the Milan Province. This seemed to be the response to his yearning for mission work, and the opportunity presented itself when Bishop Perini S. J. arrived in Milan to give the Fathers an account of the work the Jesuit missionaries were doing in Mangalore, and asked for volunteers to join him on his return voyage to India. Soon we find Angelo Gaviraghi, with the approval of his superiors, accompanying the Bishop of Mangalore, just a few months after the completion of his novitiate. Though not so young in age, at forty-one, he arrived on the 10th of December, 1912 in Mangalore, with a youthful spirit of adventure for Christ. He had probably surmised from the many talks he had heard of the missions in India, that he would have to carry buckets of water, baptizing heads readily bowing for Christ.

Experience, however, taught him differently. The change in food, climate, customs and, above all, the languages and dialects, were to him a real challenge. Yet for six months, while residing at the Rosario Cathedral, he struggled to learn the rudiments of Tulu and Kannada from Deacon Valerian D'Souza, later the Bishop of Mangalore. Hardly had he picked up a small vocabulary when he begged to be sent to the front.

This front for him was to be Naravi under the leadership of Fr Corti, a zealous missionary, fifteen years his senior in age, twenty-seven longer in India, and founder of the Naravi mission eight years earlier. This mission was originally started with the intention of preaching the gospel to the high-castes, Jains and Brahmins. For some reason or the other the higher castes did not accept Christ in large numbers. So, like St. Paul, the apostle of the gentiles, Fr Corti had turned towards the Harijans. This experiment was more rewarding. Moreover, another veteran Italian Missionary, Fr Alexander Camisa, confident that Christ chooses the humble and the simple to reveal Himself, had started the mission work among the Korgars. It was, therefore, not strange that Fr Gaviraghi too decided to be at the service of the Harijans till the end of his life.

After such a great longing for the missions, finally he was on the spot wanting to meet the simple Harijans, speak to and instruct them. He was known to have moved in different directions from Naravi as the base, establishing temporary chapels where he could offer Mass. One such station was Arwa, about eight miles away. He used to visit this place on Saturdays, say Mass on Sundays and return to Naravi walking in order to have his breakfast. But such zeal is often oblivious of prudence, and soon these hardships of the mission, combined with the disagreeable climate and malaria, obliged him to return to Mangalore to be hospitalized. After a break of six months, he once again left to join his beloved neophytes. independent mission. This time he was given Arwa as an independent mission.

Ignoring the obstacles that would deter many a bold. spirit, he was guided by the vision of the bright future he saw for a possible Christian community, and so forgetting about his delicate health, he visited on foot or by bullock-cart the different Harijan villages within a radius of about twenty miles. Badyar, five and half miles distant, was one of them. Here he put up a small chapel and a little school for the Harijan children. Having won almost all the Harijans of Arwa to Christ and having completed the construction of a church for them, he shifted permanently to Badyar. Here he consolidated the Christian community and visited other stations Belthangady, Madantyar. During his brief stay in these stations his aim was not only to consolidate the old Christian community and win over the Harijans, but also to discover some volunteers who could help him as lay catechists.

Some of these young men serving as catechists did a wonderful work, having been trained for it by the missionary himself. Though Fr Gaviraghi was able to converse in Tulu, he was too busy to instruct all those flocking to the mission Individual and small groups were instructed by the catechists, who were usually from the old Catholic community, which always used Konkani as their mother-tongue. This naturally brought about a class distinction which remained till the end, between the newly baptized converts from the Harijan community and the old Catholics. But one could not completely do away with it as the population had grown so used to such a social structure. During his stay in these stations, Fr Gaviraghi also paid visits to Nirkan, Moodubidri, Bangadi and other neighbouring parishes.

Fr Gaviraghi's Residence in Nellikar

One might like to evaluate the method of evangelization used by Fr Gaviraghi. For a person coming from Europe, it was but natural that the oppressed Harijans were an object of commiseration. He defended them against the rapacity of their landlords, who had reduced them to the state of bonded labour with absolutely no freedom even to choose their own master. Having no land of their own, and tilling the land of their upper-caste masters, they had grown so used to dependence and ignorance that Fr Gaviraghi found it difficult to make them stand on their feet. For the Harijans, however, it was a great disaster to be thrown out by their masters, because nobody would give them work or food. Neither did Fr Gaviraghi like the idea of his converts going to work in the coffee-estates in the Western Ghats. That would not only be a strain on their practise of the faith, but would be entering into another type of slavery which existed in all the plantations.

Even the civil authorities had great appreciation for the work these missionaries were doing for the poor Harijans so that the District Collector of the time offered 1000 acres of land to Fr Corti in order to help their poor to settle down as independent farmers. But this plan, according to the missionaries was not feasible, for no Harijan till then had ever held land or cultivated it independently. Moreover, these missionaries felt that they had come to establish among the poor a kingdom not of this world.

So, short-term measures were adopted, like giving the poor money, clothes, medicine and primary education, etc. These things themselves were a break from the old established tradition. No Harijan could wear new clothes or send the children to a school. Though he fought against the habit of drink, he was realistic. "You should not touch any liquour he would tell his poor. But as for toddy, not more than one bottle a day" was the norm. In every village he visited he identified himself with the Harijans, entering into their houses and accepting their 'Pez', while his Catechists from the 'old Catholic community preferred to stay outside. His cook, for a very long time, was Giru, a new convert, whose culinary skill was limited to 'Pez'. This attitude of being at home with them came naturally to him and he was called Priest of the Pariahs. There was a strong movement at the time to win over all the Harijans of that area to the Arya Samaj. A camp was organized at Guruvayanakere, just a few miles away from Arwa and Badyar, by the Arya Samaj. Yet, not one of Fr Gaviraghi's or Fr Corti's converts apostalized; such was their trust in their missionaries.

Arva Church in 1923 built by Fr Gaviraghi

Catechist D'Silva was a great help to communicate the instruction Fr Gaviraghi had drawn up. The content of the instruction addressed to the ignorant and superstitious people was this: Do not worship the spirits or the devil, God is the creator of all, He is most powerful, His Son Jesus Christ came into this world and showed that power followed by the life, passion Resurrection of Christ. At first these simple people were afraid to enter into the church premises at Arva, because the land was supposed to have been haunted. But when Fr Gaviraghi erected a belfry and sounded the bell for prayer, people felt that the sound of it drove away the devil. He constructed the church at Arva and dedicated it to St Peter Claver, the apostle of negro slaves.

It is very difficult to conclusively ascertain the number of those instructed and baptized by Fr Gaviraghi. Very probably he was able to baptize around 5000 people almost all of whom were Harijans. Since they were not living in just one or another of the villages in large numbers, but scattered all over the place, it was very difficult for him to contact them without much effort. Yet their love for him was so great that during his visits to the station they flocked to meet him in the chapel on Sundays, not purely out of desire for the holy. He strengthened their faith in Christ through some words of comfort or some material help. To most of them he was the only person they had come across who had taken an interest in their welfare.

In 1926 Fr Corti, the founder of the Naravi Mission died. Not having found a suitable person to continue the work among the neophytes, the Superiors decided to send Fr Gaviraghi to Naravi. Thus, he returned in May 1928, to Naravi, from where he had started his first missionary experience, 15 years earlier. He once again rallied the converts scattered after Fr Corti's death and completed the construction of the church. In order to take care of the boarding and school he invited the Sisters of Charity for whom he had a little convent erected. Some of the sisters who entered the new house even now remember the indigence they had to experience at that time, but the example of the missionary who had absolutely no material comforts, gave them the strength and courage to bear it well.

Fr Gaviraghi's wanderings brought him to another community of the outcastes near Nellikar, miles away from Naravi. Here he erected a little chapel for them and visited them regularly when he was stationed in Naravi. When Bishop Fernandes was able to spare Fr F.X. D'Souza for the Naravi mission, Fr Gaviraghi moved to Nellikar as the resident missionary. This was his sixth and the final assignment in his work for the Harijans. Nellikar was an isolated place and the mission was in the middle of the jungle. Yet his consolation was that he was in very close to the people whom he loved. All his hardships out of love for his people had already exhausted his energy. He fell sick and was removed to the Kankanady Hospital in May 1937. But his courage was in exhaustible and after a break of six months in Mangalore, he once again returned to Nellikar.

Side view of the Nellikar Church build by Fr Gaviraghi

Fr Gaviraghi had never enjoyed robust health after coming to India. Yet he was never pre-occupied with it. He contracted filariasis within a short time after coming to Mangalore and after some time walking became very difficult for a missionary who had no other conveyance than the bullock-cart. Every now and then he was troubled with malaria, which at that time was very common on the foot-hills, but he paid hardly any attention to it, unless others forced him to do so. Moreover, his penances and lack of nourishing food had weakened him so much that his final six months of stay at Nellikar, after recovering from his illness, was a period of just wasting away of disease. The only reason for his being sent back to Nellikar in that delicate condition seems have been the conviction that, had he been forced to remain in Mangalore, he would have passed away earlier.

On the 6th of May 1938 he said Mass, as it was the first Friday of the month. This he did with utmost difficulty. Fr John Menezes, who was there to help him in the Mission. had him brought to the Kankanady hospital by car. The fever never came down and on the following night at 10.45 this apostle of the Harijans breathed his last.

With the death of Fr Gaviraghi an important chapter in the history of systematic evangelization within the Mangalore diocese comes to an end. For centuries the Harijans as outcastes in the social structure of that region were deprived of an opportunity of receiving the knowledge of Christ, as the Portuguese and other European missionaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries working along the West Coast directed their efforts to those of the higher castes better educated, socially and economically more privileged. It is owing to the efforts of the Italian missionaries, Fr Corti and Fr Gaviraghi, later continued by Fr Alexander Camisa and Fr Anthony Zearo, that thrust was made for the first time in an organized manner to bring to the Christian fold the socially ostracized outcastes.

It was a pioneering work that needed continual follow up. A strong Christian community had to be raised once the foundations were laid. Unfortunately, after the death of these missionaries no systematic effort was made to continue their work. A good number of the Harijans, who had sought the help of Fr Gaviraghi, were cast out of their land by their landlords. This cut them off from their own outcaste society, and led most of them to seek employment as labourers in the coffee-plantations where they lacked all assistance to keep their faith in Christ alive, and so fell back into their old animistic cult. Those who remained behind on their land had very few sympathizers among the local Christians, who being of the upper castes would not freely mingle with them, nor provide them with the much-needed socio-economic and educational help, thus obliging them to revert to the religion of their ancestors.

At present, there are twenty-four families of Fr Gaviraghi's converts still practicing their faith in Arwa. There are forty other families who are not-so-good Christians but who because of the contact with the present zealous parish priest through some socio-economic projects have kept firm their ties with the Church. In Badyar too there are more than twenty families of Harijan converts who still remain good Christians. Most of these families have been in contact with some priest or the other and thus were able to get some financial help and education for their children. Some of them possess their own land now and have even sent their children for higher education. Had there been a continuity in the work of the early Italian missionaries this work of the Church among the Harijans would have blossomed by this time and yielded much fruit.

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