FR AUGUSTUS DIAMANTI, S.J. (1848-1919)

Fr Augustus Diamanti, SJ

Among the early Jesuits who worked in the Mangalore Mission, there were two named Augustus, and true to their name they were august in their life and work. Fr Augustus Diamanti was to the St Joseph's Seminary what Fr Augustus Muller was to the hospital, now named deservedly after him. Not a few correspondents wrote to Fr Rector of the Seminary on hearing of Fr Diamanti's death and observed that he might be called 'not only a benefactor but the Founder of the Seminary'. Fr Lyons noted His little world was the Seminary, its Church and the Jeppoo compound. But of this little world, however little, he was the great soul". Fr Alberti, S.J. the Provincial of Venice, while on a visit to the Seminary in 1913, greeted Fr Diamanti as "Tu es fundator hujus Seminari". For forty years the Seminary was Fr Diamanti's field of work.

Augustus was born at St Elpidin, near Ferme, in Italy on 1st October, 1848. After his secular studies he joined the Society of Jesus in the Roman Province at the age of 22. He completed his Jesuit training and studies in France and was then assigned to the newly opened Mission of Mangalore. He landed in Mangalore with Fr John Baptist Rossi early in 1879 and was posted to the Seminary which at the time was a small house with mud walls and thatched roof. Fr Diamanti's touch was to change the place so that on the marble slab that covers his grave in the Seminary chapel they could rightly inscribe 'monumentum aere perennius'. (a monument more lasting than brass). How was this possible? we find the answer almost spontaneously expressed in the many letters received from the Diocesan priests whom he had guided in the Seminary. The spirit of Fr Diamanti was spirit of devotion to Heart and its interests, spirit of sacrifice and self-effacement, spirit of hard work giving of its best. He was man of God and scholar, an artist and architect.

From Rome-Fr Diamanti was brought with him an ardent and practical devotion to the Sacred Heart. Every Seminarian who had Fr Diamanti for his spiritual guide, became an ardent apostle of Heart in his own turn. With the greatest care, in full conformity with Catholic theology, he used to explain to the Seminarians the nature and effects of this devotion. He prudently introduced all the holy practices to foster this devotion and in particular organized the Apostleship of Prayer. He published in Konkani valuable manual on the Apostleship of prayer.

Again, in Rome Fr Diamanti had learnt how powerfully the sacred liturgy acts on mind and heart of people. He worked, therefore, to make the Seminary Church a centre of liturgical observance and personally taught and trained the Seminarians to delicately and strictly observe the demands of liturgy. The liturgical notes he compiled are a veritable treasure. They were printed after Fr Diamanti's death and formed the text book of liturgy in the Seminary. In the same spirit and for the same purpose he gave a fully new organisation to ecclesiastical music and strove to carry into effect what the Popes of the XIX century and after them Pius X had enjoined regarding liturgical and congregational chant. He made the most of the remarkable aptitude the people of diocese have for music. In that same spirit he got up the band, which would be known as the "Jeppoo Band" for years to come

The artist and architect in Fr Diamanti went hand in hand with the Apostle of the Sacred Heart and liturgist. For God nothing was small and everything must be the best. The imposing Seminary building and in particular the chapel were designed by him. He also personally supervised the work. The foundation stone was laid on 8th 1887, and in 1890 the building was completed and inaugurated. In those days of mortar, wood and stone, it was an achievement indeed and speaks highly of the workers too. Fr Diamanti was, in fact, the architect of the Diocese in that he designed a good number of churches for Bishops Pagani and Cavadini.

St Joseph's Seminary, Jeppoo 

This quiet apostle of the Sacred Heart had spirit that was restless to win souls for Christ. In the matter of winning Souls for Christ he was not satisfied to work for the salvation with his role of spiritual father, he wanted to involve himself personally and actively in the task. He took up the work of the Catechumenate, within year and half after his arrival in Mangalore. He may be rightly called the founder of the Catechumenate and the Workshops. His sharp mind and organizing ability worked out the whole scheme. The orphans must have not only home to live in but work to that will train them in skill and help them to live an in dependent and decent life later on. On 22nd December, 1884, the foundation stone for catechumenate and Workshop building was laid. Catechumenate and almost all the other buildings that cluster round the Seminary have been founded or designed by Fr Diamanti". These words from the letter of Diocesan Father echo the inscription on Fr Diamanti's grave 'monumentum aere perennius'.

And yet this popular priest never appeared in public, never sought the limelight or even gratitude. Self-sacrifice and self-effacement was his style of life. "He did so much good, but in so unostentatious a manner that outside the Seminary world people who spoke about praised him and admired him, hardly knew him personally". More than once," it is noted in one of his early biographies, he was present at some feast in the very parish church which he had designed without the people around knowing that he was the architect. And he would never speak a word about himself or his works".

This deeply spiritual man, architect and liturgist was also a Latin scholar and poet. Latin poetry came to him almost naturally. No feast day of a Jesuit member of the Community, no prominent occasion in the town, no inauguration of a new venture, no death of a dear one, passed off without a few verses issuing forth from the pen of Fr Diamanti. The inscription, immortalized by Br Moscheni above the main arch in the chapel of St Aloysius College, is of Fr Diamanti. And this Latin scholar is also the author of a number of pamphlets in Konkani on devotion to the Sacred Heart and Apostleship of prayer.

In death too Fr Diamanti kept to his life-style of self-sacrifice and self-effacement. Perhaps in his humility he had prayed for such a death. He died at Kotagiri, the holiday house of the Jesuit Fathers, far from his field of work, away from all his hundreds of spiritual children, the priests of the Diocese of Mangalore and the inhabitants of the compound and roundabout areas. It was holiday time: the Seminary was almost empty. In the quiet of the Westbrooke Villa House in the Nilgiris, he died on 4th, May, 1919, surrounded by a few of his Jesuit Companions. He was buried in the cemetery attached to the house. But his bones were not to rest there. Thirteen years later, through the loyal efforts of his spiritual children, the Diocesan Fathers, his remains were brought to the Seminary and after a solemn pontifical Mass, attended by an overflowing church, were buried just below the sanctuary. An epitaph on a marble slab marks the exact spot.

A statue of Fr Diamanti with pen and paper in his hands, symbols of an artist and architect and of a poet too, adorns the entrance of St Joseph's Industrial Workshops. A painting holding the same instruments of his art, greets a visitor to the Seminary when he opens the door. Thus, the apostle of the Sacred Heart, who sacrificed himself in work and self-effacement, and whose sacerdotal centenary coincides with the centenary of the Mission in which he worked, is still silently seeking to raise hearts and minds towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

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