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| Brother Antony Lasrado, SJ |
It was on 20th November, 1867, that the future Jesuit Brother Antony Lasrado was born at Amembal, some 20 miles from Mangalore. As the little boy grew up in his village home where faith and piety were strong, he developed an ardent love for Christ and his Mother. After going through his elementary education, full of solid piety and generosity towards God, the youthful Antony, at the age of twenty, decided to join the Society of Jesus. He was enrolled as one of the earliest recruits for the then Mangalore Mission. In a spirit of great generosity, he went through his period of postulancy and novitiate at Jeppu and laid the foundation of solid spirituality. Thanks to this training, he would render yeoman service not only to the early Fathers of the Mission but also to those who continued their work, and all this for nearly sixty years.
Of these sixty years of religious life, he spent just a year and a half at St Aloysius College, fourteen in St Aloysius College Boarding House and a record of forty-four and a half at St Joseph's Seminary. Young Br Antony was a dynamo of energy at the College, attending to all sorts of jobs. He stole the hearts of the boys by his bounty of some biscuits or sweets or even bits of bread that materialized from his huge pockets. In the Boarding House his popularity waxed higher still; the boarders, both big and small, Catholic and non-Catholic looked up to him as their father and mother, and in return received much affection and sympathy from him. His pockets were perennial sources of eatables or even pieces of fish or meat, and with them he gave his love to his little friends.
He devoted himself to his work whole-heartedly and tried to improve the finances of the Boarding House by starting a piggery and poultry for both of which he had a rare gift. His boarders and even the day-scholars with whom he used to move freely and in great simplicity, would always cherish fond memories of him that would draw them to the Seminary several years later to meet the aging Brother.
His long stay at the Seminary of over forty years was marked by a life of regularity, piety and devotedness. He always found pleasure and pride in speaking about the glorious days of the early Fathers of the Mission, Undoubtedly, he had rendered them yeoman service in his own simple, cheery way; but with yet greater simplicity he would identify himself with all their brilliant achievements, not so much out of vanity as through the sheer joy of having lived and toiled with them. He cherished a genuine love for our Jesuit Mission and would never feel any scruple or hesitation to propose all types of schemes for its advancement. To all and sundry he spoke of its glory. Whatever topic he was engaged in. God and Jesuits invariably cropped up in his conversation and that in a manner neither affected nor self-conscious. Dedicated as he was to Our Lord; he could ill afford to be narrow. His brethren, above all his Superiors, knew his worth, knew what lay behind his intense zeal, his chatty attention to people and his apparently much too liberal manner of bestowing charity. It was only an irresistible outpouring of a heart filled to overflowing with love for Christ and His poor.
During his long stay at the Seminary, he became one of the most popular and lovable persons. When at times he stood in the portico in his soiled black cassock and an equally soiled black cap, he was not infrequently taken for the Rector of the Seminary. During most of the day he would be found by the kitchen side or in the piggery or poultry. At lunch, however, in obedience to his superior's wish he would come in a spotlessly white cassock to read at table for nearly forty minutes. When any word was corrected, he would rise a little, raise his cap out of deference to the corrector and then, in all simplicity repeat the word just as before, with the same error to the merriment of those at table.
His poor native parish of Amembal was one of the many objects of his intense love. He would often ask the Rector or his "old boarders" for some financial help to provide vestments and such things to his parish.
During his long life of eighty years, he enjoyed more or less robust health. Minor ailments and occasional bouts of asthma broke the even tenor of his life ever so imperceptibly that he caused no inconvenience to the community. In his later years, however, he suffered increasingly from asthma and had to pass several sleepless nights, reclining on the parapet of the corridor.
In August, 1947 Br Lasrado completed sixty years in the Society. The day was fittingly celebrated at the Seminary where he had already spent 44 years of his religious life. In the greetings read on the occasion, we note the following. "By his silent, unostentatious service to us, the Brother, has won our affection and esteem. Generally, there is nothing dazzling in the hidden life of a religious Brother. And for this very reason it is nothing short of heroism for one to enter upon such a career, while natural inclination seeks the sun shine of public esteem and admiration. Oh! What a noble example of a simple, virtuous life has not the good Brother given to the inmates of this Seminary during these sixty years f life in the Society of Jesus! His simplicity, firm faith and childlike confidence in God, implicit obedience, spirit of self-less sacrifice, contentment and cheerfulness- are not all these noble traits and virtues, worthy of our imitation?"
Advancing age however was rapidly undermining his mortal frame. Towards the end it could be easily observed that he was fighting a losing battle though he still followed the community life. On 25th August, 1947, he developed all of a sudden high temperature of 104° and his feet became swollen. Dr A. Coelho of Fr Muller's Hospital declared the case serious and consequently on the following evening the good Brother was administered the Sacrament of the Sick by the Rector. The next morning, he received Holy Communion as Viaticum. Then he lapsed into a comatic state and on 30th August, peacefully breathed his last.
The large number of laity and clergy who attended his funeral on Saturday evening, 30th August, were an eloquent testimony to the esteem in which he was held by all. The poor, the neglected, the forgotten and a horde of ragged children lost in him a friend and father. He had enthroned himself in their heart by his constant kindness in word and deed. Christ's memorable assurance must have been his complimentary ticket to heaven: "As long as you did it to the least of my brethren you did it to me".
The Diamond Jubilee address to the Brother had ended with these words: "We humbly pray to the Lord to keep you always here, in the scene of your sweet labours hale and hearty till he calls you to the land of lasting bliss to crown you with the weight of eternal glory".
Could the Lord be less generous than the petitioner?
This above material is taken from the book "Restless for Christ - Lives of Select Jesuits who toiled in the Karnataka Province" Series - III
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