Fr Ferroli who passed away in Italy on 4th October 1970 at the ripe old age of 84, was one of the great luminaries of the former Mangalore Mission. Born in Italy on 13th November 1887, he did his early studies in the Diocesan Seminary. He entered the Society in January 1906 and did his novitiate at Soresina and later his first year of philosophy at Cremona. In 1910 he was sent to England where he completed his philosophy at Stonyhurst and then joined the Liverpool University. Here he had for companion Fr Leo Proserpio, who became later the Bishop of Calicut.
The two of them came to India in 1913, reaching Mangalore on October 26. Fr Ferroli spent 3 years at St Aloysius College doing his regency and then proceeded to Kurseong for his theology. He was ordained in January 1920. At the end of the same year, Fr Ferroli was sent back to Italy and joined the University of Padua where he took his doctorate in Physics in1923. Back in India at the end of the year, he did his tertianship at Ranchi and then joined the staff of St Aloysius College in November 1924. For the next 10 years, he worked in Mangalore teaching Mathematics and religion in the College, running study clubs for boys or organizing public lectures and writing books.
After a brief stay in Italy in 1934, he was posted at Christ Hall, Calicut where he was first in charge of the carbon factory and then taught in the Juniorate. In 1937 Fr Ferroli was transferred to Bangalore where he took up work at St Joseph's College, which was then newly taken over by the Jesuits of the Mangalore Mission. Here he organized the first Summer School which continued to be held for a number of years.
During the Second World War, Fr Ferroli was interned in N. India, and was allowed to return to the Mission only in1945. He stayed for a time in Calicut and then went to Bangalore in 1947 where he took up work in St Joseph's College once more. Fr Ferroli returned to Italy in 1956 when he was long past the age for active work in the College. But he continued his labours in Italy, keeping himself busy with various forms of apostolic work almost till the end.
A highly intellectual man, Fr Ferroli was at the same time an assiduous worker. While fully occupied in teaching, he found time to write several books. The best known of these are his Studies in Christian Sanctity (a second edition was published under the title of 'The Queen's Call'), Ethics or Moral Science in three volumes, Jesuits in Malabar in two volumes, and Jesuits in Mysore. The two last show great research and scholarship and a sense of historical perspective.
An eloquent preacher, his sermons were always a delight to hear, while as a confessor he was greatly in demand. Seemingly absorbed in intellectual pursuits and grave-looking, he was at the same time an amiable man who kept the ball rolling during community recreation by his humorous stories. Above all, he was a man of prayer and great personal sanctity. It was a source of edification to watch him recite the breviary or his rosary – so great was his recollection. May God grant him the reward of his great labours.
Written by Fr Devadatta Kamath
in The Burning Bush Part II Volume 2, Pages 39-40, 2008 (Unpublished, Kar Province Archives).
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