Although a considerable number of Maltese nationals had joined the Society of Jesus before World War II, they formed part of the Sicilian Jesuit province.

A century ago, in October 1924, three members of this Jesuit province arrived in India. These were 37-year-old Maltese priest Fr Anton DeBono and two scholastics (student Jesuits still in their formation) – the Maltese Bernard Bugeja and the Sicilian Giuseppe Cordaro.

Fr Anton DeBono, SJ (February 25, 1887-July 16, 1956) – the pioneer and founder of the Maltese Jesuits’ mission among the Santal tribe.

Fr DeBono was assigned to Majlispur, in the Purnea district in northeast India, bordering Nepal, 4,976km north of Calcutta.

Through the efforts of the charismatic, but exhausted, Belgian Jesuit Fr Leopold Knockaert, by 1920, a small station of 889 baptised and 3,003 catechumens had been established there with a mud-hut and a mud-chapel as their headquarters.

These tribal Christians at Majlispur were Santalis, who had emigrated north across the Ganges from the Santal Parganas district, their homeland, settling in very small villages among Hindus and Muslims.

Indians who received Confirmation with Archbishop Perier of Calcutta.

Single-handedly and still getting used to the Santal language, Fr DeBono settled down in the mud-hut with a leaking roof and began working with the few Christians he found there. It did not take him long to win over their hearts, especially by protecting them against their Muslim Zamindar overlords.

The following year, he was joined by Fr Benjamin Cauchi and, after another three years, by newly ordained Fr Cordaro and Fr John Grech Cumbo.

Archbishop Perier of Calcutta (seated) with three of the pioneers – (from left) Fr Giuseppe Codaro, SJ, Fr Anton DeBono, SJ, and Fr John Grech Cumbo.

Challenges to and spanners in the wheels of this outreach in the homeland of the Santals were not lacking

New venture

In January 1930, the pioneering Fr Cauchi crossed the Ganges and began evangelising in Santal Pargana. Centres of activity began to mushroom, in Kasturi, Monglapara. New hubs grew at Torai, Tinpahar, Sahibganj Guhiajuri, and Dushani.

Construction work on a church and a school got under way and, as long as missionaries kept increasing, the extent of the territory covered widened. North of the Ganges, mission stations were erected at Katihar and at Islampur.

The Fathers’ Bungalow (Presbytery) built in 1930 at Majlispur.

Progress amidst challenges

The Sisters of Charity of Capitanio, and other congregations, flocked to the region to galvanise the Christian endeavour by helping base the Santal mission on a solid foundation.

Challenges to and spanners in the wheels of this outreach in the homeland of the Santals were not lacking. One cannot expect the contrary when a project of empowering people is involved. Those occupying lucrative positions were bound to feel threatened by the upward mobility of the vexed and marginalised people demanding their rights, promoted by the spread of Christianity. In 1933, for instance, the parish priest’s hut in Monglapara, his school, and his church were ordered to be dismantled.

Female and male catechists attending a course at the Catechists Training Centre at Torai.

Younger men in the vineyard

By 1947, the Maltese Jesuits had risen sufficiently in numbers as to merit the status of a vice-province. That year, there were 12 Maltese working in Santal Parganas, 11 of whom were priests and one, a coadjutor brother. Twenty years later, the team counted 50 Jesuits, whose territory covered no less than 10,000 square miles, embracing churches, bungalows, dispensaries, as well as eight primary and five secondary schools and another six of higher education.

Every year, young Jesuits offered themselves to join their colleagues in the distant mission. In Valletta’s Ta’ Ġieżu church, departure ceremonies of young Jesuits, dressed in white cassocks and bearing a cross in their sash, became practically a yearly event that helped to nourish in Malta a missionary spirit that continued to sustain the work in India.

The spreading of the missionary message was intensified with the vice-province’s diffusion of its monthly publication in Maltese called Lil Ħbiebna. This magazine carried first-hand information about the life of the Maltese Jesuits in Santal Parganas, keeping the Maltese public interested in nourishing their support.

The community of the Poor Clare Colettines in the monastery at Dudhani founded by Fr Anthony Savona, SJ, in 1978.

Settling in

Fr DeBono on horseback. No public transport was available.

The following free translation of a letter the missionary Fr Anthony Scicluna wrote to his ageing father in Malta captures the flavour of how a missionary settles in, in new territory. Babu Ram, his catechist, prepared for him a hut – three walls and a roof:

“Open as the place is, I had visitors coming to welcome me, in and out, day and night, as they willed, mostly goats, dogs, chickens and flies galore. But what irritates most is the hot wind and the dust it brings in with it. In no time, you are surrounded with dust. All my possessions in the hut amounted to a folding camp-bed – which we always carry around with us – and a bag that serves me as an altar and a deckchair. I am writing this letter sitting on my deckchair with my lap as a table…

“Food is not very appetising, and the cook can’t improve it. Market is seven miles away. Buses are scarce. You either walk the seven miles or trudge at a snail’s pace on a bullock cart. I am working on repairing my hut and a well is now being dug. Later I will build a new hut. I bought wooden beams for the roof, and a tree to provide me with firewood…”

Today, all the clergy in the three dioceses are indigenous, with one exception, Fr Paul Aquilina from Siġġiewi, who wants to end his days there

The mustard seed grows

Belgian Archbishop Ferdinand Perier, SJ, of Calcutta.

The work of the harvest goes on untiringly. In 1946, Fr Joseph Portelli began publishing a monthly periodical in Santali, entitled Marsaltabon – Our Light. He prepared many Santali translations. The missionaries’ emphasis on education of the people began to bear fruit.

In 1956, the founder of the mission, the beloved Fr Debono, passed away. He had toiled and lived long enough to witness the territory as an independent region with Fr Portelli as its regional superior.

Indigenous vocations, both diocesan and religious, increased. In 1962, Mgr Leo Tigga, SJ was consecrated in Malta as first bishop of Dumka diocese, and in the following year, the first Santali Jesuit was ordained to the priesthood.

The local Jesuit novitiate opened in 1977 with Fr Cecil Azzopardi as its first rector and novice master. It was teeming with new recruits. Today, all the clergy in the three dioceses are indigenous, with one exception, Fr Paul Aquilina from Siġġiewi, who wants to end his days there.

The territory is presently organised in three distinct dioceses, counting 343,148 Catholics, cared for by 314 priests, including 98 Jesuits. These Jesuit priests, together with 51 students and five Brothers, form the independent Jesuit province of Dumka-Raiganj, established in 1989.

Map of the Santal mission, bordering Nepal in the north and Bangladesh partly in the east. The River Ganges flows through, dividing it in two. The territory is spread over three states – Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand.