Jesuits remember deceased members

(Nov.03,2010) Jesuits working in West Bengal state brought together the memories of 220 confreres, who had worked and died in eastern India in the past 150 years, by erecting two stone slabs in the cemetery with their names. Jesuit Father Jeyaraj Veluswamy, Rector and master of novices, said that annually on All Souls’ Day, celebrated Nov. 2 by the Church worldwide, people visit the cemetery at Dhyan Ashram (abode of prayer), a Jesuit center near Kolkata, to honour missionaries and Jesuit seminarians by organizing prayer services. He said “By placing the names of all those who died in the Bengal Mission, we wish to pass on a tradition to the younger members, undergoing training to become Jesuits.
According to Fr. Albert Huart, Calcutta Jesuit province’s archivist, some 500 Jesuits had worked in the Bengal Mission for the past 150 years. He added that most of the 220, who lie buried within the Calcutta territory are from Belgium, with some Yugoslavians and Maltese. The Bengal Mission was established in 1859 by four Belgian and three English Jesuits.