November 05, 2012 - An American Jesuit priest in North India’s Bihar state has been
honoured for spreading the Catholic faith through his extensive writings in Hindi
language. US priest Fr. Jerome Durack was honoured with the fourth Cherubin Barno
Sahu Memorial Award for 2012 on Saturday. The award of Rs. 6500 and a certificate
named after Cherubim Barno Sahu, known by his pen-name ‘Suman’, a renowned Catholic
writer from Bettiah who died in 1984. Patna Archdiocese, the Patna Jesuits and Prabhat
Prakashan jointely instituted the award in 2008 on the 24th anniversary of Sahu’s
death, to honour each year a leading Catholic Hindi writer of India. Sahu, whose
first major hit novel was ‘Sahi Rasta’ (The True Way), has also numerous stories,
poems, songs, and plays to his credit, besides translations of numerous psalms. Sahu’s
special job was to teach Hindi to American Jesuits of the Hindi belt. Fr. Durack
on receiving the award on Saturday acknowledged that it was because of Sahu that
he had mastered the Hindi language well. “He taught us to speak and write Hindi within
four months of my initial formative years as a Jesuit,” said the 83-year-old secretary
to the bishop of Bettiah. Archbishop William D’Souza of Patna said that with his
prolific writings on religion, catechism, spirituality and moral issues, Fr. Durack’s
contribution to Hindi language has been remarkable. The priest has written books
on the lives of saints and regularly contributes to Pavitra Hriday Ka Sandesh, a Hindi
Catholic magazine published by Prabhat Prakashan.