These days when one sees the word memory,  the computer memory often comes to mind. There is a danger, the modern generation know more about the memory card than about memories of those who have preceded them.

Kolkata Province is in the Centenary Year. There is danger in the midst of celebration and much fanfare we can fail to give the rightful place to those who have reached us to the point where we are. No doubt we will name the significant leaders, pioneers and confreres  of the Province. Besides Salesians, I like to recall few of our collaborators whose contribution perhaps our history books and marble stones have not sufficiently  recorded.

The first among these collaborators who have a great role to play in our early foundations and beginnings is Mgr Perier, the archbishop of Calcutta. After being firmly rooted in Shillong it was at his request and benevolence that Salesians  came to Calcutta. The pioneering team od Salesians on their way to Shillong in 1922 were put up for two nights in St Xavier’s Kolkata and on both days Mgr Mathias visited the Bishop’s House and had  long conversations with Mgr Perier,  sharing Don Bosco’s dream for Calcutta. Ever since that first meeting  there was a strong  chemistry between Mgr Mathias and archbishop Perier. Both were French and the language may have been a cementing factor. Archbishop arranged for the pioneer group to visit the Cathedral and the Catholic Orphan Press before they continued on their journey to Shillong. After two years in 1925, Mgr Mathias would be back to Calcutta to explore  the  possibility of a Salesians  Foundation in Calcutta. Archbishop was overjoyed at the suggestion and offered his own Cathedral and the COP Press to the Salesians.  Seeing that the Salesians have no money to buy the machineries in the press, archbishop himself suggested the Fund which the Salvatorian missionaries had left with him in exchange for the Press. Even though penniless, the Salesians were thus able to occupy the COP and administer the Cathedral, the  first Salesian presence in Calcutta. On 31 December 1925 at the official handing over ceremony, giving his blessing to the work that the Salesians were starting the Archbishop said, “ I bless this humble beginning in Calcutta, and I am sure that Don Bosco will work here also the miracles which he has worked in other parts of the world.”

The archbishop’s words were Prophetic. The Lord has abundantly blessed our work in Calcutta.  When Salesians sounded the idea of a Technical School in Calcutta archbishop Perier fully supported the idea. Again Salesian had no money to buy the land for the Technical School.  The archbishop came to their aid. The Parish Priest of Howrah had gathered some money in order to shift the Anglo-Indian boys, staying near the parish  elsewhere and start some form of a training for them. Archbishop suggested this fund in order  to buy the land and invited Salesians to take up the  training of the boys.  After buying the land to put a shed on the land the Vicar General Mgr Fernandez SJ, gave interest free loan to the Salesians.

When Mylapore diocese handed over Bandel in 1928,  it should have normally gone to the archdiocese, but archbishop Perier  was magnanimous in giving Bandel to the Salesians in exchange for the property Salesians were leaving behind in Tanjore. Archbishop was there to bless the Liluah House on 08 December 1937. In April 1936,  when Our Lady’s house was burnt down the Archbishop offered the summer Villa of the Jesuits  at  Woodcot to shelter the homeless  students of Philosophy. When the first group of Salesian students reached Sonada,   from Bandel they were put up at the St Theresa Villa in Sonada  until the brewery of Gorabari was made habitable. The archbishop came to meet the students at Sonada in St Theresa Villa and invited the young Salesians to compete with brothers of St Mary’s Kurseong in brewing the beer of fervour and holiness for the Lord. Archbishop was again at the Salesian College Sonada for the Blessing of the first part of the College. Again in 1962 when the apostolic school at Sevoke, Siliguri was blessed the archbishop was there to preside over the ceremony.

Going through the early part of our Salesian history in India and particularly  in Calcutta we see the great contribution of archbishop Perier to the planting, nurturing and growth of the Salesian works in India and particularly in Calcutta.  We would not have been where we are but for the generosity and encouragement of Archbishop Perier.

Another Jesuit to whom the Salesians are indebted is Fr De Wachter SJ, the Parish Priest of Howrah, who had gathered in the course of several years, Rs 95,000 to shift the School attached to his parish meant for Anglo-Indian boys elsewhere. In spite of pressure from different quarters to use the money  for some Jesuit  foundations, he with the understanding and encouragement  of the archbishop gave the fund to the Salesians to buy land for the future Don Bosco Liluah. He did not live long enough to see the blessing of the House but Fr Sruderi, the provincial, in his welcome speech paid great tribute to Fr De Wachter SJ.

Another group that needs to be remembered for their contribution to the early Salesians in Krishnagar is the Sisters of Charity of St Bartholomea Capitanio and Vicenza Gerosa. They were in Krishnagar some sixty years before the arrival of the Salesians to Krishnagar. They were a great help in the mission field to the Milan Fathers of Central Bengal. Their early history is one of deprivations and much hardship. When Salesians came to Krishnagar in 1928 they continued their collaboration in the mission field and took care of Catholic girls in Senior Holy Family  and the smaller boys at  Junior Don Bosco. During the great Famine of Bengal in 1944 and the Partition of Bengal  in 1947 and the Bangladesh War 1971 the Bambina Sisters were in the forefront collaborating closely with the Salesians to bring medical help and relief to thousands of refugees and deprived poor people. Let our memory not fail in time of our celebrations and forget those who have closely collaborated with us  during our difficult times. There can a tendency to replace  time-tested collaborators with new ones without any regard to history and memory.

These are but few names we cannot but remember  but there are  hundreds of lay-people, catechists, diocesan priests, sisters, collaborators we need to remember during our Centenary Celebration. Let us take up the forgotten pages of history and be grateful to all those who have walked along with us over a Century.                  -Fr T.V. George sdb