Building a Priory & Birthing a New Province: A Glimpse from the Pages of History

Published in Dominican Ashram, Vol. 4 No. 4 (December 2022), pp. 176-179. Reproduced with permission.

MY RECENT STUDY of the history of the Catholic Missions in Central India roused my desire to know something about the history of the community where I am assigned, namely, St. Dominic Ashram, Nagpur and the Province of India that eventually took its birth from it. Since I was not content with the fragmentary information available in the public domain, one of the friars suggested that I request access to the community chronicles. My Prior readily obliged and I was handed a voluminous red ledger book, its pages slightly yellowed with age and its binding in a delicate condition. As I opened it in search of a few historical facts, I was pleasantly surprised to find a captivating picture of those early days which, although not too distant in the past, are still quite a treat for the modern reader. I invite you to join me as I try to recount and re-paint this engrossing account.

Building St. Dominic Ashram, the Re-Christened Rosary Priory

It is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 17 June 1966. A group of eleven brothers, the first Indian aspirants of the Irish Dominican Vicariate in India, makes its way across from St. Charles Seminary, Nagpur, Central India, to a new building right opposite the seminary, taking along their few personal belongings with them. The building they are heading towards is yet far from being completed. Surrounded by heaps of construction material and the noisy clamour of workmen, the upcoming structure of Rosary Priory (soon to be re-named ‘St. Dominic Ashram’) stands on Seminary Hills with the promise of something new in store for the Dominican presence in India.

After a long day of setting up their places in the new unfinished house, the young brothers gather at 10.00 pm to recite the Rosary and a prayer to St. Dominic. A talk by fr. Cyprian Candon, OP (Vicar Provincial of the Dominicans in India and Rector of St. Charles Seminary) follows, in which the brothers are made aware of the difficulties that lie ahead. A similar talk by fr. Candon a few days earlier also reaffirmed that only “through difficulties to the heights” is the path ahead. From then on the brothers began their spiritual preparation for life at the new ‘Priory’, ending each day with a nightly visit after supper to the Grotto of Our Lady at the foot of Seminary Hills to pray the Rosary, as well as invoke the intercession of St. Dominic. Of course, prayer went hand-in-hand with numerous manual tasks in the coming days, as they sought to imitate both Martha and Mary in welcoming the Lord into their new home.

fr. Thomas Ryan, OP, the first residential Superior of the house, was also in charge of the formation of the brothers. He was accompanied at different periods of time by other Irish friars. As the house was yet far from completion, the brothers would have to trudge across to the Seminary for all their spiritual exercises and meals, and also for their daily classes at the Seminary and the adjoining St. Francis de Sales College. The programme of formation had to make considerable allowance for the daily tasks of settling into and getting ready a new house, while shuttling to and fro from the Seminary throughout the day. The first Sunday conference given by fr. Ryan was on ‘The Assiduous Study of Sacred Truth’; the second was on the Dominican motto, ‘Contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere’. During examination times, it was “books, books and only books,” although practical tasks were by no means neglected. The brothers made attempts at learning skills such as driving (with a second-hand Ambassador car, which was the first vehicle purchased) and cutting hair (an attempt which, among other disasters, also included a bit of ‘bloodshed’). Some of them made their mark in the field of sports, and many excelled in academics. At the end of their first year in the house, the brothers were divided into two groups – one destined to join the novitiate in Pachmarhi in the Satpura Hills of Central India, while the other to continue their studies in Nagpur.

The Solemnity of St. Dominic, 4 August 1967, was the first time that all the Dominican fathers and aspirants dined together in St. Dominic Ashram. About two months later, on 27 October 1967, the priory was formally erected. The chronicle for that day also records, “fr. [Jerome] Toner is appointed the first prior of what in the future may be the motherhouse of the Indian province – St. Dominic’s Ashram.” A few days later, on the feast of St. Martin de Porres (then celebrated on 5 November), the brethren had a short ceremony for the formal installation of the new Prior, and a celebration to mark the establishment of the community.

All this while, work on the house crawled along. The chronicles frequently lament the tardiness of the labourers who were employed. “Like everything else in this house,” the chronicler mourns, “the work seems to be carried [out] on the principle – slow and steady wins the race.” Problems with electricity and water supply were also frequent. St. Thomas’ Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles were the first books to be procured for the new library. The brothers initially used the temporary chapel of the house as their study hall.  

Late one night, the brethren were awakened by the cries of the watchman who alerted them to the fact that the storage hut in which cement and hardware for the building were kept, had caught fire and the whole place was ablaze. The fire engines came only about an hour later. And just as the brethren thought of finally retiring to bed, the police showed up in the wee hours of the morning to file an FIR (first-hand report) of the incident. Perhaps the greatest tragedy that struck the community during this period was the untimely death of Br. Mariathasan one night in December 1970. The whole house was shaken by this sad event: a young robust brother had suddenly passed away before their very eyes.

Despite hardships and innumerable challenges, optimism and good cheer did not wane. Opportunities for relaxation and entertainment were not lacking, with the numerous feast days, birthdays, picnics, movies and celebrations. With regard to movies, the chronicle narrates that a Hindi debate took place in the Seminary on the morality of films, and “since the seminarians did not want the Rector to stop shows in the seminary, the audience voted for the upholders of films as the winners.” Some of the prominent movies that were screened included ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Mahatma’ (which the audience found quite dull) and ‘Ten Commandments’ (“the greatest motion picture ever filmed”).

Humour, too, was not absent. We have, for instance, the episode of a brother, who, “eager to practice strict monastic life,” rang the rising bell at 4.30 am, an hour before the scheduled time to rise (a seemingly not-too-uncommon occurrence in our formation houses). The entry for 1 April 1970 starts thus, “Everyone is careful today for it’s All Fools Day.”

As Tobit’s dog adds charm to that beloved Old Testament story, so too, in this historical sketch, we are introduced to “the guard of Rosary Priory, a six week old Alsatian pup,” named Tiger. Our chronicler takes pains to keep us abreast of the times when Tiger is ill, on a diet, missing, stolen or causes a disaster (such as tearing up some valuable photographs). Barely a year after he came to the community, we are given the news of “the martyrdom of the first Indian ‘domini-cane,’” put to sleep by an Irish friar appointed to eliminate all stray dogs from the campus.

Our Vitae Fratrum of the Indian brothers is not complete without a word about prayer. The first recollection of the year 1967, in the load-shedding shutdown of electricity, was illuminated by a Petromax lamp which “provides sufficient light for eleven of us seated around in a circle in the prayer room, like the eleven disciples waiting; unfortunately the Holy Spirit did not manifest itself visibly.” The brethren longed for the time when they could celebrate the liturgical life in its entirety in the Ashram itself. While the Salve Regina and O Lumen were sung from the very first night that they entered the house, the Divine Office began to be celebrated only a month later and the chanting of Compline only after the community was formally established.

We also gain insights into some aspects of the evolving liturgy that the Second Vatican Council put into place, such as the gradual implementation of English. I found particularly interesting the entry from 18 September 1968: “We began with one of the new and a much shorter Canons of the Mass. Hardly had we recited the Sanctus when we came to the Elevation… The Sacrifice of the Mass which was already so short became shorter still; I suppose it is the result of the supersonic era in which we live.” We are also told of the reaction to the new Liturgical Calendar (1970): “It’s quite disappointing to see many of our saints and feast days fall down or knocked off the calendar.”

Birthing a New Indian Dominican Province

The efforts of the Irish Vicariate to hasten the birth to the Indian Province are inseparable from our story thus far. Every page of the chronicle bears testimony to the great desire and excitement for an Indian Dominican Province. Take for instance, the very first visit of the Irish Provincial, fr. Louis Coffey OP, to the Ashram in 1967. Narrating some key observations that he made in his first talk to the brothers, our chronicler writes, “fr. Provincial said all the things a father says to his sons before they start out with the problems of the world. His ambition, he said, was to see an Indian Dominican Province that will play a vital role in evangelizing India. And all that future depends on us, the foundation. We promise to help fulfill your ambition dear fr. Provincial.” On 30 June 1968, the brethren “were overwhelmed with joy at having our first professed brethren from Indian soil.” A simple entry of 2 October 1969, which no Indian or Irish Dominican reader would fail to appreciate, is “fr. Noel Molloy came in tonight from Bombay.”

On 1 July 1970, the building contractor finally handed over the completed chapel to the Prior. On that very evening, the entire Dominican family gathered in the chapel for a concelebrated Holy Mass presided over by the Vicar Provincial. “It was a great joy to be able to celebrate the Sacrifice of our Redemption for the first time in Nagpur in a Church of our own… fr. Candon expressed the hope that this new Church will serve many young Indian Dominicans who will chant the Divine Office and be schooled in Dominican spirituality.”

The month that followed was marked by a lot of cleaning and levelling of the Priory surroundings, while finishing touches were being put in place for the inauguration of the chapel, which was to be blessed by none other than the Pro-Nuncio to India, Bishop Marie-Joseph Lemieux, a Dominican himself. During his three-day stay at the Ashram, the Pro-Nuncio made it a point to give a talk to the brethren stressing the centrality of the Dominican vocation. In his brief, personal, hand-written note in the chronicles, Bishop Lemieux writes, “I have admire[d] your devotedness to the Church and the splendid work you are accomplishing. May St. Dominic, our holy founder, continue to guide and protect you all.”

On the Solemnity of St. Dominic, 4 August 1970, Bishop Lemieux solemnly blessed the chapel of St. Dominic Ashram and presided over a concelebrated Holy Mass, assisted by Bishop Joe Rosario (Bishop of Amravati). That day, which was marked by many festivities, will forever be a red-letter day in the history of St. Dominic’s Ashram. For in all those years during which our Priory was being built, something greater still was coming into being. The mustard seed sown at Nagpur had brought forth its first shoots, eager to spread its branches far and wide. As the time comes to close the book of the chronicles and return it to the archives, the words of St. Peter come to my mind, “Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house.” (1 Pet 2:5)