St Dionysius Vattasseril on the steadfast faith of Blessed Alvares Thirumeni.

29th April 2020 marks the 184th birth anniversary of Blessed Alvares Thirumeni. In the Orthodox tradition, we do not have the concept of ‘celebrating’ birthdays of saintly fathers and mothers, but we rather commemorate their departure who ‘fought the good fight, finished the course and kept the faith’ (2 Timothy 4:7). The intent of this posting is to remind the readers of the glorious spiritual life of the Blessed Alvares Thirumeni. He was born in Verna (Salcete taluka11) on 29 April 1836, to Jose Batista Alvares and Marinha Expectacao Lourenco.The Alvares family was locally hailed as “devanghar” (house of God) in acknowledgement of the many acts of charity performed by its members. It was this exposure to human needs/care in his early years that sowed the seeds in the young Alvares to champion for the cause of the downtrodden and to boldly speak against oppression.

Vattaseril Thirumeni exhorts us to emulate the faith exhibited by Alvares Thirumeni in this following speech titled ‘Conscience and Peace’ (Manasakshiyum Samaadhaanavum):

“You are well aware about our Alvares Methrachen (Metropolitan). It has been only a few months since he left for heavenly abode. He died when he was almost 90 years or so. He stood firm and steadfast in his faith. Towards the end of his life, he lived in the city of Goa. There was no one from the Orthodox faith in that town, in fact majority of the people belonged to the Roman church. He did have few esteemed and honoured individuals from the Hindu faith and business community as his friends. He told these friends before his death:

“When I am on my deathbed, many priests of the Roman fold may come and advise me to renounce my faith. Due to ill-health and fatigue I may move my head. Seeing my head movements, they will proclaim that I have nodded in agreement to what they instructed me. To ensure such things do not happen; I declare the following with you as a witness: I will never renounce my faith, even on my deathbed. If anyone claims that I have renounced my faith, then you are a witness to the fact that it is not true.”

You must understand how firm his faith was. For the sake of ensuring peace with others, nobody one should renounce his faith, or act against his conscience.”

May the prayers of the saintly fathers be our refuge.

In Christ,
Rincy John

Ref:

1) Dr Samuel Chandanapally, Malankara Sabha Pithankanmaar, Volume 1, April 2012, chapter 4, Page 313, CeeDees Books, Pathanamthitta, Kerala.

2) Carmo Azevedo; Patriot and Saint- The Life Story of Bishop Mar Julius –I Page 5-6, Panjim 1988