after 1775

The father they would not let go

They never let go of Thomassini. In his lifetime he had won them by his gentleness, he had finished their church, and he was the last Jesuit they would have for sixty-three years. He had died away from the village and was buried elsewhere, but his own people “raised a monument in their midst” and kept his memory as a saint's. Ninety years after his death a Jesuit writing about this district still used the present tense: “The Christians venerate him as a saint, give his name to their children, and visit his tomb with an extreme devotion.” Even those who were not Christians, he added, called on him in their troubles, holding that his intercession brought the rain down on their harvests.

DocumentedThis moment rests on 3 sources.

Besse (Moumas tr.)

the Christians of Vadakenkulam raised a monument in their midst

What this source establishes

From Besse’s own typescript (Moumas): “To testify to their gratitude the Christians of Vadakenkulam raised a monument in their midst.” It also settles that Thomassini was NOT buried here — Besse has him dying and buried at Our Lady of Sands near Periatalai — so what stands at Vadakkankulam is a monument, a cenotaph, not his grave. (Auguste Jean and the page’s suppression dot have him dying at Talai; the burial place is a logged mismatch.) In copyright: quoted, not reproduced.

This is as much of the book as this site prints. It is named in full in the bibliography below.