Father Constant Lievens, S.J. (1856-93)

Irish Jesuit Province

Father Constant Lievens, S.J. (1856-93)Author(s): John FitzGeraldSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 71, No. 845 (Nov., 1943), pp. 454-458Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20515192 .

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454

Father Constant Lievens, S.J. (1856-93)

By JOHN FITZGERALD, S.J.

FAT HEBR CONSTANT LIEVENS, the fiftieth anniver

sary of whose death occurs in November, was born at Moorslede in Flanders in 1856. His father owned a

sniall farm by which he supported a family of eleven. The fouirth child, Constant, was eleven years old when his mother died. He then took charge of the cattle and two horses. His zskill in the management of the latter was to be of great use to hiinm in his future missionary career. Encouraged and assisted by the parish priest he was enabled to fulfil a long-cherished hope of studying for the priesthood, and he soon proved himself an able scholar and a good linguist. While in the minor seminary he was powerfully attracted by the missionary vocation and, conscious that the Society of Jesus gave itself untiringly to mission enterprise, he entered that Order in 1878.

Three years after Constant's birth the Belgian Jesuits had been given the western Bengal mission with its headquarters in Calcutta, and also at Ranchi in Chota Nagpur. In 1882 the young Belgian, not yet a priest, was sent out- to cultivate this great province of India for Christ.

In March, 1885, Lievens, now a priest, was assigned to the

Chiota Nagpur mission and his life's work, destined like Xavier's to last about a decade, really began. Indeed so marvellous and lasting were his achievements and so indefatigable were his efforts that he has merited the title, " the greatest missionary since

F'raneis Xavier ". L-et tus review the scene of his labours prior



FlATHER CONST'ANT LIEVENS, S.J. 455

to lhis arrival and during the early years, noting the enormouis obstacles, spiritual and imiaterial, wlich confronted him, in order to appreciate the justice of that great title.

On arrival in Chota Nagpur, Fatlher Lievens, already a fluent speaker of Bengali, set to work to mnaster the dialects of the three principal tribes. As he scanned the map and located the settlements scattered over an area twice the size of Ireland, with a population of 5,000,000 souls, he realised that he would have to spend much time in the saddle if all were to receive the light of Faith. Ee had eight co-wvorkers. rThey had been fore stalled by Protestant missionaries whose efforts, alwvays well finaniced, lbad resulted in 40,000 conversions. The natives conm prising tlhree tribes: the Ouriaons (to-day exclusivelv Catholic), the Muindas and the Eharrias (a nomyiadic people), almost un toutichled by civilisation, very poor and supeirstitious , awn1d the prey

of etnning and harslh landowners. Inmbued wtith the apostolic spirit begotten of leaseless pravyer,

Father Lievens journeyed far afoot and oni hiorseback through a

miiountainous province over rotuglh tracks to v illages perhaps 300 ml-iles away. IHe carried neither purse nor scrip nor shoes. Sometimes he slept in the opeIn, entrusting hiis safety in a land

infested with snakes and tigers to the protection of hiis o'uardian

angel; sonmetinmes he lodged in the poor hov-els of the natives, whose delight it was to slhelter tlheir King as they liked to call hinm. I-lis food was mainlv rice, and hie laboured often in

malarial districts. Thus he contracted the fever which attacked

hiim periodically until his death btut wbhiel could not suibduie his indomitable spirit. He endured, too, in their seasons the tor

rential rains and the blinding glare and biurning heat of an Indian

sIn. But neither weather nor sickness was suifficient to inter rupt his journeyings.

Father Lievens was able to converse with the natives after a



456 TH11E IRISH MON THL Y

short time; he then set himself to study their laws and customs and seek a remedy for their great poverty. Throtugh intirnate friendship wsitlh the local police a means of alleviating their social position dawned uipon hiim. He saw that the grievances of the natives were quite legitimate; and he decided to invoke the law. 'The people's causes, hitherto unpleaded becautse of the expense involved, were financed (and proceeded with)-several times by

Father Lievens and brought before the nmagistrate at Ranchi.

On each occasion the judge found in favouir of the natives. The

oppression ceased. Fromi the tinme of tlheir viindication the natives regarded hinm

as their staunch friend whose only desire wvas their well-being and happiness. rTrhey saw that he spent himiiiself for their good. It is not strange that his fame went abroad into all tlhe country,

and that whole villages, already xvell instruieted by a small arnmy of catechists, cainie forwvard for Baptisl. As with St. Francis

Xavier, statistics are eloquent. On arrival at Clhota Nagpur hie was charged xvith fifty-six

coniverts; a year later the numlber w,as 400. After two years, there wvere 10,000 converts, and lhe had erected several chapels. In 1888, after tlhree and a half xears' work, the converts, incluid inig catechuimens, numbered 50,b00 in 832 villages, wvith ninetN five ehapels and seventy-seven schools. The fruit of four years vas an increase of miiore than 70,000 converts, and Catholicism

in Bengal lhas not ceased to miake progress since the death of its greatest apostle. A 1927 census gives the numi:-iber of Catholics in Ranchi Mission (excluiding Calcutta and comprising Chota

Nagpuir and two adjoining native states), as 190,000. The fast-growing mission to Chota Nagpuir would have been

a heavy task for many miissionaries. Acttually during the first years Fatlher Lievens worked almost alone, for his helpers

wvere sooni exhauisted bv the arduous tasks thiey lhad to perform



FATHER CONSTANT LIEVENS, SJ. 457

under appalling conditions. Two years before his return to

Belgium, however, eighteen recruits arrived to consolidate his gains and spread the Gospel into outlying provinces. At this time Father Lievens' health was severely affected. " I have been overdoing it this last year," he wrote hom-ie. It is hard to conceive the heroic self-sacrificing zeal which lies concealed

beneath this phrase "

overdoing it ". His colleagues and his followers were at one in testifying to his achievements entailing endless fatigue and accomplished under all kinds of privations. 46

In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in labour and painfulness, in much wNatchings, in hunger and

thirst, in fasting often." The incomparable inissionary, St. Paul, was Father Lievens' exemplar. Both considered the cost but light when compared to the eternal revelation of glory in

the life to come. Like St. Paul and St. Francis Xavier, Father Lievens did not confine his zeal to perfornming the works of miiercy and preaching the Gospel. He also tised hlis literary gifts and hiis fine intelligence to forge a lasting weapon for the fight against paganisn. He left behiind hiinm a precious treasury of

books; translations of St. Luike's Gospel and Schuster's Bible history; short lives of the Blessed Virgin, St. Francis Xavier and

St. Peter Claver, as well as Catholic adaptations of native songs and original compositions in Hindu to be sung in church. Two works in the Ouraon language, The Book of Baptism and The Book of Commnunion, have lost none of their value in the mission to our day.

Father Lievens had spent seven years in India xvhen he sailed for home. Towards the end he had been frequently ill; yet he cherished a hope that sonmie day he vould retturn to carry on the gigantic conquest he had so long envisaged.

But those who saw the young man of thirty-six on his return were dismayed by his worn appearance. His strength was



458 THE IRISH MONTHL Y

utterly spent and he looked like a mnan of seventy. A year later hie died peacefullv at Louvain, and wvas bturied without pomp or ceremony, for as yet few in Belgium realised lhowv notable a

rniissionary had passed away. Like St. Francis Xavier, Iather Lieens looked out longingly

to wider lhorizons before lis deathi. Xavier's amibition was to linik uip East and West by converting China to Christianity;

F'ather Lievens vistulised an expansion in hiis owvNn province of

Bengal extending eventtiallv to the aboriginal tribes of Central India and formiing a compact Catholic core in that couintrv num

bering several millions. His fellow countrymen, wvith their inconmparable missionary zeal and tleilr matehless induistry, have

futirthered the work he began. f The late General of the Society of Jestus considered Ranchi the model among nissionis entrusted to his Order,. Thirtv years after Father Lievens' death, three of his nephews were working among the sanme tribes wvhich, tinder God, owe the light of faith to his untiring efforts.



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Father Constant Lievens, S.J. (1856-93)