The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-03-23
HOW A POOR TELUGU CATHOLIC
HELPED POPE Plus TX.

The following account of an accident
touching in the extreme-was given
by Rev. Father Riordan in 1850 in
one of his reports to Bishop John
Fennelly, Vicar Apostolic of Madras,
India, and is to be found in the tenth
of the delightful old volumes of the
Madras Catholic Expositor, publica-
ton long since defunct:
| To the Right Rev DR.. Fennelly:
| / beg to forward the following re-
port of the Cuddapah and Poongan-
DOR Mission from June the 4th, 1850
up to the present date.
1.-THE first place l reached was Kata-
mayagunta This village is about 80
miles distant from Cuddapah in a
sOutherly direction, the number Of
Christians amounts to about rs souls
These are all weavers of the Thogata
| caste, who during some famine in the
| Guntur and Prodatoor districts, in
which they formerly resided, came to
| this place where they have fixed
themselves. / found these Christians
1 during the period l remained in their
village very attentive to their relig-
fous duties, especially the old men
amongst them.
"Of these one poor man having
heard somehow that His Holiness
Pope Plus TX, had lately been much
prosecuted, requested me one evening
to inform him if his Holiness trials
had ceased or not. / accordingly eX-
4 nln iR1AI IS IL
endured, and how at length he had
triumphed over all his sufferings. On
the next morning this poor man called
me aside, and requested me to ac-
| cept of 48 rupees to be sent to His
Holiness. | at first refused to re-
ceive this money, as the amount
! although in itself a mere trifie | knew
quite a large sum for one in his cir
cumstances in this country. | conse-
| quently advised him to see if he
would not require it for his family or
himself. He replied that he was sat
isfied he had already provided suf-
ficiently for them, and said that l
would render him very unhappy if
did not comply with his request. He
wished Che said) to let His Holiness
know that not only in Europe, but
even among his children in the far
East faithful and devoted men are to
be found. l accordingly forwarded
the sum to your Lordship to be sent
to its destination. Cuddapah, Novem-
Der %, 1850. (Sd) S. Riordan"
| Charming. indeed! And what gen.
erous and thoughtful old man. May
his soul rest in peace! Rs. 48 ($1600)
in those days must be considered not
merely large sum, but it's worth at
present would be about three-fold or
more, and would be counted for
| tune for poor man. This account
reminds one of a similar experience
of the late Rev. Father Rayenna, c
| Telugu priest Of the Archdiocese of
Madras. He was in temporary charge
of the Patibanda mission for over a
year and at that time there was
| poor old beggarwoman, called Para
| desi Mariamma, who used to sweep
| the church every Saturday 1t was an
invariable custom Of hers to pay
visit to the good priest on Sundays
to carry out an object evidently very
dear to her old heart. The first time,
after the usual salutations, she slyly
held out her hand with two annas
| flour cents in American money! in it
and said, Father, be pleased to ac-
| cept this" And what is it for,
Mariamma?p "Oh, Father, l want
you to spend it on yourself: please
use it to buy for yourself something
nice to eat; get chicken or mutton
for your breakfast" Father Rayen-
| mas remonstrances and arguments
| were of no avail, her mind was made
| up and nothing could change it, and
the astonished priest had to give in
and take the two annas with which
so much love was joined. The old
woman would wait until all the Chris
tians had left the church and would.
| quietly approach the presbytery choos-
| ing q moment when no one was about
and the above interesting and highly
ed1fying scene would be repeated
Sunday after Sunday. Father, it is
| blessing to give to priests" she said
/ OA1SC1 dAu Tic SUOu priest udU the
heart to deny her the happiness. She
had her own tactics, too, of avoiding
lengthy, and to her unnecessary, con-
troversies: thus, sometimes posting
herself at vantage-point she would
patiently wait and wait; Father Ray
emma knowing what was going to hap
pen would appear not to have seen
her, but yielding at length would ask
"Hullo. Mariamma, what is the mat
ter?'' only to hear Mariamma answer
in an innocent and unconcerned tone
HIM, yemi ledhu, Swami" Moth
ing, FatherD A silence, and then adj
Vancing with her wonted gift she
would put it on the table, tarry just
long enough to hear the priests
asirVadham, (God bless YOU and then
briskly clear away without any fur
Their talk.
"A blessing to give to priests what
a sermon to close-fsted grumblers!
BROTHER j. ANTHONY, o. S. F.,
Superior, Franciscan Monastery,
Belary (South India.)