Pope Leo XIV commemorates the anniversary and witness of Fr. Andrius Rudamina, a Lithuanian-born Jesuit who traveled more than 5,000 miles to India in 1625 to preach the Gospel.
By Vatican News
Marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival in India of the first Lithuanian Jesuit priest, Father Andrius Rudamina, Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram to the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman on Monday.
In the message signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the Pope sent his good wishes to everyone gathered at the Se Cathedral in Old Goa to commemorate the event.
He explained he is sharing in their thanksgiving to God for Fr. Rudamina’s witness as a missionary and “whose solid Catholic faith can still be seen in present-day Lithuania.”
The Pope is praying that the celebration of the priest’s great generosity and courage in bringing the Gospel to all “will encourage many in our own times to respond with similar patience and ingenuity to the task of evangelization.”
Building upon the foundations of Fr. Rudamina’s “missionary zeal and impressive legacy of dialogue and cultural integration,” Pope Leo expressed his trust that the local churches in the Archdiocese will feel encouraged to cultivate ecumenical and interreligious dialogue that can serve for everyone as a model of fraternal harmony, reconciliation, and concord.
The telegram closed with the Pope extending his apostolic blessing on everyone celebrating this anniversary “as a pledge of joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A new first
In 1625, Fr. Rudamina made the dangerous 6,000-mile journey across the world to India at the age of 29 together with 11 Portuguese confreres. It marked the first time a son of St. Ignatius of Loyola set foot in the vast Indian subcontinent.
The priest spent the next year of his life in the country before contracting malaria and being transferred to China in 1626, where he died just 5 years later. In Lithuania, a memorial stone was set up in his honor in 2015.