Ferdinand Perier

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Calcutta
SeeCalcutta (emeritus)
Installed12 August 1960
Term ended10 November 1968
PredecessorBrice Meuleman
Other post(s)Coadjutor Archbishop of Calcutta(1921–1924)

Titular Archbishop of Plataea(1921–1924)
Archbishop of Calcutta(1924–1960)

Titular Archbishop of Rhoina(1960–1968)
Orders
Ordination3 October 1909
Consecration21 December 1921
by 
Roman Catholic
ParentsFelix Joannes Baptista Augustus Perier(Father)
Leonia Josephina Ferleman(Mother)
Styles of
Ferdinand Perier
Your Grace
Ordination history of
Ferdinand Perier
History
Priestly ordination
Date3 October 1909
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorArchbishop Pietro Pisani
Co-consecratorsBishop Santino Taveggia, P.I.M.E.,
Bishop Louis Van Hoeck, S.J.
Date21 December 1921
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Ferdinand Perier as principal consecrator
Bishop Oscar Sevrin, S.J.25 July 1934
Archbishop Louis Mathias, S.D.B.10 November 1934
Archbishop Stephen Ferrando, S.D.B.10 November 1934
Archbishop Joseph Alexander Fernandes1 May 1949
Archbishop Niclas Kujur, S.J.9 March 1952
Archbishop Vivian Anthony Dyer9 August 1959

Ferdinand Perier,

British India, and the third Archbishop of Calcutta (now Kolkata
).

Early years

Fernandus Augustus Maria Josephus Perier was born on 22 September 1875 in Antwerp, Belgium, the son of the wealthy merchant and his wife, Felix Joannes Baptista Augustus Perier and Leonia Josephina Ferleman.

Society of Jesus
on 23 September 1897, he was the director of a successful shipping insurance company.

Perier went through the first two stages of the

Flemish at the second Collège Saint-Michel, a Jesuit high school in Brussels
.

At his request, Perier was sent to India. He arrived in Calcutta on 9 December 1906. His formation continued with his studies in theology at the Jesuit theological college in Kurseong (1907–1911), where he was also ordained on 3 October 1909. He then went to

Fourth Vow
in Ranchi.

Superior Regular and Coadjutor Bishop

In August 1913, Perier became the Superior Regular of the West Bengal Mission as well as the Counselor of the Archdiocese. The next eight years were "the most strenuous years of his life".

ad limina visit to Rome.[2]

On 11 August 1921 Perier was appointed

Titular Archbishop of Plataea[3] and the right of automatic succession, by Archbishop Meuleman. When health problems forced the Archbishop to resign on 23 June 1924, Perier, being the Coadjutor Bishop, automatically succeeded him as the third Archbishop of Calcutta.[citation needed
]

Archbishop of Calcutta

As the new archbishop, Perier was "a firm believer in an Indian clergy and in the papal policy as outlined in Pope Benedict XV’s encyclical on the missions," Maximum illud (Latin, "The Greatest Thing").[2]

  • Perier took great care to consolidate and develop the educational and missionary work among the people of the
    Santals
    , and supervised the development of new centers in the district of Darjeeling and surrounding areas.
  • He created Dioceses of Ranchi in 1927 and Jalpaiguri in 1952.
  • He invited many new religious congregations to work in his Archdiocese: the Salesians, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel, the Brothers of Charity.
  • In 1937 he organized the first regular meeting of the bishops in India and built with it the structures which became the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) in 1944.
  • He was the first mentor of Mother Teresa when she tried to follow her new vocation of service to the "poorest of the poor". Perier obtained the permission from the authorities in Rome to allow her to leave her convent, live in a slum and found the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity (1950).
  • He discreetly pioneered and encouraged inculturation in the seminaries of the Archdiocese.[4]
  • He did not hesitate to resign in 1960 when he felt that the time had come for him to hand the Archdiocese over to his successor. He left on 12 August as the Titular Archbishop of Rhoina.[5]
  • He went to Rome to participate in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) for the first two sessions.

After his retirement, Perier remained in Calcutta from 1960 to 1962, with his own room at his former residence, the "Archbishop’s House" at 30 Park Street, and then moved to Kurseong for three more years, from 1962 to 1965. In 1965, he was back in Calcutta, this time with the rooms at St. Xavier's College, where he died on 10 November 1968.

Legacy

É. R. Hambye, a Jesuit historian, ended his brief biography of Archbishop Perier with the following epitaph:[6]

“Su lemma episcopal, In omnibus quaeram Deum, fue de hecho el de su vida de jesuita y misionero. Hombre muy devoto, asceta y enérgico, paciente y dueño de sí, amó la liturgia y a los pobres y, siempre disponsible y amable, fue verdaderamente un obispo del pueblo." [Spanish, "His episcopal motto, In omnibus quaeram Deum [Latin, "In everything, ask God"], guided his life as a Jesuit and missionary. Devout, ascetic and energetic man, patient and self-possessed, he loved the liturgy and the poor and, always friendly and available, he was truly a bishop of the town."]

References

  1. ^ (in Dutch) Fernandus Augustus Maria Josephus Perier, Birth Certificate No. 4325, filed 22 September 1875, Register of Births for the Year 1875, Antwerp, Province of Antwerp, Belgium; in: FamilySearch, "Belgium, Antwerp, Civil Registration, 1598–1906", Antwerpen, Geboorten 1875 Juli–Dec [Births 1875 July–Dec], Image No. 114 (left page, item 10).
  2. ^ a b c d (in English) "Perier", Catholic Directory of India 1922, pages 20–21
  3. Marča in modern Croatia, then a part of the Ottoman Empire, but the see has been vacant since 1965. See (in English) "Plataea
    (Titular See) Plataeaënsis", Catholic Hierarchy for more details.
  4. ^ (in English) "Adaptations of Seminary Training", The Clergy Monthly, 1944–1945, Volume 8, pages 189–198
  5. Sultanhani in the ancient region of Lycaonia in modern Turkey. This see was established in 1933 for Rhoina but it has been vacant since 1968, with the death of its fourth and last holder, Archbishop Perier. See (in English) "Rhoina
    (Titular See) Rhoinensis" at Catholic Hierarchy for more details.
  6. ^ (in Spanish) Hambye, "Perier, Ferdinand", in: Diccionario histórico de la Compañía de Jesús, Tomo III [Historical Dictionary of the Society of Jesus, Volume III], page 3098

Bibliography

  • (in English) "Archbishop Ferdinand Périer, S.J. †", Catholic Hierarchy, retrieved 12 December 2013
  • (in English) "Mgr. Ferdinand Perier", Catholic Directory of India 1922: 72nd Annual Issue of the Madras Catholic Directory and Annual General Register (Madras: The Catholic Supply Society, 1921), pages 20–21
  • (in English) [Lawrence] Trevor Picachy, S.J., A Great Achievement: Episcopal Silver Jubilee Souvenir of His Grace, Dr. Ferdinand Perier, S.J., D.D., Archbishop of Calcutta, December 21, 1921 – December 21, 1946, (Calcutta: Catholic Association of Bengal, 1946)
  • (in Spanish) É[douard René] Hambye, S.J., "Perier, Ferdinand", in: Diccionario histórico de la Compañía de Jesús: Biográfico–Temático, Tomo III [Historical Dictionary of the Society of Jesus: By Biography – by Subject, Volume III: Infante de Santiago–Piątkiewicz], eds., Charles E. O’Neill, S.J., Joaquín María Domínguez, S.J. (Madrid: Universidad Pontificia Comillas, 2001)
  • (in Spanish) Angel Santos Hernández, S.J., "2.4. Brice Meuleman, Arzobispo de Calcutta", Jesuitas y obispados: Los Jesuitas Obispos Misioneros y los Obispos Jesuitas de la extinción, Tomo II (Madrid: Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid, 2000), page 185
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by 3rd Archbishop of Calcutta
1924–1960 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ferdinand_Perier&oldid=1178807000"