Pierre Ceyrac (Jesuit)

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Pierre Ceyrac (1914-2012) was a French

Légion d'honneur in 2005.[1][2]

Personal life

Pierre Ceyrac was born in

Sarlat, along with all his brothers, including Francois Ceyrac, who would later go on to be president of the National Council of French Employers from 1972 to 1981.[3]

Career

Ceyrac was attracted to a

Society of Jesus
.

At the age of 23, he earned a degree in Classical Letters and Philology from Sorbonne.[4] He then chose to follow in the footsteps of his uncle Charles Ceyrac, who had been a Jesuit missionary in Southern India.[5]

In 1937, he sailed from

Pachaiyappa’s College where he also studied Vedanta and the Upanishads.[6][7]

He was ordained as a priest in 1945 at the Jesuit Seminary in

Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, he began working towards improving living conditions for the poorest Indians, notably the Untouchables.[2]

His first major project began in 1957, when he and groups of students worked to help the poor in a village near

Pondicherry. They built roads, houses, and clinics in a place they called "Cherian Nagar" where 20,000 Hindus, Muslims, and Christians lived.[3]
With the help of donations from abroad as well as European and Indian volunteers, his organization was able to help thousands more across Southern India.

In 1969, he established a cooperative farm in Manamadurai, Tamil Nadu that provided thousands of villagers with food and a place to work, helping over 250,000 people. Then, in the villages around the farm he started the "Thousand Wells" (Mille puits) campaign that taught the villagers how to farm previously unusable land.[6]

Following a call in 1980 from

Superior General of the Jesuits and founder of the Jesuit Refugee Service, he volunteered to help the thousands of Cambodians entering Thailand, fleeing the Khmer Rouge. He taught at the Khao-I-Dang and Site Two refugee camps, where he learned the Khmer language
. He ended his work there in 1992, and returned to India.

After his return to Chennai, he created the Ambukarangal Centres near Tindivanam, Tamil Nadu. Taking their name from a word meaning "open hands," these are places where orphans and children from very poor families can receive shelter, food, health care and education, as well as love and emotional support.[8]

Father Ceyrac continued his work well into his nineties, coming to the aid of fishing villages affected by the

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. He spent the last years of his life teaching at Loyola College in Chennai. Throughout his life, he campaigned for the rights and dignity of the Dalits and was an advocate for human rights. He died 30 May 2012, at the age of 98 in Chennai.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Monroe,, Laurence (20 February 1999). "P. Ceyrac : " Le grand désir de l'Inde, c'est la vision de Dieu "". La Croix. Retrieved June 5, 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ a b Jebaraj, Pricialla (9 May 2008). "Neither age nor poor health has withered this Jesuit priest's spirits". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  3. ^ a b c Lesegretain, Claire (31 May 2012). "Le jésuite missionnaire Pierre Ceyrac est mort". La Croix. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  4. ^ "The People Responsible for DACA". Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  5. ^ "Le père Pierre Ceyrac, missionnaire jésuite en Inde, est décédé". Le Point. AFP (Agence France Presse). 1 June 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  6. ^ a b Saint-Cheron, Michaël de (5 June 2012). "Hommage au père Ceyrac, héraut de l'Inde moderne après Gandhi". Le nouvel Observateur. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  7. ^ Krishnakumar, Asha (1–16 August 1988). "A life of service". Frontline. Vol. 15, no. 16. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  8. ^ "Mains ouverte". Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  9. ^ FR. PIERRE CEYRAC, SJ: FRIEND OF CAMBODIANS
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