Tributes and Works in the Memory of a Guiding Spirit
Happy Birthday, Father More!
On
this day – 20th July, 1907 – you were born as Manolo to Jose and Ana
in Barcelona. We remember
you on this day, Father and wonder what your early
life might have been.
As the son of a successful businessman with farms and cake shops in Mallorca - still an island getaway for the rich and famous - you would have wanted for nothing.
The family coach would have taken you to the city centre from your huge house and garden in Pedrables, an upmarket area of Barcelona.
[Pedralbes Palace was used by the Spanish Royal family when visiting the city. The gardens were designed by J.C.Forestier. It houses the famous Tinell room (14th century) which was used by the Catholic King and Queen of Spain to welcome Christopher Columbus following his return from America.]
You were known to be intelligent and extroverted – so you could have continued your father’s business interests and been a wealthy man in Barcelona.
So what brought you to India, as a man of the cloth, having forsaken all worldly pleasures and material wealth, to serve a higher purpose in the name of God?
Was it a strong religious upbringing, the norm to follow your brothers to pursue Jesuit studies when you finished school at 18? Was the example of your brother Antonio establishing a Jesuit school in Barcelona, San Estanislao de Kostka, an inspiration to take up education as a vocation? Did you simply follow your brothers to India as well, again a 400-year old Jesuit tradition since St Francis of Xavier had come to India in 1542?
You would have been excited on your journey from Spain to arrive in India in 1929, a youth of 22 at the cusp of manhood. Surely you were amazed by what you saw in pre-independence India, coming from the West in the year of the Great Crash!
It would have been a harrowing experience to be thousands of miles away when the family home was half-destroyed by Communist tanks in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. As a young man of 30, where were you when your parents escaped in a boat to Italy to stay with your brother Antonio, to escape the religious persecution in Spain that killed 300,000 people, including 120,000 civilians?
It would appear you never saw your parents again, though you did visit Spain in later years. Instead, you would become part of the new India that emerged after independence in 1947. What a time to be in India!
When you were appointed Principal of Campion School in Bombay in 1951, you were 44 years old and had already spent 22 years in India. What was your career leading up to that appointment? We expect you had been teaching and organising the education of young Indians for a while by then, to win the position.
In 1965, already 58 years old, were you asked to set up Campion School in Bhopal by the Jesuit hierarchy? Or did you volunteer for the challenge at an age when most of us are considering retirement?
The rest, as we know, is history. You changed the lives of a large number of boys, young men, parents, teachers and captains of industry and government.
A Deputy Remembers
Fr Louis Menezes, S.J. (Vice Principal, Campion, Bhopal)
I have
very fond memories of my four years at Campion, Bhopal (1967-1970). I
experienced what a person dedicated to a cause close to his heart can
achieve. In Fr E.F. More I found a great variety of personal qualities
at work as he hastened to lay firm foundations to Campion.
Fr More
was a true leader of men - humble, dynamic, sincere, and approachable.
And a great educationist. Upon my arrival at Campion in 1967 I heard a
boy say to me: My principal is like a father to me - I love him!
And so
did the four young teachers. Oh, how they loved him, held him in very
high regard! Assisted by this small staff, Fr More made of Campion (then
in Sector 1250) a true home away from home for the small batch of boys
taken over from St Joseph’s Idgah Hills.
The
Jesuit team was made up of Fr More (Superior, Principal), Bro Hernandez,
and the two young Jesuit scholastics (future priests) – Joaquim
Mascarenhas and Caesar D’Mello. When I joined them in
1967, I was coming to know Fr More for the first time ever. And within a
fortnight or so I was sizing him up as an enthusiastic, energetic,
sincere person, and very simple in his ways and loving in his dealings
with students and staff. A man who inculcated a sense of responsibility,
expecting each one to do his duty. He guided – never dictated!
My own
reminiscences take me to the recollection of a bright Sunday morning
when visitors came to see Fr More. I looked for him “all over the
place…”, the Amby was in the ever-open garage, which meant EFM was IN.
What made me look into the WC area? Can’t say, but I did…to find him in a
closet, in his blue-grey shorts, scrubbing away with wood ash and
coconut fibre – sans gloves!!! To me it revealed the depth
of his love for Campion, i.e., for ‘his boys’ (of whom he was proud,
v.v. proud). (I can say the same myself – I too was proud of you guys.)
I often think of Fr More as a true Gandhian…that toilet incident
reminded me of MKG’s showing his beloved Kasturba the toilets…and her
“nauseous revulsion…” and a final joyful acceptance!
A child
is nurtured by its parents; the home circle too has its role in a
child’s growth. Also influencing the child is the environment in which
the child lives. A school must be seen as an extension of the home,
where the child’s academic training takes place. Campion excelled in
academics (Jesuits being well known for their high aims and excellence
in all they do!) and in the moral upbringing of the young
minds, the men of tomorrow.
There was
the elderly Mr Dwivedi (Hindi Master) whose calm and gentle demeanour
exhibited depth of character – him I recall with much affection. I
recall too very affectionately old Mrs Shinde. Campion benefited greatly
from such really beautiful people.
I am
reminiscing! …Ah! There was Mr Narasingh the PT master …
who was truly dedicated to the school. The PT period used to be a
favourite of the full-of-energy youngsters!. Ex-Campionites in touch
with their schooldays will have their own memories of those long-ago
years in which their character was formed. They carried with them the
assurance that the school they loved so greatly had prepared them well
to face the future bravely. I am certain that an occasional looking back
to their Campion years will energize them in their pursuit of success
in every field of endeavour.
So what
did the Campion young man really achieve? A great deal, I am quite sure.
A well-developed high intellectual life, a sense of doing one’s duty,
the acceptance of personal responsibility, a team spirit (remember the
final period of the day when the students played Football, Hockey,
Cricket, according to the seasons; and the Saturday Scouting
activities), the spirit of adventure.
I return
to the formation of the young Campionite. Whenever I recall those good
old days, I cannot but feel good about those challenging years. I’m
happy about the boys’ academic achievements; I’m happier still to
contemplate the values absorbed by them, of personal worth
and dignity and integrity, of being true to oneself, of being helpful
and ready to serve… (are my eyes getting wet?)
In the
formal attire Fr More devised for the boys - white trousers and elegant
blue blazer -the Campion boy looked smart; behind this attractive
exterior lay the hidden determined youngster ready to play his part in
life, both personal and national.
A third
generation of Campionites is today being formed… Come 2015 there’ll be
the Golden Jubilee celebrations. It’s already time to look back and
acknowledge the Campion pioneers’ hard work and dedication; and thank
God for the gift of Fr More to Bhopal. Can we consider him as a guru?
Are there some/many who actually consider him as such? We’ll
all be worthy of the multi-layered legacy of Fr More by living the
lessons we learnt from him, of serving without counting the cost, of
labouring without looking for rewards…
The
mortal remains of Fr E.F. More lie in the Campion campus, but his spirit
lives in us.
Greetings to all of you, dear friends! I wish all
Campionites, past and present, a life of Nishkama Karma! Tathastu!
Affectionately – Fr Louis Menezes, S.J.
Post Script
I bade farewell
to Campion in May 1970. Where did I go? I first went to Bangalore (today
known as Bengaluru) for a year of spiritual retreat (without deep
spirituality can anyone ever achieve anything? While there, there came a
call from GUYANA, south America - the country of cricketers like Clive
Lloyd, Alvin Kalicharan, Rohan Kanhai - from the Jesuit Fathers there
for one or two Bombay Jesuits to come and help them. I volunteered…was
accepted (the government provided the visa in quick time) and in July
1971 I was off to become a ‘Caribbean-walla’.
I
laboured there for twenty years in what we may call Human Development,
over and above the religious duties I had to offer. One of the areas I
pride myself on is the initiative to preserve the native language of the
WARAU tribe among whom I was placed for a number of years. Guyana is
known as the land of many peoples, including the tribal
groups: Caribs, Patamonas, Wai-Wai, Arawaks, and others. And I
appreciated not only language but their dances, songs, folk-tales, and
so on that make a people’s cultural heritage. I compiled a dictionary of
about 3,000 words/phrases, a couple of songs… the tale of the
NIHABARAKA (crocodile)… I could even converse in Warau with the old
folks (the young having no interest at all!); and even tease the ladies
by saying (with a broad smile) ‘Ine ihi obonoya’ – I love you!
I had to
return to Bharatmata in 1991 owing to ill health. Here in Mumbai
I help our younger Jesuits in their academic pursuits (degrees and so
on…) The horizon gets further and further away…but with
the un-deletable memory of Campion as my constant companion, the future
is what I want it to be…
Editor’s Note: Fr Louis lives a Spartan existence at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai where I caught up with him some years ago, still writing, even poetry in Marathi! Mellow now, like a fine wine, a far cry from the strict Vice Principal we knew – to hear was to obey! This article is a particular gift – an opportunity to critique and publish a contribution from my own English Master who marked my essays with a keen eye for a split infinitive! I still remember protesting against the book prizes he had chosen for me one year – a set of four in a boring Russian series ‘And Quiet Flows the Don’, by insisting I had already read them. In vain, I might add, but he compensated with at least one P.G. Wodehouse in the swag. Do look him up the next time you are in Mumbai, chaps.
My precious and last moments with Fr More
I met Fr More just a few days or a week before he left us to rest in eternal peace.
I vividly remember that day I went to meet Fr More at Campion School premises where he was staying in one room. He had no car during those days, he was in-charge of the school Buses.
On meeting him he told me, “Kanwal I cannot swallow anything solid these days”. He looked very pale and frail. I immediately took him with me to Dr.Chachra in E-5 Arera Colony. After examining him Dr. Chachra advised him to go in for a test known as Endoscopy. We both discussed and fixed the date of test for next day but Dr.Chachra said that will cost around Rs.550. The test was to be done on an empty stomach.
We both walked out of Dr. Chachra’s clinic and when we sat in the car Fr More said,“Kanwal, this man is an idiot, he does not know that many of my ex-students are doctors in Government Hospitals.
"I think he meant Hamidia Hospital”, I said. But I told him it does not matter we will come back tomorrow to this Doctor. I dropped him back at Campion School and told him I would come back the next day.
The next day when I went to pick him up to go to Dr.Chachra for the test, Fr More’s room was locked from the outside. I enquired about him but no one knew where he had gone. Late in the evening I again went to enquire about him and found him. I told him, "Father I had come earlier also but you were not in the room?"
He said, “Kanwal when I knew I would find some old students who are doctors at Hamidia Hospital I went by bus in the morning and found Dr. Ganguly and he got my test done completely free!” He told me when you can save money, whether yours or mine, why not?
I told him Father you are exhausted and feeling tired you should have given me a call. He said, “Why should I bother you when you yourself are not well?” ( I had a slipped disc surgery a month or so before).
I enquired about the test he had undergone, but he said nothing to worry I will get the report within a few days. But within a few days I came to know that he passed away to rest in peace.
Actually he did not want to worry me by telling me that he was suffering from CANCER.
MAY GOD BLESS HIM WITH ETERNAL PEACE.
How confident and proud he was of his old students. He had immense faith and love for them! One cannot get SUCH A TEACHER AND GUIDE THESE DAYS! We are indeed lucky to have been his students.
I HOPE YOU SHARE THIS WITH EVERY ONE.
FR.MORE/GOD BLESS US.
Father More's Roots: A Tradition of Sacrifice Beatriz Pla Emmanuel Ferdinand Moré, called “Manolo” by his family, was born on July 20th, 1907 in Barcelona City in a high quarter town known as Pedralbes. Manolo had seven brothers. Alejandro, Luis and Tomás died when they were born. The others were It was here they proposed his travel to India. When Manolo was about 22 he decided to go to India. In those times it was not easy to travel so far, but his brothers had gone to India before the Spanish Civil War in 1936 - their parents did not see them again. When they were older, only three of them could come back to Barcelona for Christmas after many years. My mother remembers them as very friendly and very intelligent.Manolo and Joaquin were very
The family lived in a huge house with a garden, and they also had a coach to go to Barcelona City Center. The house was built in a modernist style. This house was reconstructed a few years ago and now it is a lawyer's office.
When they were children they went to The Jesuit College. Manolo's father, José Moré, used to travel
very often to attend his business in Mallorca Island, where he owned some farms and cake shops. His
mother, Ana de Mora stayed always at home.
José, Orestes, Antonio (who died in 2006 at 93), and Joaquin. He also had three sisters: Mercedes who died at 33 years of age due to Parkinson's disease, Dolores who was my grandmother and died a few years ago, and Anita who died at 54.
When Manolo and his brothers finished school at around 18 years of age they went to a Jesuit school
in Barcelona to study to become priests.
José was the first one who went to India and he studied a lot of dialects to translate books there and
also taught Indian dialects. Orestes died in India in a Mission in the mountains due to a poisoned meal. He was living there with a tribe called the Katkaris - he helped them and taught them methods of work and how to combat diseases. José and Joaquin also died in India.
extroverted. José was very intellectual and didn't speak too much.
The second time Manolo came to Barcelona he gave my mother away in marriage in the cathedral of
Barcelona (see picture). Manolo was then 70 years old.
During the Spanish Civil war the family house was half destroyed by the communist tanks and they all
were persecuted. Manolo's parents managed to escape in a boat to Italy, where their son Antonio was living, and they came back when the war was finished.
His sisters Dolores and Anita stayed in Barcelona during the civil war working as nurses and they had
many difficulties. When his parents came back from Italy they couldn't go back to their house since it was half-destroyed and they had to rent a flat in the centre of Barcelona. His father died then and his mother died few years later, they were so old.
His brother Antonio built a Jesuit school here in Barcelona called “ San Estanislao de Kostka”, the
school I attended. Now we live in the same house as my grandmother (Dolores Moré, sister of Fr. Moré) with my uncle, my mother and my sister.
My mother Ana de Mora does not work, my sister Marta Pla works in a Navy Agency, my uncle Orestes de Mora worked all his life in a bank and now he is retired.
We are very proud of Manolo and his family even though we have not had the opportunity to see all
their work. We would love to visit India and congratulate all the people who took care of Fr. Moré. We hope we can come soon and we appreciate so much all the work you are doing for the centenary.
[Beatriz Pla is Fr.More's grand niece and works for a sports company in Barcelona. Our heart felt thanks to Beatriz and her mother Ana for their very personal and illuminating contribution.
This is an edited version of an article first published in the Centenary Tribute, July 2007. Editor]
Centenary Tribute to Fr More
The Tribute is a publication to commemorate the 100th birth year of the Reverend Father Emmanuel Ferdinand More, Society of Jesus, born on 20th July, 1907 in Barcelona, Spain.
Published on 20 July, 2007 by the alumni of Campion School, Bhopal who graduated in the years 1969-71, with the kind support of many other alumni, Campion School staff and well-wishers.
We hope you will find this small tribute to Fr. More inspiring.
Table of Contents
Tributes
The Institution that was Fr. More
Timeline
Gold Medals
Our Founding Fathers & Gurus
The School Band
The Scouts
Father More: A Nation Builder
A Brief Moment in Time
Father More: Inspiring by Example
Understanding Father More
The Father More Foundation
To download the Tribute document (in Adobe PDF format) please click here:
Tribute to Fr. More July 2007.
To view this you will need Adobe Reader which you can download here.
Message from the Hon. Dr. Balram Jakhar, Governor of Madhya Pradesh
"I appreciate that former students of Father E F More, Founder Principal of Campion School have instituted a Father More Foundation, as a public charitable Trust, to undertake various activities to perpetuate ideas and ideals of Father More. I convey my good wishes."
Dr. Jakhar also quoted a couplet in Punjabi:
"Dadhiyaan chup jaandiyan ne,
Gallan reh jaandiyaan ne!"
[Faces go away but the spoken words and teachings are remembered forever].
Although we never interacted with Fr. more in person but have always felt the greatness of the man through many of his students with whom I interacted while serving as COBA president. I was present on the day Fr. more was cremated at the school, the then Principal in his tribute said looking at the sea of humanity (ex-campionites) "Today at his death a seed has been sown in the ground and we will see hundreds and thousands of flowers bloom through his students in this society." This statment of his I tirelessly repeated at every forum and platform I got from COBA, never realising that some day all this would come true. It is great to see the efforts of our seniors in the shape of FMF and various other projects to pay their tributes to the great man that was Fr. More.
M S Jagan (1971/72) said: September 27, 2007
Fr. More was probably one of the best persons I have had the privilege of being with. A compassion that actually came from the heart and a dedication that came from really God knows where, he built an institution which is growing in stature. Thinking back, his principles of simplicity and adaptability to the local environment were astounding. I also acknowledge he was probably the greatest secularist ever in India. The school started with groups called "Xavier" Loyola" and "Britto". He changed it to "Ashoka" " Gandhi" and "Tagore" and, I recall, when we protested as was the fashion then, he said we ought to be proud of our heritage and we would understand this later in life. How do you praise a person of Fr. MORE's status? The MORE we write and speak about him the MORE we realize, it is not good enough. Suffice to say that there are hundreds of his students and admirers all over the world who are flying his flag in the form of good human beings, unflinchingly attributing their own success to the "magnanimous soul." For more tributes, see: Guest Book.
GAUTAM GANGULY (1970) said: August 21, 2007