By Irudhaya Jothi

Aizawl, Feb 15, 2023: Photo exhibitions will highlight the life and mission of Father Ante Gabric, a Croatian Jesuit missionary who had spent five decades in eastern India, especially in the Sundarbans.

Kolkata will host the exhibition February 16-17 at Mother Teresa Hall in Christ the King Church Park Circus in the city. It will display some rare photographs taken by Croatian photographer Zvonimir Atletic in 1977.

They portray the early works of Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata and Father Gabric, who is now a Servant of God, the first phase in the four-stage canonization process.

Similar exhibitions will be held at Basanti February 23-24 and Gosaba February 26-27, both in Sundarbans.

Father Gabric came to Kolkata (then Calcutta) on October 20, 1938, as a Jesuit seminarian and died of food poisoning on the same day in 1988 when he was on the way to Kolkata from Mariapally in Sundarbans.

His body was buried a village parish he started in Sundarbans (beautiful forests in Bengali language), where he had spent 45 years serving its many parishes.

The Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal.

The canonization process for Father Gabric was opened on his birth centenary, February 28, 2015, by Cardinal Josip Bozanic, Archbishop of Zagreb. The prelate declared him a “Servant of God.”

Since then, the world, especially Europe, has shown lots of interest in in his mission as well as his collaboration with Mother Teresa.

Exhibitions were held in Croatia and other European cities since 1990 and the last ones were held in six cities of Croatia in 2022.

The Jesuit missionary was born in Metkovic in Croatia on February 28, 1915, as the eight child among four daughters and five sons born to Petar and Katarina Gabric.

He joined the Society of Jesus on May 15, 1933, with a desire to work in the missions in India.

He was ordained a priest on November 21, 1943, at St. Mary’s Theological College, Kurseong, now in West Bengal state.

“From then on Father Ante [Gabric] was a man on fire and a man for the frontiers, finding new avenues and opportunities to reach out to the unreached and unreachable in the dacoits-infested and communist-ruled islands of the Sundarbans,” wrote late Nicolas Naskar, a catechist who had worked with the Jesuit since his arrival in the flood-prone region.

Jesuits in Calcutta province recall Father Gabric always being on the move walking and cycling and using whatever available mode of communication, ever willing to reach out and touch as many lives as possible.

“His apparent ill health and fragile look did not deter him on his way to ‘Magis’- a true son of St. Ignatius of Loyola,” they add.

Father Gabric was a prolific letter writer, especially to his family members, friends, acquaintances and most importantly, benefactors.

Communication with Croatians in diaspora and in Croatia helped him get feed the starving, clothe the naked and save lives during natural disasters, which were annual phenomena.

Naskar’s note says Father Gabric did not limit his help just to giving food and money. “He introduced some viable income generating activities, such as carpentry, stitching. tailoring and embroidery.”

He engaged the multinational footwear company Bata some 50 years ago to sustain many families with income generating program that helped their upward mobility and social empowerment, the catechist said.

Most tailors now in many Sundarbans Islands were trained by the Jesuit’s “Tailoring School.

Father Gabric had a close relationship with Mother Theresa and their mutual respect and admiration intensified in trying to excel the other in following Christ daily, the Jesuit say.

Father Gabric had also cultivated a special relationship with government officers, who helped him reach out to the needy during floods, cyclones and other natural calamities.

Father Gabric had his adversaries and critics as well. Some criticised him for his generous distribution of materials to the poor while others for his unquenchable thirst for souls.

Father Mirko Nikolic, the vice postulator who works for the causes of canonization, says they have finished the diocesan part of the process and need to interview a few more witnesses in Croatia. “Testimonies from India have reached us and after translating them into English we shall submit to Vatican,” he told Matters India.

The Kolkata exhibition will be organized by Violeta Orsulic and Martina Vrecko from Croatia in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Calcutta and Baruipur diocese.

Violeta, who established “Fr. Ante Gabric Foundation,” says Father Gabric and Mother Teresa have inspired her to organize the program in India.

Martina expressed the joy of visiting the places touched by Father Gabric. She plans a as nine-month novena in Croatia reflecting on the writings of Gabric from February 28, his birth anniversary to October 20, his death anniversary.