By Joe Eruppakkatt
New Delhi, April 11, 2023: Brother Jesudas Gabriel Amirtham, a member of the Society of St. Paul who promoted peace clubs for children and ran mobile bookshops among other activities, has died.
The death occurred at 4 pm on April 10 at the congregation’s house in Kochi, Kerala, following a massive heart attack. He was 67.
Funeral Mass is scheduled at 11 am on April 11 in the congregation’s chapel at Dasarahalli in Bengaluru. He will then be buried at the community cemetery in the same compound.
As a Pauline Brother, he served the northeastern Indian states for several years and was acclaimed for his zeal and enthusiasm for spreading the good news of Christ.
Brother Jesudas had a degree of Bachelor of Theology and a diploma in Multimedia Animation.
He achieved this through communication media and various initiatives such as motivational classes for students and youth, training programs for teachers and religious, mobile bookshop, and peace club.
He formed 175 peace club units involving 8,000 children as members from 55 schools. For this, the International Business Council awarded him the “Indira Gandhi Sadbhavana Award for Peace.”
He was also recognized and honored by Assam’s chief minister for his peace and educational initiatives.
He also served as the executive secretary of the National Assembly of Religious Brothers in India, deputy director of North East Social Communications, regional secretary, Bible Commission of North East, director, Guwahati Archdiocesan Communication Centre.
Brother Jesudas, as he was popularly known, was born on February 27, 1956, at Veeralur in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, as the second son of D. Amirtham and P. Arokiamary, who are no more. He is survived by three brothers and two sisters.
Brother Jesudas joined the Society of St Paul at Mumbai on June 16, 1976. After his initial formation in Mumbai, he did his novitiate in Bengaluru in 1979-1980 and pronounced his first vows on June 30, 1980. After completing his juniorate programs at Mumbai and Allahabad, he made his final profession on December 12, 1987, in his home parish Church at Veeralur.
He served as the teacher of aspirants and provider of the community in the congregation’s center in Coimbatore for five years from 1987 to 1992. In 1992, he was sent as the pioneering Pauline missionary to the northeastern town of Jorhat in Assam. He was the delegate of the provincial and the first director of Assamese Publications from 1992 to 1996.
He then worked in the Mobile Bookshop Unit at Allahabad during 1996-1997. He returned to Jorhat in 1997 and served as the director of the mobile bookshop unit for two years.
Both in Allahabad and Jorhat, he combined the mobile bookshop apostolate with animation and motivational courses for students, youth and teachers. Soon he became a much sought-after motivational speaker in the northeastern region.
In 2015, Brother Jesudas suffered a major automobile accident and fractured his leg. After partially recovering from the injury, he worked in Chennai for a year from 2016.
He served the National Assembly of Religious Brothers in India at Bengaluru as its national executive secretary during 2017-2020.
He also served as the media secretary at the Conference of Religious in India (CRI), New Delhi, for a brief period in 2020.
However, he moved to Bengaluru in November 2020 because of the Covid pandemic. He lived there until 2022 and then went to Kochi to undergo treatment for his ailments.