Missing Mar Osthathios

On the wall

I visited the Balikagram in the January of 2013. It was almost a year since the passing away of beloved Osthathios Thirumeni. But Osthathios Thirumeni was everywhere. In the talks of the sisters, in the discussion with achen, I could even see HG in the eyes of the little ones who would perhaps never know what great gratitude they owe to this beloved father of blessed memory, who by his divine vision, shaped a mission for an entire Church to follow, which gave hope to many hundreds of children like them all around the country.

Philip Rambachen, the saintly disciple of Mar Osthathios had been lovingly guiding the mission centers, like the Balikagram. But with Rambachen also becoming sick lately, there was a fear written all over the faces of the staff at the Balikagram that I could see. Will the support extended to the mission centers cease after the time of these stalwarts of faith? What will happen to the Balikagram after these Fathers?


The saintly disciple Philip Rambachen

When I related this fear to HG Geevarghese Mar Coorilose of Mumbai later when I met HG, Thirumeni who is also a co-President of the Balikagram, understood the sentiment, given that these towering personalities were the ones whose activities had borne fruits in the form of the mission centers, but was convinced that the mission work started by them, would never lose its focus, that these would continue to flourish and achieve new levels of witnessing for Christ and service to the society, in the coming years. I felt relieved at the conviction shared by the Metropolitan.