T. Gavan Duffy

Thomas Gavan Duffy was born in 1888 in the south of France. He was the son of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, one of the main patriotic leaders of the Young Ireland Movement, who was associated with Davis, Mitchell, Mangan, and the mother of Oscar Wilde (Speranz of The Nation), who later served as Premier Minister of Australia. ... The boy inherited the talent and originality of his father, who can be called his genius. He started his cosmopolitan existence early, being educated in Stonyhurst, Turles, and Paris. At eighteen he joined the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris, the nursery for so many glorious martyrs, and was ordained in 1911. He immediately went to India, and the small town of Tindivanam "Tindy" which he affectionately called in the south of Arcot, near Madras and the equator became its headquarters. It was in Tindivanam that Father Havan Duffy founded his famous 500 member catechist training school, which Monsignor John Hunt of Detroit named “West Point of the Church of India”. In fact, when people thought of Duffy's father, they automatically thought of catechists too; and that's exactly what he wanted. "More and better catechists" had been his motto for more than a quarter of a century, and it was the idea of ​​the delightful periodical Hope, which he wrote at unpredictable intervals, though perhaps he could. snatch a few hours of midnight from his hard work. And sent back to his assistants in the back. With a dog, beautiful poems, funny anecdotes, a typically cut, clear prose - it was all the same for him, if only he understood his idea - he sang the song of the catechist.