Martyr in Bangladesh

Chapter 1. Discerning God's Call

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Valerian Cobbe during his seminary days in Holliston, Mass.: a good shepherd with a sheep on his shoulders

Father Valerian Cobbe was killed in Bangladesh on October 14, 1974, by a gang of thieves, after twelve years of service to the poor.  He was born on January 14, 1932, in Camisano Vicentino, in Northern Italy, son of Antonio and Teresa, and brother to Severina, Maria, Francesco, Giovanni and Gaetano.

Theirs was a large and poor family. The father worked as a coachman for some well-off local people; previously he had worked as a printer and a bricklayer. When the family increased, they moved out into the countryside and remained there for 35 years. The large number of children to be fed meant long working days for both parents. They were educated with love and discipline.

The children had to give their own contribution to family life. They helped in the fields, they gathered potatoes and gleaned the grain; they also made wicker baskets and went frog-hunting. Valerian was a determined character, plucky, robust and always in a hurry, but he was also generous and sensitive. On Sundays he attended Mass, catechism and the oratory.

The Second World War was part of his childhood memories: the searches carried out by the Fascists and the Germans, air and counter-air strikes, revenge attacks, etc. One winter day, Valerio saw one of his companions killed by a grenade; he would never forget the blood-stained snow.

Please remember me when you are looking for priests to send there... Above all, I feel an invincible desire to spend my life among those who do not yet know the Gospel, especially the poorest of the poor.
Fr. Valerian Cobbe

In 1943, aged 11 years, he decided to enter the seminary. He traveled every morning on his bike to Lerino, to the parish school of Father Giuseppe Stella. He heard bombings, often the planes flew over his head, but he attended assiduously and with determination, according to his teacher. One day, a missionary arrived in Camisano. He preached, asked for prayers, financial help and vocations. Valerian Cobbe accepted the challenge: he would become a Xaverian missionary, in the Congregation founded in Parma by bishop Guido Maria Conforti.

On September 12, 1950, at the age of 18, he professed vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and mission in the Xaverian Congregation. Two years later, in 1952, he sailed from Livorno with another four students on the ship “Maria Cristina” for the United States of America. With the support of Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston, the Xaverians had decided to open a house there. That same year the Xaverian mission in East Pakistan was founded.  

Holliston, MA, June, 1957: Newly-ordained Xaverians, Fr. Valerian Cobbe, Fr. Robert Maloney, Fr. Rene Lovat, in front of Our Lady of Fatima Shrine

Missionary in East Pakistan

Valerian Cobbe was ordained priest on February 2, 1957. He was appointed vice-rector and treasurer of the house in Petersham, USA. He helped out in the neighboring parishes, but his desire was to leave for the missions. On October 2, 1957, he wrote to Father Giovanni Castelli, Superior General: “I have heard that we shall soon have a mission in the Belgian Congo. Please remember me when you are looking for priests to send there. I feel that my constitution is robust enough to withstand the rigors of the African climate. Above all, I feel an invincible desire to spend my life among those who do not yet know the Gospel, especially the poorest of the poor”.

His wish was not granted, and he had to wait another five years before his dream came true. On October 3, 1962, when he was 30 years old, he boarded a plane that would take him to Khulna, in East Pakistan.

He found himself in the midst of the most dreadful misery. He wrote immediately to the Superior General: “It is almost discouraging to see so many hungry and poor people, to whom one cannot even think of speaking about religion because their main problem is how to find enough food to survive. The government has declared Khulna the most depressed area of the whole of Pakistan. The presence of the other Xaverians is consoling and encouraging. Occasionally, fatigue makes them rather impatient, but they work so hard and with such a spirit of self-sacrifice that I would like all our fathers to see how heroic they are. We must also resign ourselves to the suffering of watching people die of hunger because we are unable to give them even a piece of bread. I thank you for sending me here, and I hope to stay here as long as a nun I met in Jessore not long ago: at least 44 years”. He would not reach his target, but through his martyrdom he would equal the heroism of the confreres he admired so much.  

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