Martyr in Bangladesh

Chapter 3. A change of Mission

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Fr. Valerian with his mom Therese and dad Anthony

At the end of 1966, Father Valerian Cobbe asked the Superior General to send him back among the poor. He felt that the workload was too much for him and did not think he could continue much longer. Before his new destination, he returned to Italy for a short holiday. His plane flew over Goa, where Saint Francis Xavier, the apostle of the East and the Patron of the Congregation, is buried. Valerian Cobbe could not help wondering what the saint would have achieved in his stead in five years.

The Italian visit was not entirely restful: he traveled widely to speak about the mission, to find benefactors and ask solidarity of those who heard him. When the time came for him to return to the mission, he felt the pain of detachment from his family even more than in the past. Perhaps he had a foreboding that he did not have much time left.

He wrote to his family from Jessore on November 11, 1967: “I wish to thank my parents especially for all they did for me during the three months I spent at home. They were among the happiest moments of my life and I will always remember them with nostalgia. My thanks also to my brothers and sisters for the help they gave me on so many occasions. Thanks for all your patience and understanding. Perhaps I have never been an example of heroic virtue, but I hope you understand that we priests are human and share the same weaknesses of ordinary people. We shall be better persons only if we strive daily to imitate the Lord’s example as described by the Gospels and the Church”.

Fr. Valerian with Fr. Mario Veronesi, in Shimulia

Together with Fr. Veronesi

Bishop Battaglierin welcomed him back to Pakistan with the news that he had been destined to Shimulia with Father Veronesi. At the age of 35, he was to start a completely new adventure. Shimulia was not an easy assignment due to the great misery that reigned there. Nevertheless, Father Valerian Cobbe would rise to the challenge, helped by the great missionary who awaited his arrival: Father Mario Veronesi.

Valerian Cobbe immediately saw that life would be difficult in Shimulia. He did not lose heart, as was evident in an ironic letter he wrote to his friends on December 15, 1967: “My house is a palace: an old church, which is more than 100 years old. I share my room with some rats, many insects and some serpents that spend almost all their time under the floorboards. During the day, light is provided by the sun; at night we use an oil lamp. The first piece of advice the Christians gave me was to always look where I put my feet in the evening and in the morning when I get up. I live in a very pious and devoted community. Our greatest suffering is the misery in which our people are forced to live”.

During the day, light is provided by the sun; at night we use an oil lamp. The first piece of advice the Christians gave me was to always look where I put my feet in the evening and in the morning when I get up. I live in a very pious and devoted community. Our greatest suffering is the misery in which our people are forced to live.
Fr. Valerian Cobbe

Perhaps he felt impotent in the face of the misery, hunger, ignorance and natural disasters. He was helped by the faith, love, help and advice of Father Veronesi, and he found the courage to persevere no matter how difficult things became. He realized that something had to be done to help the people obtain food from the barren land. What they needed most were wells, and Father Cobbe set about finding ways to get them.

He wrote to a friend on September 24, 1968: “We desperately need help to find a solution to the hunger problem. Thanks to a generous offering I have been able to draw up plans for irrigation such as have never been seen before here. I have already finished one well, but I have so far been unable to raise the money for a second one. The organization ‘Mani Tese’ of Parma has promised me engines for two wells; I have already bought one pump, but I have no benefactors to finance the second one. This special turbine pump will provide water for 500 fields. As I said before, I am desperate, and a desperate man sometimes asks the impossible. I knock at your door in the hope that you will be able to help me. It is difficult for us to find benefactors to finance our projects, but I assure you that it is even more painful to watch people slowly give up hope, lose their dignity and die of hunger”. 

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