Family Origins
Anthony Elenjimittam was born of Catholic parents (Verkey and Rosa) in the town of Kundannoor near Kochin in Kerala (southern India) on June 22, 1915. Being the family of humble origins and not being able to give a correct instruction to his son Anthony, they decided to have him adopted by his uncle Joseph and his wife who were unable to have children.
As an adopted son of my Uncle Joseph I lived with him and my aunt whom I affectionately called Mattepan and Mattemma which in Malayam means Second Father and Second Mother. [...] With a little ingenuity, I was able to continue my studies and work for my adoptive parents and their possessions.Given his remarkable ability to learn and his innate mental agility, he worked for his uncle as an accounting administrator. When his uncle Joseph died he left all his family's possessions to him, to whom he renounced, feeling a strong call to spiritual search.
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
Theological/Philosophical studies (1931-1941)
In 1931, at the age of 15 he decided to enter the Catholic Seminary in Ernakulam which, in addition to giving him training on Latin and Scholastic Philosophy, initiated him into community life. Already then, he wrote that
Man can build his own character and his own future by following a healthy rule of life, the same rule that placed the aspirants of all time in accord with the harmony and rhythm of Mother Nature, from whose womb every form of life.He continued attending the Catholic Seminars of Trikakara and Mangalapuzha in Alwaye. In 1935, he entered the Order of the Dominicans, went to Italy and started his novitiate in Pistoia. From 1936 to 1941 he became a student of Theology at the Angelicum in Rome, having acquired a great admiration for St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, Meister Ekhart, Girolamo Savonarola and Giordano Bruno who were all part of this religious order.
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
After his priestly ordination on December 23, 1939 on the tomb of Santa Caterina da Siena in the Basilica of Santa Maria over Minerva in Rome with the name of Father Antonino, he began to carry out his apostolate in various parishes between Rome, Perugia and Teramo.
He was appointed priest by the new bishop for India, Mons. Benedetto Cialeo, who expressed himself in the homily, already delineating the Mission of Father Antonino:
"... you are the first Indian Dominican appointed priest in this modern era, after centuries of decadence since the Dominicans left India [...] Your country has a rich and vast spiritual culture that you have inherited in your veins. You have a mission to fulfill in India, and is to find a meeting point between Tomistic philosophy and our theology with the immense and valid spiritual traditions of your country. I know how much you love St. Thomas Aquinas, who was a pioneer in the attempt to integrate the Catholicism of the Middle Ages with Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle.During his years in the Italian capital, he also studied Sanskrit, as he promised his teachers at the Indian seminary before leaving. For this, he relied on the help of the most important Italian Orientalist of the 900, Professor Giuseppe Tucci, after finding him at the ISMEO (Italian Institute of the Middle and Far East).
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
During the academic year 1940-1941 he wrote his Lectorate thesis entitled Visione Induista nei confronti della Redenzione (Redemption from a Hindu Vision).
On his last day in Rome, before leaving for India, Fr. Anthony met with the old friends who had prepared and trained him for his future mission: Professor Giuseppe Tucci, sen. Giovanni Gentile, at that time general editor of the Treccani Encyclopedia, and Ernesto Bonaiuti, a well-known Italian priest excommunicated for his modernisms, who dismissed him with these words:
"You have much in common with the existentialist and libertarian philosophy of Krishnamurti. You will surely go far, possessing as you do, the heritage of Italian and Catholic culture".The English period (1942-1945)
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
In 1942, he felt a strong desire to return to India. At the moment, the Second World War was taking place and there were no ships that made the direct journey, because India was still a British colony and Italy was at war with England. Nevertheless, Father Anthony managed to obtain permission to return to his homeland, on behalf of the Provincial Father of the Dominican Order, since at that time, in India, all the Italian Missionaries, among whom also were the Dominicans, had been interned by the British Government.
The first stop was in Lisbon, where he arrived directly from Rome, hoping to take the boat from there to Goa, which was still a Portuguese colony, or to England.
1942 was also the year in which Gandhi, along with other exponents of the Indian National Congress such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Vallabhai Jhaverbhai Patel, Sarojini Naidu, etc. were interned or forced to house arrest.
In Lisbon, he came in contact with Subhas Chandra Bose, another leader of the Indian revolution, who considered only the armed struggle valid and had allied with the Axis powers. He invited Father Anthony to go to Japan with the attractive proposal to study the philosophy Zen, but Father Anthony rejected the offer.
With a Machiavellian plan, the British secret services, which had intercepted some letters from Anthony Elenjimittam to Mahatma Gandhi, force him to set sail on one of the direct ships to England, and as soon as he arrived at the port of Liverpool he was incriminated.
"You are an Indian nationalist and a potent patriot, so we cannot allow you to return to India, we have to examine all your notebooks, notes, diaries and manuscripts contained in your trunks and suitcases, to make sure that you are not a spy sent to England for the Italian Government ...".Therefore, he was admitted to the London Patriotic School, awaiting a resolution from the British Intelligence Services. After three months, they informed him that he will be detained in the Dominican monastery of Hawkesyard for "rebellious and revolutionary" and had to adapt to the relevant restrictions. Soon, life in the monastery became heavy for Father Anthony, and he asked the Ministry of the Interior, to be transfered to the Study House adjacent to the Dominican Convent of Oxford. He obtained the transfer and there he had the opportunity to meet Father Gervase Mathew and Father Victor F. White, disciple of Carl Gustav Jung. The latter, put him in touch with numerous scientific personalities, at the moment present at the University of Oxford. Also, to the movement of Brahmo Samaj, Rabindranath Tagore and prof. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who will become his best friend during the period in India.
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
The innovative spirit of Father Anthony made him travel again, and on September 7, 1943 he left the Dominican House of Convent in Oxford and moved to London, to the House of Young Christians, where he received the news that the Manchester College Committee had given him a scholarship to develop a thesis on a free theme. He chose the University of Cambridge to develop the research work, under the supervision of Prof. R. F. Rattray, the greatest expert of that time at Cambridge University. The thesis was named Religious Unity of Mankind and was published later with the title Dharmadvaitham.
Durante l'anno di permanenza a Cambridge (ottobre 1942 - settembre 1943) Padre Anthony si impiega pure presso una fabbrica di materiali ottici, la Unicam Instrument Company, lavorando al mattino e studiando al pomeriggio. Una volta completata la tesi Anthony ritorna a Londra, trovando un nuovo lavoro dapprima presso la Central Film Library, and later as a journalist in the newspapers United Press (Indian Newspaper Reunited), the Kesari of Poona and the Inquirer of London in which he published his first article Musing from the London Bridge.
London life allowed him to expand his knowledge, approaching the Vedanta Movement, led then by Swami Avvyaktananda, the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Movement, the Theosophical Society and the Buddhism of the Burmese monk Bhikshu Tittila. The same year he began exchanging letters with Mahatma Gandhi, whom he met the following year in India.
The interview made to Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the election campaign of 1945 at the Walthemstow Stadium in London will remain forever in history.
Finally, in October 1945, the Secretary of State gave Anthony Elenjimittam the new passport, so he could return to his country of origin.
The Indian period (1945-1975)
In India, he continues to be closely watched by the British Secret Service, which classified him as an "ardent nationalist" and the Catholic Church considers him a "heretic" because of his innovative ideas in the spiritual field.
A short time later he joined the Sadhran Brahmo Samaj, a movement closely related to his philosophical ideas founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) rightly called the "Father of modern India".
He becomes editor-in-chief of The Indian Messenger, a weekly newspaper in English of the same philosophy as Brahmo Samaj, a position he will occupy from 1945 to 1948. In the years 1946 and 1947 he lived in Shantiniketan with his friend S.K. George very close to the Mahatma Gandhi to whom he had dedicated the thesis entitled Mahatma Gandhi, a challenge to Christianity.
In questi anni incontra per la prima volta al Shodpur Ashram il Mahatma Gandhi che lo impressionò profondamente
because I saw in him the authentic copy of Jesus Christ, Socrates and Abraham Lincoln, the three fused in him surrounded by the halo of a Saint Francis of Assisi.The same Mahatma Gandhi, responding to the question about the insatisfaction of P. Anthony regarding the Brahmo Samaj says:
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
"If not even the greatest organization as it is the Catholic Church satisfies you, it means that within a few months the Brahmo Samaj will also disappoint you. [...] Because your search for Truth is intense and sincere, the Brahmo Samaj is something that belongs to the past while the Ramakrishna Mission is doing a good job. [...] You can come to the Sevagram in Warda when I will be in, so we will have more time to talk .In 1946, he met Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad in Calcutta, who soon became the Minister of Education of the First Government Congress in New Delhi. Abdul Kalam Azad encourages him to continue his studies deepening the mystical aspects of all religions and particularly Islamic Sufism, Vedanta, Yoga, Hinduism, the Bhakti schools, Meister Eckart, St. John of the Cross and other mystics of Christianity, the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, the great and ancient fathers of the desert, Zen, Taoism, etc. for the unity of the world.
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
In Calcutta, he becomes co-editor of the English newspaper The Eastern Express Daily. His activity allows him in the meantime to travel through India and get to know better the people, the characters and the movements that in those years inflamed the Indian subcontinent.
In 1947, after the independence of India and the separation between Bharat (of Hindu majority) and Pakistan (of Muslim majority), he participated with the Indian Youth Maiden Congregation helping the fugitives. At that time, he met Sister Teresa, that Albanian nun who will later became Saint, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in the Loreto convent in Chowringhee
He later attends and deepens the message of Swami Vivekananda founder of the Ramakrishna Movement, the Mahabhodi Society of Buddhist orientation, the Hindu saint Ananda Moy Ma in Almora. Also the Tibetan Tantrism where together with Lama Ping read and compare the Book of the Golden Precepts with the translation in English (The Voice of Silence) by the Theosophist H.P. Blavatski.
In 1949, he received the Buddhist habit with the name Bhikshu Ishabodananda which means "Mendicant Monk whose Beatitude is Isha Bhod (Jesus and Buddha)".
In 1951, he arrived in Bombay where he worked as director of the Oriental Philosophy Research Institute of the R.L. Trust Foundation. At the same time continued with its conferences in the Ramakrishna Mission, the Theosophical Society, the Bahai Movement, the Buddhist Vihara Bahujana and others.
When his fourth book is published (Philosophy and Action of R.S.S.) he runs into the wall of Roman Catholicism represented by the Archbishop of Bombay Valerian Gracias who ordered to burn the 4,000 books printed through the Examiner Press claiming it too unorthodox to have been written by a Dominican Father.
The following year, the archbishop, being much more diplomatic, proposed to Father Anthony to enter the Catholic sphere by making available a room in the silent Retreat House in Bandra, led by the Jesuit Fathers, where, taking advantage of the tranquility of the place, he could continue his researches and studies. Anthony accepted the offer and moved to Bandra on September 2, 1952. Only a few months later, in January 1953 Valerian Gracias will be erected to the position of Cardinal of Pope Pius XII. This fact causes the still archbishop of Bombay to be careful to reconcile the position of P. Anthony with the Truths that he was proclaiming and that were contradicted only apparently with the Christian-Catholic dogmas. The settlement of the case "Father Anthony heretic" will conclude in May of 1955 with the recognition of his priestly ministry and taking service as assistant priest in Worli in the Church of the Sacred Heart but keeping the house at the Bandra Reteat House and moving with the bicycle from one place to another. In that period of time, bound not to write further books or articles, he dedicated himself to the knowledge of "spiritism" and "naturopathy". Many books, belonging to this waiting period, both in prose and in poetry, will be published many years later under the title of The Psalms of a Solitary Sailor. Only four months later the elderly parish priest had to leave the place because of sickness and Fr Anthony is appointed parish priest. In June 1957, he managed to free himself from the post of parish priest, to devote himself to his work as a missionary and educator.
The Birth of St. Catherine of Siena School (1957)
On November 17, 1957, he collected the first sixteen poor and orphan children to give them a basic minimum education, starting a school under a tree in a plot donated by Mrs. Stella Curzai in Mount Mary's Hill, Bandra. In less than a week the children rose to 78 and some people (Thelma Curzai and Adelaide Vanderhide) went to help the new teacher in his arduous task of teaching children in need, as the same Mahatma Gandhi had planned to give everyone the Basic Education. At Christmas of the same year, the number has risen to 132. The school was named after Saint Catherine of Siena for needy children.
"The school was closed on April 30th for the summer holidays, after the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, as a day dedicated to our patron saint, and her reopening was announced on the first Monday of June 1958. But where? monsoon rains would start in the second week of June ... "The school location was moved to a rented canopy at Mount Mary's Hill, located very close to the Retreat House residence of P. Anthony. But the school had to have a different ideal from other Catholic schools:
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
"It was also a duty for me to induce teachers to understand the profound educational ideals of the greatest men of India and beyond, so as to put into practice the fundamental education conceived by Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and others. [...] So there fell on my shoulders a double responsibility, that is teaching the children entrusted to our care and instructing the teachers [...] so that they could have a wider vision about education, a sincere one. Sympathy towards other religions and a deep sense of sacrifice and love that could make their work payable, not only economically, but also ethically and spiritually."Later, the land adjacent to the shed owned by Mount Mary's Hill Church was given as a gift to make room for the school. The first stone of the Aquinas Hall, on June 1, 1961, was laid by the Governor of Bombay Sri Prakasa. Years later, the building of three floors was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Maharashtra Sri Vasanta P. Naik in July 1965. In 1961, the Welfare Society for Destitute Children was born which, as well as the Saint Catherine of Siena School and Orphanage in Bombay, it currently supports a professional school for IT technicians in Kochin, Kerala.
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
The Italian period (1975-2011)
In April 1962 he returned to Europe, stopping in Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland and England, giving lectures, preaching in churches and conducting study circles on the evangelical ideals of brotherhood and world citizenship.
On June 22, 1962, upon the interest of Card. Michael Browne, he met in a private audience Pope John XXIII, obtaining the support of the Church's highest authority for his Mission in India and abroad.
[...] Here is a Pope who accompanied every man of good will to "seek what unites and forget what divides". Here is a Pope who had breathed the eastern breeze of the Sufis, Dervishes and mystics of Turkey, Bulgaria and had received visits from Indians and Chinese, thus orienting himself towards the mystical and esoteric traditions of humanity.Pope John XXIII greets him:
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
“The work you do for the needy children of Bombay is truly the work of the Lord. I want to help with a donation and to bless you and all those who collaborate with you in its work. If you wish, I can call Cardinal Gracias and appoint it as you auxiliary so that in due time, you can exchange your extraordinary experience with the Archdiocese of Bombay or any other diocese you desire. The experience with Hindus, Buddhists, Mahatma Gandhi and the new world you has known is truly rare and can help us all. You have all my love and my blessing for the work you are doing.”Father Anthony, however, renounces the position of Bishop in order to continue his Mission freely. In 1972 the second construction of the Bombay school was inaugurated under the name of Sadhana Hall, thus hosting 250 children. Father Anthony began to travel, remaining six months in India and six months in Italy to evangelize more and more new people towards this new way of understanding the Divine message.
(Cosmic Ecumenism)
In the early '70s he met during his wanderings, in Vittorio Veneto, the then Patriarch of Venice Card. Albino Luciani, who will become Pope John Paul I. The conversation between the two verts on the oriental religions ends in the same way as the one he had with Pope Roncalli ... a spur to continue the work of knowledge of the various religions, because all, all paths lead to God.
The first Meditation centers in Italy were born in Trieste, in Turin Leumann and in Assisi, where Fr. Anthony settled definitively from the beginning of the 80s, invited by dr. Ezio Mancini, director of Mavitur, in the same Umbrian city.
In 2000 he founded together with a small number of friends the Sat Chit Ananda Mission with the aim of spreading the message of unity among religions, following the principles of Pope Roncalli summarized in "Look for what unites, not this that divides" and promoting the study of the sacred texts of Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Yogic Hinduism, Taoism, Greek Philosophy, Zen and Zoroastrianism.
In 2010, he founded the Association Sat Cit Ananda Edizioni with the task of publishing and distributing his works in Italy and abroad, to which are added numerous videos of the conferences, seminars and meditations.
During a series of lectures in Piedmont, in Turin, on the night between 4th and 5th October 2011 Fr. Anthony left his lifeless body, a body that he defined himself as "a jacket, a coat, which must be left worn once be able to dress with a new one".