A ‘People’s Priest’ for whom service to man was service to god

Sarugani, a village near Kalayarkoil in Sivaganga district, is a crucible of communal amity. On March 21 every year, people of different faiths congregate at the Sacred Hearts Church to celebrate the life of the ‘People’s Priest’ for whom service to man was service to god. The day marks the death anniversary of Rev. Fr. Maria Louis Leveil, a Jesuit priest from France, who chose the undivided Ramanathapuram district as his second home.

People participate in the holy mass and a procession of the portrait of Fr. Leveil on that day. But the most important event is the community feast prepared with rice and vegetables brought from various places.

Forty-two years after his death, Fr. Leveil is revered by people of all faiths, many of whom have not seen him. “He was a very simple man and won the hearts of people through dedication, honesty and prayer,” says Rev. Fr. L. Ambrose Louis, parish priest, Sarugani. He could speak, read and write in Tamil.

“When I came to my village in 1979, I did not believe in what people said about him. People used to sprinkle mud taken from near his grave on the land before ploughing. This, they believed, kept rodents and pests away. When I did it on my land, it also became pest-free,” says S. Muthu Vadivel, a Sri Lankan Tamil settled in Panakkarai near Sarugani.

Hindus hail him as ‘Leve Samy’ and Muslims refer to him as ‘Leve Ayya.’

Fr. Leveil, who was born in France in 1884, left for India, where he spent the rest of his life as a Jesuit novitiate, in 1908.

He served as a parish priest at Andavoorani and Ramanathapuram and spent his final years in Sarugani. He always preferred to walk to villages and his focus was on poverty alleviation and providing education to villagers.

Many people educated by him have won Best Teacher awards at the State and national levels.

Fr. Leveil used to write the prayer, “Oh Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in thy loving mercy,’ in Latin on palm leaves, which were planted on agricultural fields with a cross.

People say that the palm leaf warded off pests.

He predicted his death accurately and also chose the place of burial.

Many children in the composite Ramanathapuram and Tirunelveli districts have been named after him.