Pierina da Silva

Sister Pierina da Silva, F.d.C.C., nee Meenakshi Aiyer (June 12, 1900- September 10, 1977) was a Tamil Brahmin girl born to parents settled in the Kingdom of Travancore in 1900, the daughter of Krishnaswami Aiyer, an advocate, and Gomathi Ammal, a housewife. At the age of 18, she converted to Catholicism, and since this resulted in her rejection from her family and caste, she was christened Maria Agnes da Silva as the adoptive daughter of Professor Ita da Silva, also her baptismal godmother.

Pierina had been named by her father Meenakshi in honor of the Hindu goddess Meenakshi, a manifestation of the goddess Parvati, wife of Shiva. Meenakshi means "with eyes like that of a fish" but also has the derived meaning, "a girl with large eyes".

Pierina's parents belonged to the Iyer Brahmin caste. called variously the "Ayyars", "Aiyers" or "Iyers".

Pierina was born in the village of Ponjikara, on Bolghatty Island in Travancore on the Malabar Coast, presently a part of Kerala, India. Her mother died while she was very young, but her father broke with custom by refusing to remarry, and instead asked his two younger sisters, Kamalakshmi Aiyer and Mahalakshmi Aiyer to look after the little girl.

Hinduism at this time was being transformed by contact with European cultures and beliefs, so that, while Hinduism put a premium on girls marrying immediately on attaining puberty, both of Pierina's aunts refused to marry and remained spinsters until their deaths in the 1930s.

Pierina was placed in the local municipal school where she excelled, but showed a special aptitude for mathematics. As she approached the age of twelve, pressure within her extended family grew for her marriage, but at this crucial juncture, her father suddenly died, leaving her an orphan dependent on her aunts.

Giving into her wish not to marry but to continue her education, her aunts ignored the local municipal middle school and decided to admit her to the only Catholic school in the region, St. Mary's Catholic School in the city of Kochi, then part of the tiny neighboring Kingdom of Cochin. This school was run by the Canossian sisters, of whom only Sr. Pauline Vas was Manglorean (the first non-European nun in the Indian sub-continent), the rest being Europeans. Mother Pauline Vas was later to become the mother superior at te Canossa convent at Alleppy.

This government-recognized institution enjoyed great popularity with the peoples of Cochin and Travancore for the high quality of its teaching and for being open to all, without distinction of caste or creed, but with a special preference for the poor.

Pierina's aunts obtained her admission to this school, and funded her by taking in tailoring. They also moved to Amravathy to be closer to the school in Cochin, hiring the ground floor of a relative's house as their residence.

Pierina began schooling at St. Mary's from January 1913. Everyday, on returning from school, in keeping with Hindu orthodoxy's prescriptions for cleansing from the polluting contact with the Mlechhas, she would leave her clothes on the verandah, have a purifying bath and put on fresh clothes before joining her aunts.

It was customary in Catholic schools in predominantly Hindu areas to teach catechism class to Catholics and religion or moral ethics class to non-Catholics. Again, initially, Hindu girls would not enter chapel or church as doing so resulted in caste pollution (according to Hindu orthodoxy) and to the loss of one's caste status unless "remedial" measures were performed; however, as popular Hinduism developed further under Western influences, the norms of caste pollutions are no longer as strictly followed.

One day, Pierina's religion teacher, Sr. Mercede Scappagnini read and commented in class upon 1 Tim. ii. 5:

:"...Our Savior wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth. For there is only one God and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed Himself as ransom for them all."

This passage struck deep into Pierina's mind and she began to study Christianity. However, she feared to either ask the nuns or her aunts for a long time, and was greatly troubled. One day, by chance, Pierina happened upon a number of Catholic Truth Society books and pamphlets amongst her father's papers, and these at last met her need. Also among these, Pierina found accounts of previous conversions by Brahmins to Christianity, which consoled and encouraged her.

At this time, Pierina was also studying hard in order to pass the Teacher's Diploma (B.Ed) examinations, in order to be qualified as a teacher.

One day, Pierina approached Sr. Mercede and told her that she wished to convert to Catholicism, "in order to reach my eternal salvation." For some time, Sr. Mercede and Pierina juggled catechization during the little periods of free time available, but both recognized that this was inadequate. Finally, it was decided to persuade her aunts to permit her to be taken in as a boarder. Pierina insisted that it was necessary for her to do so in order to better concentrate on her studies for the forthcoming examinations, which was the simple (if incomplete) truth. After some hesitation, the aunts agreed to the arrangement, and in the beginning of January 1918, Pierina moved in.

The result of her teacher’s examination was to be declared on January 10, 1919. She left her aunts' house for the last time a few days before. She learnt of her success in the examinations on the 6^th. It was arranged that Pierina would be baptized on Jan. 7 in a private ceremony, but knowing the minds of her aunts and clan, she did not inform them of this program. Pierina was accordingly baptized by Msgr. Jose Bento Martins, a Goan, and bishop of Cochin, with Prof. Silva acting as her godmother and with the baptismal name Maria Agnes da Silva taking the name of Our Lady and of the martyr Saint Agnes.

Shortly after, Pierina wrote to her aunts of her success in gaining her teacher's diploma, :"the merit for which belongs to you", and then, "fully conscious of causing you displeasure, I have to communicate to you my decision of remaining in the convent, because I have become a Catholic."

Pierina's aunts rushed to the convent to take her back, by force if necessary. Failing to persuade her, they returned, but sought the assistance of a relative who was also a magistrate. In the meantime, due to the commotion among her clan members, Pierina was sent with two nuns to the convent at Allepey, in Madras province. On the orders of the magistrate, the Allepey police stopped Pierina from disembarking from the ferry and placed her under arrest, leaving her on board under the hot sun without food or drink for the whole day. In the evening, she was taken to the Allepey police station and questioned by the Police Commissioner, Allepey district, and her uncle, the magistrate.

Replying to the commissioner, Pierina stated::"No one on earth has induced me or even invited me to become a Catholic. The decision has been my own and personal, I repeat, without pressure or invitation of any sort. I myself have chosen to be a Catholic, and want to remain such: because everyone is free to follow her own conscience."

She concluded, :"I am of age, and can do whatever I wish. My relatives have no rights to protest against this my specific decision."

Then, to her uncle the magistrate, Pierina said,:"What right have you to interfere in my decision, you who have never taken any interest in me, or in my studies, while my aunties did so for five consecutive years, and all at their own personal expense? And I wish I could pay them back! But you had already planned to give me away in marriage! And what would I have been able to do in such a case? Let us cut it short: I am of age and I may dispose of myself as I wish; let the case be closed!"

The commissioner ordered Pierina's release and she proceeded to the Allepey convent.

However, Pierina's mind was turning more and more towards a radical choice; two years later she announced her desire to become a nun and she was sent to St. Joseph's Convent, Belgaum, as a postulant, December 1920, where, at the age of twenty, she took her vows as a member of the Daughters of Charity (F.d.C.C.) founded by Magdalena of Canossa.

At the same time, she also took her third and final name, Sister Pierina as a religious in honor of St. Peter the Apostle, the name by she was known until her death.

On finishing her three year novitiate, Pierina was initially assigned to St. Joseph's Convent and its attached school, where she developed a ministry for the Tamil Catholic migrants who had moved to Belgaum along with their English military employers as domestics.

In the meanwhile, Pierina continually prayed for the conversion of her aunts, and the Cochin nuns also visited them. A few years after the death of Kamalakshmi, Mahalakshmi moved into the convent but specified that she would not convert; despite this, a few days before her death in 1936, she sought and was baptized into the Catholic Church.

In 1943, at the urgent request of the Archbishop of Bombay, the Canossians took up the abandoned Zaroli Mission, 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Bombay, serving some fifty tribal villages. The Zaroli Mission had been originally opened by German Franciscan brothers sent by Fray Paulus Moritz in 1921, but they had to abandon it in 1937. The Canossian order sent four nuns, including Sr. Pierina to serve the Mission. Soon after reaching Zaroli, the nuns fanned out into the villages to organize the Catholics who had not had access to catechism and the sacraments for decades. Here too, Sr. Pierina began to educate tribal children and facilitated their successful appearance for the Teacher's Diploma.

In August 1947, Sr. Pierina was transferred to the convent attached to Our Lady of Victories Church at Mahim, Bombay. That same year she was appointed Bursar for the Canossian Provincialate of India. Shortly after, the parish requested the nuns to vacate the premises to make way for a boys school. The nuns had been given a plot next to St. Michael the Archangel parish, but it had not been developed. Faced with this eviction notice, however, Sr. Pierina as Bursar was compelled to begun construction. At that time, due to the socialist dirigist policies of Nehru, cement was only available on the black market and at high prices. Sr. Pierina negotiated with merchants after merchants, walking the city in the hot son or through floods, insistent on getting a better deal for her scarce monies. But she not only had to keep after architects, building contractors and suppliers, she also had to negotiate with the civil authorities in order to obtain building permissions and government recognition for the new school, which commenced functioning in 1951 (Canossa Convent, Mahim, Bombay).

The new school, meeting the needs of two large parishes, soon was overwhelmed and had to conduct two shifts. But Sr. Pierina noticed small children employed as domestics bringing lunchboxes for their employers' children frequently of their own age, and many of them belonged to poor Catholic families. With the support of the parish priest, she persuaded their employers and collected them and other poor children for a third shift in the late evening.

Six years later, in 1959, the evening school had grown sufficiently in order to be registered.

In 1969, after eleven years of studies, twelve students appeared for the Teacher's Diploma (B.Ed.), which four of them passed in their first attempt. Thus Sr. Pierina had achieved the unheard of feat of making teachers out of domestic helps!

On August 15, 1977, Sr. Pierina collapsed after participating in the festivities of the Assumption of Our Lady, and was hospitalized. She died on September 10 1977.

Source

* Sr. Maria Luisa Dagnino, F.d.C.C., "Meenakshi: Brahmin, Catholic, Canossian Daughter of Charity", Sept. 1987, translated from the Italian by Sr. Josephine Sala, F.d.C.C., Canossian Daughters of Charity Generalate, Via Stazione Ottavia, 70-00135, Rome, Italy, printed by Farnstock pty ltd., Brisbane, Australia. No copyright mentioned.