Br. Anthony Stevens SJ was born on 18th March 1936 in Bombay to Mr. George Stevens and Ms. Mary Gonzalves. Father and Mother died when he was very small. He was then brought up in a Foundling Home. Br. Tony fondly called by all, remembers the gun salute at the burial of his father as he was a military man. Among the seven siblings, he was the last one. In 1956, after his schooling at St. Stanislaus, Bandra, he came to join Jesuits in Jamshedpur Province. He was not selected. He did not go back to Bombay but remained in Jamshedpur. He was sent to Adra Parish to help the parish priest. From there he came to Loyola School, Jamshedpur to help Br. William Braganza in the stationery and treasurer’s office, linen room and making hosts. When Br. William died in 1962, everything fell on him. He then served the school for about five decades. Everyone in the school knew him as Br. Tony. Jesuits who knew him talked among themselves; “Look at this man, he lived all his life like a Jesuit. How nice if he dies as a Jesuit.” He joined the Society on 1st July 2008, and did his novitiate at Loyola Sadan, Lucknow. After his first vows, he served as Minister at Loyola Niwas, Jamshedpur (2010- 2011), Sub-Minister at Jesu Bhavan, Jamshedpur (2011-2013) and Loyola School, Chaira (2014-2019) and Guest-and- Library in charge at Loyola Bhavan, Bhubaneswar (2019 -2022). When he joined, he donated all his savings to the Jamshedpur Jesuit Society. He was very much spiritual and spent a lot of time in prayer especially in the afternoon when others went to their rooms for rest. The wish of many Jesuits was fulfilled – “Tony not only lived like a Jesuit, he died as a Jesuit too.”
Gyan P. Kujur, SJ
