Fifty years ago, Fr. Mignon was appointed Director of the nascent Bengali language school of the Province. In this capacity, he visited us during our Patna Novitiate to assess our knowledge of the language. The day after our First Vows, we came to St. Lawrence to begin our language year under him. He was a hard taskmaster and as we then perceived him, a man without any sense of humour, (he came by bicycle from Baitakhana, carried it up three flights of stairs, his cassock a mass of sweat, and immersed himself into teaching immediately), a man who took himself and his duty with the utmost seriousness.

Fr. Mignon incarnated himself in the soil of Bengal (he was proud to call himself an Indian citizen) and was, first and foremost, a solid Jesuit, a man of God, infinitely more than a translator or writer, a man who integrated in himself the Jesuit model of being contemplative in action, with wholehearted generosity and unswerving obedience. He saw his work of a lifetime translator as a Divine Call, writing in later years, “Yes, the Holy Spirit was there, enlightening me, guiding me, stirring up in me that mysterious ‘breath of life’ which is at the origin of every spiritual happening.” Fr. Mignon was already 61 years old when he embarked in 1985 on his Magnum Opus, the Mangalbarta Bible of today. He came to India as a Regent in 1949, and it was not until ten years later that his tryst with the Bengali language began in full earnest.

After years of study and preparation, while always in pastoral ministry, he was appointed to translate the Catechetical textbooks of Maria de la Cruz, followed by twelve years arduous toil on Banibitan, the Bengali lectionary, and the still beautiful Mangalbarta with the Psalms. It was first at Biotakhana, where he spent fourteen years (1962-76) and then at St Xavier’s, (1976 onwards) that he completed this work. Even at St Xavier’s, his weekend ministry at Geonkhali was an indispensable part of his life. He succeeded in building the church, and then reluctantly let go of this ministry he loved to give himself wholly to his full-time work as translator. From 1985 onwards, it was Mangalbarta and nothing else. I had the privilege of spending eighteen years with him in the community here at St Xavier’s. Up at early dawn, his spiritual exercises and daily Mass completed, already from the time of breakfast, almost till dinner, he was inaccessible, wedded to his cluttered desk, pouring over his manuscripts with his lifelong fellow translator the late Mr. Sajal Banerjee, the bulk of his work done in longhand. At night, he was always there for the evening prayer, dinner and recreation. We envied his remarkable powers of concentration and capacity for unremitting hard work.

As his powers began to wane, and the compulsive inner urge to write and translate began to subside, as the onset of advancing age and growing infirmity besieged him, Fr. Mignon prepared himself with humble submission and eager expectation to come face-to-face with his Lord and Master. In those final days we saw his true Jesuit radiance, docility to Christ’s Will, total preparedness to meet Christ. That faith in Christ and faith in himself which empowered his life’s journey and realized itself as total submission to Christ’s Will remains his great legacy to us, and as we lay him to rest, we realize with dizzying sadness that something that goes with him is what we will never see again. May he rest in peace!

• Patrick Walsh, SJ

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