Fr. S. Joseph Maliyakal (83/65) was the eldest son of Mrs. Sarah Sebastian and Prof. M.P. Sebastian (Dept. of Chemistry, Loyola College, Chennai).
S. Joseph and two of his companions at the Intermediate (Loyola College) – Aelred D’Silva and Leonard Paul – entered the Jesuit novitiate at Shembaganur in June 1953. The long retreat brought about a permanent change in his character. From a city-bred, lively and fun-loving young man he became a simple, serious and austere religious.
He was ordained on 18th March 1967 in Kolkata, his birthplace, and was assigned to work at St. Thomas Church, Kolkata. His principal ministries as a priest were pastoral work and formation with two short stints as a teacher at SXC, Kolkata and St. Lawrence, Ballygunge. He liked pastoral work very much and worked in the parishes in Kolkata, 24 Parganas, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Being fluent in Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil and English he had no problem being assigned across State boundaries. In 1981, he was asked to move to St Joseph’s Mission Home, Palai, Kerala, as Director. In 1987, he was back in Kolkata as pre-novitiate Director for a couple years and had short stints at Maitri Bhavan, Varanasi, Raghabpur and Prabhu Jisu Girja, Kolkata, before he was missioned to Madurai as co-pastor of St. Mary’s Cathedral.
He was the Acting Superior of Vidyaniketan SICJ, Thiruvananthapuram (1994-1996), pre-novitiate Director at VMI, Vilangudi (2001-2003) and Spiritual Director of BerchmansIllam, Chennai (2006-2015). He was eager to help formees and he was much appreciated as a formator and looked up to as an exemplary religious.
With failing health, he had to move to BeschiIllam, Dindigul, in 2016. He passed away there on 2nd June, 2019. May God grant him eternal rest!
- G. Joseph Antony Samy, SJ
