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Dinajpur celebrates the centenary of Dhanjuri’s church
Dedicated to Saint Francis, the church was built by PIME missionaries called to this area of Bangladesh by some Santals who wanted to learn about the Gospel. The community, which now numbers some five thousand, led to the birth of other parishes. Bishop Tudu expressed gratitude for those who “planted the seed of Christian faith” in the area.
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Dinajpur (AsiaNews) – Thousands of Catholics gathered on 30 December to celebrate the centenary of the Church of St Francis of Assisi in Dhanjuri, Dinajpur District, northern Bangladesh.
The jubilee marked a century of a faith-filled journey shaped by the dedication of the local clergy as well as Italian missionaries from the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME).
The roots of Christianity in Dhanjuri date back to the early 20th century and the personal search for faith of some members of the indigenous Santal community.
One of them, Fudan Mardy, a Hindu farmer from Dhanjuri, first encountered the Gospel after purchasing a Bible from a Protestant preacher at the Birampur market.
Deeply moved by the life, death, and teachings of Jesus, Fudan sought further guidance and wrote to the preacher, asking him to visit his village.
Around the same time, another villager, a Hindu named Fagu Soren, chanced upon Father Francesco Rocca, a PIME missionary, while travelling by train to Dinajpur for a court case.
Fagu invited the priest to Dhanjuri, hoping to receive advice and blessings. Father Rocca visited the village in 1906, where he was warmly welcomed by Fudan Mardy, who was already in contact with Protestant missionaries.
Father Rocca stayed for several days, meeting with the villagers and beginning regular visits to teach the Gospel, and gradually his pastoral work bore fruit.
In 1909, Fudan Mardy, his elderly son Peter, and 36 other villagers were baptised, marking the birth of the Catholic community of Dhanjuri.
As numbers grew, in 1925 the PIME missionaries built a brick church dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi.
Today, the parish serves more than 5,000 Catholics. From this first parish, others were set up in Khalippur, Radhanagar, Kodbir, and Patajagir.
The missionaries also invested heavily in social development, founding schools, opening boarding facilities for boys and girls, and setting up credit cooperatives to support education and livelihoods.
In 1927, Fr Joseph Obert, also a PIME missionary and later bishop of Dinajpur, founded the Dhanjuri Leprosy Centre, which became a renowned hospital for people suffering from this disease.
Due to health problems, Fr Rocca eventually returned to Italy, while other PIME missionaries continued their pastoral service in this parish until 1996, when responsibility passed to local priests.
“We are deeply grateful to the PIME missionaries,” said Fr Manuel Murmu, the current parish priest of Dhanjuri. “They preached the Word of God and showed people the path of faith. At the same time, they worked for education, health care, and socio-economic development. Even today, people here remember the PIME fathers with deep respect.”
In the parish grounds lay the graves of two of them: Father Luigi Brambilla (1927–1928) and Father Luigi Mellera (1934).
The missionaries also installed three deep tube wells to support irrigation in the area, which was heavily dependent on agriculture. These structures are still used by local farmers today.
The parish also generated religious vocations: four priests and seven nuns, including Sister Maria Porimolla Murmu of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows, currently a missionary in the United States.
During the centenary Mass, Bishop Sebastian Tudu of Dinajpur paid tribute to the legacy of the missionaries.
“In Dhanjuri,” he said, “the PIME priests did not only preach the Gospel; some even gave their lives. They planted the seed of the Christian faith, which today has grown into a great banyan tree. We express our profound gratitude to all those missionaries who shaped this community.”
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