The title is adopted from G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories. But here in Madras lived a priest, in the face of whose perils those of Chesterton’s creation would pale.
Father Ephraim de Nevers left France in 1641 for Pegu (now Bago) in Burma (Myanmar). Landing in Surat in 1642, he made his way to Masulipatnam to travel onwards by boat, only to be redirected to Madras. Arriving at Fort St. George, he so impressed the Portuguese and other Catholic residents of the place that they petitioned Agent Andrew Cogan that he be retained to minister to them. The Agent immediately ordered Father Ephraim to stay on.
He was more than willing to remain in Madras, but was apprehensive of what his superiors in France would have to say. They in turn referred the matter to Rome, and while a decision was awaited, he was given land inside the Fort to build a church. This timber structure, later rebuilt with stone, was named St. Andrew’s, the choice of saint probably being guided by Cogan’s first name. Ephraim endeared himself to everyone in the Fort, accepting no payment for services, but only gifts of bare essentials such as clothes and rice. He also began a school. Being a polished linguist, he was much in demand for various East India Company negotiations as well. He was soon allowed to begin a native church in Black Town.
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The priests of San Thome, then a Portuguese town, were however not pleased. Having invited Father Ephraim for a theological discussion in 1649, they had him arrested in front of the Luz Church and shipped him off to Goa to face the Inquisition there. The British in Fort George were taken by surprise, and in retaliation, the new Agent, Henry Greenhill, had the Chief Ecclesiast of San Thome kidnapped and brought over to Fort St. George as hostage. But that man was made of sterner stuff. One night he used the ‘lacings of his cott’, and having nimbly shinnied up the walls of Fort St. George, made off to San Thome.
Father Ephraim was released from Goa in April 1652 and returned here. By then, permission from Rome had come — the river Cooum would be a dividing line between the two parishes of Madras and Mylapore, with Father Ephraim in charge of the former. He lived on here till his death in 1694, fulfilling his duties wisely and well.
His place of burial is lost, having probably been within the Church of St. Andrews in the Fort that was demolished in 1752. The native chapel begun by him grew to become St. Mary’s Co-Cathedral, in Armenian Street.
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For long the Cathedral for the diocese of Madras, it was redesignated co-cathedral, when the dioceses of Madras and Mylapore united, with San Thome Basilica becoming the cathedral. St Mary’s Co-Cathedral today is the sole memorial to the saintly father who set out for Burma but stayed back in our city!