Fr. A. Susai Nathan, C.PP.S was truly a zealous missionary and filled with love for God and for the poor. He was born to Arul Doss and Susai Mary as the 7th and youngest child of the family at Vettavalam, Vellore Diocese in Tamil Nadu, India.
He was a very clever student and yet humble. He joined the Precious Blood Seminary and entered our St. Gaspar Bhavan, Bangalore in 1994. After his completion of Philosophy and Theology at Dharmaran College, he was incorporated into our Congregation on 20 April 2002. After his Master in Theology at St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute, where he obtained a License in Biblical Theology, he was ordained a priest 12 July 2003.
He worked as Assistant Parish Priest from 2003-2004 at St. Joseph’s Church in Bangalore. Later from 2004 to 2005, he worked as Assistant Parish Priest at KGF St. Paul’s Church. In 2005 he was assigned to work in the CPPS Teutonic Province. Until 2012 he worked as an Assistant Parish Priest at St. Gaspar’s Church, Nuenheerse. He worked with the diocesan priests and he was at the service of the people there and around Paderborn in Germany.
He was loved by the German people and by the community members. He was simple and gentle and very understanding. In 2011, he was diagnosed as cancer patient and the doctors in Germany could not offer great hope. He returned to India in June 2012 to pass his last days. He was admitted at St. John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore for the cancer treatment. And the Merciful Lord received him into his Kingdom on the 17 July 2012, as the first Indian CPPS missionary in heaven.
Text: Michael Peters, CPPS
Photo courtesy of Barry Fischer, CPPS