Mission & Margins: The Jesuit "Pandarasami" Tradition & Tamil Catholicism

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11:30am ~ Lunch for in-person guests (limited seating)
12:00pm ~ Livestreamed lecture begins
LIVESTREAM LINK: Please stay tuned; we'll be using Facebook Live and will have the link available closer to the event date.
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Catholicism as practiced today by south India’s Tamil people has its roots in the Jesuit missions of the 16th-18th centuries. Early Jesuits adopted the customs of “upper-caste” Brahmins, but Balthasar da Costa broke with this tradition in 1640, adopting the diet, dress, and ascetic lifestyle of “lower-caste” Hindu Yogis or Pandarasamis. These Jesuits trained native catechist Pandarams, drawn from the margins of Indian society, who collaborated with them to build an enduring Catholic community in south India. Join Patrick Gnana, PhD, to explore the fascinating ups and downs of their story.

:: About the Speaker ::
Fr. Patrick Gnana is a former professor and chair of Christian studies at the University of Madras in Chennai, India, and his publications include (Fortress, 2020). He is a visiting research scholar at CWCIT this fall.

Host or Publisher DePaul University's Center for World Catholicism