Ferdinand Perier

Ferdinand Perier, SJ (22 September 1875, Antwerp, Belgium – 10 November 1968, Calcutta, India), was a Belgian Jesuit priest, a missionary in British India, and the third Archbishop of Calcutta (now Kolkata).

Early years Fernandus Augustus Maria Josephus Perier was born on 22 September 1875 in Antwerp, Belgium, the son of the wealthy merchant and his wife, Felix Joannes Baptista Augustus Perier and Leonia Josephina Ferleman. After he finished his studies at the Jesuit College in Antwerp, Ferdinand worked for four years in commerce. He did so well with his knowledge of maritime law that, when he decided to join the Society of Jesus on 23 September 1897, he was the director of a successful shipping insurance company.

Perier went through the first two stages of the Jesuit formation, the novitiate in Tronchiennes, a neighborhood of Ghent, between 1897 and 1899, and the juniorate between 1899 and 1900. Then he studied philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain for three years, between 1900 and 1903. Perier taught for two years, in 1904 and 1905, as a professor of grammar and Flemish at the second Collège Saint-Michel, a Jesuit high school in Brussels.

At his request, Perier was sent to India. He arrived in Calcutta on 9 December 1906. His formation continued with his studies in theology at the Jesuit theological college in Kurseong (1907–1911), where he was also ordained on 3 October 1909. He then went to Ranchi for his Third Year, the last stage of his Jesuit formation. Two years later, in 1911, he was appointed as the Procurator of the Mission and the Secretary of Brice Meuleman, S.J., the Archbishop of Calcutta. His formation finally ended in the next year, on 2 February 1912, when he took his Profession of the Fourth Vow in Ranchi.

Superior Regular and Coadjutor Bishop In August 1913, Perier became the Superior Regular of the West Bengal Mission as well as the Counselor of the Archdiocese. The next eight years were "the most strenuous years of his life". The First World War began in 1914 and Belgium, the main source of the Mission's funds, was invaded by the Germans so the funds were gone until the Armistice in 1918. It was "a financial coup de force to keep it going" and the right of automatic succession, by Archbishop Meuleman. When health problems forced the Archbishop to resign on 23 June 1924, Perier, being the Coadjutor Bishop, automatically succeeded him as the third Archbishop of Calcutta.

Archbishop of Calcutta

As the new archbishop, Perier was "a firm believer in an Indian clergy and in the papal policy as outlined in Pope Benedict XV’s encyclical on the missions," Maximum illud (Latin, "The Greatest Thing"). He did not hesitate to resign in 1960 when he felt that the time had come for him to hand the Archdiocese over to his successor. He left on 12 August as the Titular Archbishop of Rhoina. He went to Rome to participate in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) for the first two sessions. After his retirement, Perier remained in Calcutta from 1960 to 1962, with his own room at his former residence, the "Archbishop’s House" at 30 Park Street, and then moved to Kurseong for three more years, from 1962 to 1965. In 1965, he was back in Calcutta, this time with the rooms at St. Xavier's College, where he died on 10 November 1968.

Legacy É. R. Hambye, a Jesuit historian, ended his brief biography of Archbishop Perier with the following epitaph:

“Su lemma episcopal, In omnibus quaeram Deum, fue de hecho el de su vida de jesuita y misionero. Hombre muy devoto, asceta y enérgico, paciente y dueño de sí, amó la liturgia y a los pobres y, siempre disponsible y amable, fue verdaderamente un obispo del pueblo." [Spanish, "His episcopal motto, In omnibus quaeram Deum [Latin, "In everything, ask God"], guided his life as a Jesuit and missionary. Devout, ascetic and energetic man, patient and self-possessed, he loved the liturgy and the poor and, always friendly and available, he was truly a bishop of the town."]