JESUIT MARTYRS, In the Service of the Arab Orient (1975-1989)
By Father Camille Hechaïmé, Dar el-Machreq

Father Louis Dumas (1901-1975), French

 

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Father Louis Dumas (1901-1975), French

“Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”[1]. The founder of the Society of Jesus understood this order given by the Christ and expressed it in the Constitutions he set up: “It should be observed that the vow which the Society made to obey him (His Holiness) as the supreme vicar of Christ without any excuse meant that the members were to go to any place where he judges it expedient to send them for the greater glory of God and the good of souls, whether among the faithful or unbelievers. The Society did not mean the vow for a particular place, but rather for being dispersed to various regions and places throughout the world”.

Father Louis Dumas responded to this call to serve “throughout the world”. Hence, he traveled from the West to the East, until he settled in Lebanon where he died as a martyr to a cause.

Louis was born in Poitiers, in the Center of France, and he entered the Society of Jesus in 1918. He pursued his spiritual and scientific education for 19 years, specializing in mathematics and physics and practicing several arts and crafts such as music, carpentry and photography. He was introduced to the Near East when he studied physics for 2 years in the Jesuit College in Beirut from 1926 to 1928.

After finishing the long period of education, he was sent to China as the director of the two astronomical observatories the Jesuits were in charge of in Zi-ka-wei and Zo-cé. Then he was the Dean of Faculty of Engineering in the Jesuit Aurore University (Dawn), before becoming the President of the University from 1946 to 1950. In addition to his administrative activities and scientific researches, he was a spiritual counselor for a number of friaries thanks to his wisdom and experience in guiding souls.

When the communists controlled the country in the middle of the twentieth century, they took over the Aurore University and expelled the Jesuits from China after two years. However, one man’s sorrow is another man’s joy. The Jesuits of the Saint Joseph University in Beirut (Université Saint-Joseph) welcomed their brothers who were expelled from China , and Father Dumas was nominated in his new university. There, he first taught physics in the Faculty of Engineering (1952-1954) and then in the Faculty of Medicine until his death. In addition to that, he was in charge of the Faculty of Dentistry where he renewed the building and organization (1959-1969). His thorough knowledge of sciences enabled him to direct a great number of students who were preparing their thesis and who valued his capacity, advice and devotion.

Where did Father Dumas find the strength to undertake all this work so well? The answer is - in his deep spiritual life. Despite his severe external appearance and his lack of volubility, his heart was full of love and a desire to serve and give. When the Lebanese war started, it was this desire to serve that motivated him to go every day, in spite of the danger, to celebrate mass in a nuns’ convent near the Faculty of Medicine where he resided. It lasted until a sniper of an atheistic party shot him one morning, without any pity for the old religious man, leaning on his cane. He died in the middle of the street, in October 1975.

[1] Mark 16:15.

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