TESTIMONY 8

TESTIMONY 8

 

Name: Fr. Francis Xavier
Surname: Pinto
Profession: Parish Priest
Address: Parish Priest, St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Hyderabad Deanery
Address: Parish Priest, St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Hyderabad Deanery

Relationship: Direct Witness; given the written Testimony

Date of Interview: 24 September 2009

        As a diocesan priest, I would like to give the Testimony about the Servant of God, Br. Joseph Thamby. Brother Joseph Thamby is reported to have had the privilege of ‘bilocation’. He is supposed to have helped the poor in a wonderful way. He was neither cooking nor had any money. He was never speaking about himself. The priests there treated him like a servant, but never complained. They say he was in Europe for some time in a seminary. They say also that he knew Italian. He may have known French as well. He could read the hearts of people and would say straight away that they were in sin and would convert them.

He is the Apostle of the ‘Kammas’. He led the movement to conversions among the caste people in Avutapalli; and the Kammas would do anything for him. In a family he converted, a woman is stricken with the stigmata and she bleeds every Friday. When the poor came to him for assistance, he would open his prayer book and would find currency notes between the leaves. He is also reported to have had the stigmata. His grave is frequented by people from the Guntur District. They have received many favours from him. Barren women have had children through his intercessory prayers.

The Kammas wanted to build a large monument over his grave. They were not permitted to do so. They built the grave.

Pinto F. Xavier
Parish Priest, St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Hyderabad Deanary