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BENEDICT V ADAKKEKARA ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA II. BREAKING THE DEADLOCK AND STRIKING ROOT (1916-1926) At the extr;iordinary meeting held at Meerut on 23 February 1916 the Re– gular Superior of the Mission of Agra with his Council determined that the Friary of Mussoorie 1 was ill-adapted for being a novitiate house. The special session had been convoked precisely to deliberate on the pressing request for the restart of the Novitiate and the Study advanced by Mgr Poli 2 and the Order's general superiors in Rome. The Friary of Mussoorie was declared climatically wanting on account of its adjacency to two schools, of which playgrounds were overlooked by the windows of the Friary 3 • This net verdict of the Superiors of Agra consequently rendered the various moves to reopen 1 The story of the Novitiate of Mussoorie is the keystone of the first part of this study, Establishment of Capuchin Order in India. I. A travailous inception (1869-1916), in Collectanea Frandscana 66 (1966) 195-244, The inedited material in the General Archives of the Capuchins, Rome(= AGCap), the Archives of the Capuchin Province of Bologna (= APCapBologna) and the Archives of the Capuchin Province of Tuscany, Florence (= APCapTusc) furnish in the main the sources for this second instalment too. Thanks are due to the archivists Fr Andrea Maggioli and Fr Giacomo Carlini and in a special way to Fr Isidoro de Villapadierna, who, notwithstand– ing his inconveniencing eye strain, perused the entire MS. 2 Mgr Angelo Poli: Prov. Bologna; in 1915 elected Coadjutor and in 1917 Bishop of Alla– habad. 3 APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Adunanze: "Noi della Missione di Agra, avendone gia fatta la prova, conosciamo in tutta la loro realta queste varie difficolta. Prima di tutto in quanto alla scelta de! luogo il nostro St Francis' Monastery di Mussoorie meno di qualunque :tltro pre– sterebbe all'uopo. Imprigionato com'e tra due grandi scuole si oppone a quel silenzio, solitudine e raccoglimento che formano la parte piu essenziale di un N oviziato. Basti il dire che i piazzali di ,ricreazione dove la clamorosa scuolaresca di circa 400 giovinetti tiene i giochl e divertimenti sono proprio sotto le finestre de! monastero".