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528. BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA Superior concerning the use of the Mission's House. He had in fact known the score 79 . The Commissary's determination to push through the scheme was sounding the alarm and it stirred up a veritable hornet's nest. With crusading zeal Fr Christopher took up the cudgels on behalf of his aggrieved confreres and their "Sanatorium", averring that he could not go against the united mind of his missionaries 80 . With remarkable success he mobilised public opinion in his favour even in Tuscany. He alarmed the Provincial and Fr Remigius of Florence by declaring that all his friars "from the first to the last" were up in arms over the decision to have the Study at Mussoorie. Before this united front, the Provincial could not but come out in sympathy with his missionaries in India. The Provincial Superiors voiced their regret at having surrendered the House of Sardhana for the Novitiate. If that had been avoided, the issue of the Study would not have even been mooted 81 . The missionaries of Agra were all too conscious of what their Mission had done for the common cause; and they felt sore at being faulted by the Fathers of the other Missions for their reluctance to leave the Friary of Mussoorie for the Study8 2 • The Commissary was in no enviable position, as he had put himself out on a limb; he found himself constrained to take an open stand against the friars of his own Mission if he were to carry out his job faithfully. Without a doubt, he was duty-bound to obey his superiors and he resolved to do it, no matter it 79 AGCap G 68, II, Novizjato e Stud.to, Fr Commissary to Fr General Procurator, Musso– orie 3June 1924: "Mi riconoscono come Comm. Generale per ii Noviziato di Sardhana, ma non per la casa di Studio ne!Convento di Mussooril'. 80 AGCap G 68, II, Novizjato eStud.to, Fr Christopher to Fr Fredegand, Agra 28 May 1924: "Vengo informato dal Molto Rev. P. Giovambattista, Commissario Generale pel Noviziato in India, che vogliono prendere ii Monastero di Mussoorie come Convento di Studio. Appena si e risaputa in Missione la ta! cosa, e una protesta generale da pa.rte di tutti i Missionari, dal primo fino all'ultimo, che si vedrebbero cosf tolto l'unico convento dei monti dove in pace e in riposo possono ritemperarsi ogni anno dalle fatiche e dallo spossamento del caldo dei piani. Infatti St Francis' Monastery e l'unico Sanatorium della Missione di Agra e siccome i miei Discreti e tutti i Missionari sono contrari a cederlo come convento di Studio, io non posso andare contra la volonci di tutti". Fr Fredegand of Antwerp (Belgium) was the Order's General Archivist 81 Cf. APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Fr Prov.incial to Fr Christopher, Florence 20 Novem– ber 1924; Fr Christopher to Fr Remigius of Florence, Agra 28 May 1924. 82 APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Fr Christopher to Fr Prov.incial, Agra 10 April 1924: "Dopo che la Missione di Agra ha dato ogni cosa per questo Noviziato cominciando dal convento, come pure l'entrate dell'anness;t chiesa, a sentire dire i Padri della altre Missioni, Agra non ha fatto niente per questo Noviziato".