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204 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA defer translating his long-cherished dream into a reality. In 1876 he again approached the General Superiors with a variant scheme. As he already had candidates ready to enter the Novitiate, he wished to be permitted to send them to England, failing which he wanted to be lent the service of three friars from England to help him out in running the Novitiate in India. The General Superiors preferred that the stu– dents be trained in England and decided to consult the Provincial of England on it2 5 • The same question came up again at the meeting of the General Definitory that took place on 28 November and 1 December 1876. As Mgr Jacopi's postulants could not be accommodated in the Novitiate House in England, it was decided to negotiate with the Dutch Provincial about having the students from India do their Novitiate in Belgium 26 • Finally, as Mgr Jacopi put his mind to launching out into material- 1smg this project, he was reminded by Fr General that he needed a clear mandate from the Propaganda for starting an institution of the kind. The General Definitory resolved in its meeting on 13 and 15 March 1880 to present to the Propaganda the request from Agra for establishing a Capuchin Novitiate there 27 • While placing before the Propaganda the petition, the Commissary General 28 stated that "Mons. Mgr Jacopi, the Apostolic Vicar of Agra as well as various missionaries of that Vicariate, have been repeatedly asking the General Definitory of the Order to beg Your Eminence the Most Reverend and the S.C. of Propaganda" for permission to start the Novitiate in one of their friaries of their vicariate. The reasons underpinning the petition were: 1. there were not wanting vocations from th~ Irish families resident 25 AGCap AH 8, Resolutiones De/initorii Genera/is, 173. The decision was adopted in the Session held on 15 March 1876. 26 Cf. footnote n. 21 above; also AGCap AH 8, Resolutiones Definitorii Genera/is, 195. The two young men made their Novitiate at the Friary of St Mary of the Angels in the Province of Holland-Belgium. 27 Cf. AGCap AH 8, Resolutiones De/initorii Genera/is, 244. 28 The General, Fr Aegidius of Cortona (Prov. Tuscany), resigned in 1879, and the Order's administration was entrusted to the General Commissary, Fr Francis of Villa– franca (Prov. Piemonte), after whose death in 1881, Fr Aegidius reassumed the reins of governance, and remained in office till the General Chapter of 1884. Fr Bernard Christen of Andermatt (Prov. Switzerland) was elected General Minister in 1884 and served the Order till 1908.