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652 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA The five letters discussed herein provide a mirror iinage of Mgr Hart– mann's humaneness and capacity to feel with others and to respond to them benignly. The experience of frust'.-:ation and defeat that some of the Carmelite missionaries had when they knew of the decision of their Superiors in Rome to relinquish Bombay and the consequent negative response that some of them evinced, did not altogether unsettle the Bishop. He continued to be solicitous about the well-being of the individual missionaries, however, without compro– mising his task of iinplementing the project that the authorities had chalked out. In the face of the resolute reluctance of Fr Irenaeus to leave for the desti– nation assigned to him, Mgr Hartmann did nothing that could have jeopardized his rapport with him but kept up the dialogue. Meanwhile he confided to the Carmelite General that the milk of human kindness would yield better results in the said Father than threats and rebukes. By communicating to Fr Irenaeus that the Vicariate was no longer in need of him, Mgr Hartmann was indirectly spur– ring him on to listening to the still small voice of conscience. Summatively, it may be said that through these trying circumstances Mgr Hartmann was being groomed for facing yet arduous tasks. While he remained decidedly unyielding when it came to the iinplementation of the instructions and the declared policies of his superiors, he took utmost care not to aggravate the situation and conscientiously'strove to contain the ill-effects and thus to forestall the chain reaction. His shock-absorbent behaviour and uncompro– mising dedication to duty, coupled with a good dose of magnaniinity and for– bearance, conduced towards the carrying through of his commission to calm the agitated spirits and to retrieve the situation in the Apostolic Vicariate of Bombay, which had since sometime been going downhill SOMMA.RIO. - Lo studio mira a ricostruire il contesto storico di 5 lettere inedite del vescovo missionario cappuccino Anastasius Hartmann (1803-1866), che si trovano a Roma nell'Archivio Generale dei Padri Carmelitani Scalzi. La prospettiva storica che ne emerge, getta ulteriore luce sui travagli che caratterizzarono la storia del Vicariato apo– stolico di Bombay intomo alla meta del secolo scorso, e sulla figura e sull'attivita del vescovo Hartmann.