Venerable Constantine Vendrame
Apostle
of the Sacred Heart
by Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator
General
A life dedicated to the mission
Born in San Martino
di Colle Umberto (Treviso) in 1893, Fr. Vendrame arrived in Shillong in 1924. From
the very beginning of his frontier apostolate, he distinguished himself through
his total dedication to the local people, who felt loved by him with the heart
of Christ. For Vendrame, the mission was not the imposition of rules, but the
communication of a love that had changed his own life. In his missionary
apostolate, we find the hallmarks of great heroism, not only in how he lived
it, but also in the fruits of faith and adherence to the Gospel among the
people he encountered. For him, God came before anything else. The words of
Pope Francis in Dilexit Nos suit him perfectly: “Mission, as a
radiation of the love of the heart of Christ, requires missionaries who are
themselves in love and who, enthralled by Christ, feel bound to share this love
that has changed their lives. They are impatient when time is wasted discussing
secondary questions or concentrating on truths and rules, because their
greatest concern is to share what they have experienced. They want others to
perceive the goodness and beauty of the Beloved through their efforts, however
inadequate they may be.” (no. 209).
The Mawlai Shrine: a dream come true
The most tangible sign of his work is the
Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Mawlai, Shillong. To build it, he sought the help
of Italian benefactors; yet, being a man of the utmost modesty, he wanted
everything there to be beautiful, for a church to shine as a sign of Catholic
truth and a visible center of unity. A touching detail concerns the choice of
name: it was a child who suggested he dedicate it to the Sacred Heart, and the
missionary listened to him. The opening on April 13, 1935, represented for Fr. Constantine
the fulfilment of a prophetic dream: years earlier, a woman had described to
him a great church on top of a hill surrounded by an immense crowd. On the
walls of the altar, even today, stands the invitation that guided his entire
inner life: “fili, praebe mihi cor tuum” (son, give me your heart).
To mark the culmination of those days,
there was also “a solemn consecration of all the participants to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus.” In just over 10 years of missionary life, they had succeeded
in building that important center of faith and prayer, through which the Sacred
Heart would reign in the hearts of so many.
It was the extension into souls of the Kingdom of that “King of Love” for whom Fr. Constantine had set out in 1924.
His spiritual legacy
Fr. Vendrame conceived of his own
existence as a fragrant sacrifice for the Church and for the world, writing
that “thus we break our life, it perfumes the mystical body of Jesus… and
purifies the air.” Before leaving for India, he had sealed his commitment on
the back of a small image dedicated to the Sacred Heart: “I have entrusted
everything to you, I have hoped for everything from you, and I have not been
disappointed.”
He passed away on January 30, 1957, on
the eve of Don Bosco’s feastday, having expended every ounce of energy for his
brothers. Today his remains rest in the Mawlai Shrine, next to the Salesian
Theological College, remaining a “living stone” and a source of inspiration for
the many vocations that continue to flourish on Indian soil.
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