Father Nelson Meshian, a young Indian PIME Missionary, died this past Sunday in India. Just as he was preparing to leave for Brazil in 2013, he discovered he had a brain tumor. His life was committed to the mission, within his suffering from a serious illness.

PIME mourns the death of one of its young missionaries, taken by a serious illness that had already affected him for some years. Sunday in India – at the Br. Luigi Pezzoli Memorial Hospital, the compound where the PIME Regional House in Eluru is also located – Father Nelson Meshian, an Indian PIME Missionary who had been fighting a brain tumor since 2013, passed away at 39 years old.

Born in Tamil Nadu on September 24, 1981, he first met PIME at a vocational camp, in the same house where he experienced the first steps of his formation. After years of studying philosophy in Pune, he was among the students of the PIME Theological Seminary in Tagaytay, Philippines. He counted the Bishop of Imus Luis Antonio Tagle, now Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, among his teachers. Ordained a priest on September 1, 2012, in his diocese of Ooty, Tamil Nadu. He was immediately sent to Brazil, his Mission Assignment. However, as he studied the language and prepared to leave for Amapà, he was plagued by increasingly frequent headaches and a sudden fainting spell while celebrating Mass. Doctors discovered that he had a brain tumor.

After the operation to remove the tumor, he seemed to recover. So, he was assigned Vice-Rector of the seminary in Pune, India. Unfortunately, after only a few months, the disease had returned, making that task impossible. Since then, Father Nelson had lived at the Br. Luigi Pezzoli Memorial Hospital. Now unable to speak, at the beginning of this year, he received a visit from the Superior General of PIME, Fr. Ferruccio Brambillasca. Fr. Nelson showed his joy at the meeting with gestures and smiles.

“We have always seen a joyful smile on his face,” wrote Fr. Ravi Marneni, Regional Superior of PIME in India, announcing the death of Father Nelson. “He never complained about his pain or showed his suffering outwardly. He joyfully accepted all his sufferings and voluntarily shared them with the sufferings of Christ. Now he awaits us in the glory of the Father.”

The funeral took place Sunday in private in Eluru, as the Coronavirus regulations in India dictate. He was buried in the cemetery of the Missionaries of the Immaculate in Vegavaram.