Fr. Marcelline Jayakody:

Rebel Catholic priest and patriot

W. T. A. Leslie FERNANDO

The birth anniversary of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody, the well-known Catholic priest, musician, poet, lyricist, author, journalist and patriot fell on June 3. A household name in our country; no other Catholic prelate or priest in our country has touched the hearts and lives of people of our times like him.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody led an eventful life replete with ups and downs. He had the Midas touch and everything he handled turned into gold. He was stronger in defeat and all his defeats later turned out to be victories. He lived long till the ripe old age of 96 and passed away on January 15, 1998.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was born on June 3, 1902 at Dankotuwa on the outskirts of Maha Oya. He had his early education at Madampe Sinhala School and secondary education at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo. He had to suspend his education at St. Joseph’s for one year as he could not afford to pay school fees. In 1920, he entered St. Bernard’s Seminary and was ordained a priest on December 20, 1927 by Dr. Anthony Coudert, the then Archbishop of Colombo.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, slavishly imitating the West was the order of the day. At the same time there was a national resurgence led by the patriots like Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, Piyadasa Sirisena and John de Silva. The higher strata in society who believed in the Western way of life was severely criticised by the well-known novelist Piyadasa Sirisena.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody who always had the love for Motherland in his veins too was drawn to the stirrings of nationalism. He read the novels of Piyadasa Sirisena with interest and drew inspiration from his writings.

As a young priest Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was criticised in Church circles for offering some Lotus flowers at the sanctuary at the wedding Mass of one of his relatives. Since then much water has flowed under the bridges in Sri Lanka. Now the national culture is given its due place in the Catholic Church and Fr. Marcelline Jayakody is considered as an exponent of indigenous culture.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was an assistant parish priest in Kotahena, Pamunugama, Kochchikade (Negombo) and Kandana. He served as the parish priest in Paiyagala, Duwa, Katana and Maggona. As the parish priest, he gave the altar a national aura bedecking it with Gokkola and Ralipalam.

When Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was the parish priest of Duwa, the Duwa Passion Play was performed with images of sacred personages based on the centuries old ‘Nine Sermons’ in the ‘Dukprapthi Prasangaya’ written by Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez. At that time no one dared to engage human actors in the Passion plays in churches.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody boldly broke with the tradition. He used human actors for all the scenes except for Christ and Mary. He revised and recasted the Duwa Passion Play while maintaining the traditional outlook. Since then, its fame spread far and wide. At that time the colourful Duwa Passion Play enacted with over 250 actors all drawn from the island hamlet of Duwa was considered as the greatest Passion shown in Asia.

The greatest contribution Fr. Marcelline Jayakody has made to the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is in the sphere of Church music in 1920s the normal practice was to dub Sinhala words to Latin hymns and Western melodies. At the beginning Fr. Marcelline Jayakody too wrote some hymns, specially carols adopting Western tunes. However in 1934 he composed the hymn ‘Sapiri Sama and Asiri Soma’ and the Christmas carol Raya tharu Babalanawa set to his own music. These hymns became very popular and are still sung in churches. Since then Fr. Marcelline Jayakody never looked back and composed hymns set to his own music.

In 1940s and 1950s specially around Independence, there was a national renaissance in Sri Lanka. This national consciousness had its effect on the Catholic Church as well. And Fr. Marcelline Jayakody too began to produce fascinating hymns like Ronata Vadina Bingu Obai, Nelum Pipeela Pethi Visireela and Suvanda Jale Pipi Kumudiniye with a national fervour. These magnificent hymns with their superb lyrics, sweet music and local setting captivated the hearts of all.

The hymns of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody are simple and close to people. They are ever popular in churches and are appreciated even by non-Catholics. They contain both Christian aspects and national outlook. They are a classic example for cultural adaptation in its true perspective.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was invited to train the choir for the song Namo Namo Matha for the first Independence anniversary in 1949 as the composer Ananda Samarakone had gone abroad. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody rose to the occasion, trained students of Musaeus College and presented it to be acclaimed by all.

There is no doubt that this wonderful performance had paved the way to adopt Namo Namo Matha as our national anthem.

In late 1949, Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was appointed the Editor of Gnanartha Pradeepaya the official Catholic weekly in Sri Lanka.

He increased the pages from 8 to 12 and introduced new features with an indigenous outlook. He set up the caption with a national setting and this caption is still continued. But Fr. Marcelline Jayakody could not stay long in Gnanartha Pradeepaya.

The manager of Gnanartha Pradeepaya insisted that Fr. Marcelline Jayakody should closely follow the Catholic English weekly the Messenger. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody refused.

The manager took up the issue with the Archbishop and he ordered Fr. Marcelline Jayakody to present the news and articles in Messenger in Sinhala. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody again bluntly refused explaining that it would amount to translation and not journalism. He then left Gnanartha Pradeepaya on his own and went to Shanthinikethan in India.

Today Gnanartha Pradeepaya is far from being a translation of the Messenger and the stand of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody is vindicated.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody underwent some training at Shanthinikethan, the famous Oriental arts centre set by Rabindranath Tagore. When Fr. Marcelline Jayakody returned to Sri Lanka, he was sent to Tolagatty in Jaffna as a punishment for leaving the country without the permission of the Church authorities. Later he served as a teacher in St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna.

In 1953, Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was appointed to the staff, of St. Peter’s College, Colombo. At St. Peter’s with the assistance of Heenbaba Dharmasiri, Fr. Marcelline Jayakody set up an Oriental Arts Centre and introduced indigenous fine arts to this leading Catholic school in the metropolis.

Rekawa presented by Lester James Peries in 1956 was a landmark in Sinhala cinema. This was the first Sinhala film with a real indigenous outlook. Lester James Peries got Fr. Marcelline Jayakody to write lyrics for songs in Rekawa and Sunil Shantha to provide music for them.

In 1970s Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was carrying a column in the Messenger. He wrote it for four years and continued it even from abroad. In 1976, his popular column was suddenly discontinued over a controversial article. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody could not be thwarted in that manner. Instead he wrote a series of poems to the ‘Kaviya’ magazine extolling Buddhist Sinhala culture.

‘Muthu’ was a collection of those poems carried in ‘Kaviya’. ‘Muthu’ won Fr. Marcelline Jayakody the Presidential Award for the best poetry work in 1979 and the famous international award the Magsaysay Prize in 1983.

That is not all. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was the author of several other works of prose and poetry both in Sinhala and in English. He was also a well-known journalist who carried columns in both Catholic and secular press. He was also an active member of Hela Havula. For several decades and until his death, he was the President of the Sinhala Poets’ Association.

Ven. Dr. Ittapane Dhammalankara Thera has written a book on Fr. Marcelline Jayakody titled Malpale Upan Pansale Piyatuma. This is the first book in the whole world written by a Buddhist Bhikku on a Catholic priest. The book is presented in such a manner providing an opportunity for Fr. Marcelline Jayakody to express his views on various issues.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody who had to suspend his education for lack of funds praises the Free Education Scheme in the book mindful of the fact that the Catholic Church did everything possible to sabotage it and failed. He also believes that Christ had lived some years in India.

He deplores the worldly outlook of some modern priests, their indisciplined and degeneration. He accuses that some NGOs are doing damage to the country with hidden agendas under the pretext of serving people.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was awarded the Kalasuri title by the State and Kithu Nandana Pranamaya by the Catholic Church for his outstanding contributions to arts and culture in Sri Lanka.

Sincere to God and sincere to man Fr. Marcelline Jayakody is the proud boast of Catholics as a national artist and patriot.

(The writer is a former High Court Judge and Vice-President of the Newman Society Alumni Association)