In the footsteps

of Mother Teresa

Early Life

Father Swamy (Anthony Swamy Anthappa) was born on June 10, 1966, in Chickaballapur (near Bangalore), Karnataka, India. He is the youngest of the six children to his parents, Anthappa and Papamma. The seed of vocation to the priesthood was planted by a religious sister in the sixth grade. (Father Swamy’s sister and a niece are religious sisters belonging to the order of St. Joseph of Tarbes. Both are serving the order to educate the poor in India.) The untimely death of his father in 1982 and the shocking death of his brother in 1987 did not diminish Father Swamy’s deep desire to pursue his vocation to the priesthood. He joined the religious order of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales and was ordained a priest on October 17, 1995, in St. Francis Xavier Church, his home parish.

Serving through Education

Following his ordination to the priesthood, Father Swamy served in India in a number of pastoral and educational roles. He was assistant parish Priest, warden of poor and orphaned boys at St. Francis de Sales Boys’ Home, Bangalore; Principal of St. Francis de Sales School, a Kannada-language school in Hebbagodi, Bangalore; Vice Rector of St. Francis de Sales Minor Seminary, Ettumanoor, Kerela, and founding President of St. Francis de Sales College, Bangalore. He earned his Ph.D. in Folklore from Mysore University, India.

Pastoral Service in the United States

In October 2013, , with the approval of his superiors, Father Swamy moved to the United States of America to serve the Diocese of Harrisburg. From October 2013 to June 2021, Father Swamy rendered his pastoral service at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Mechanicsburg, PA (Parochial Vicar, October 2013-June 2016) and at St. Peter’s Church, Columbia, PA (Pastor, June 1016-June 2021).

A Call

On Monday, September 5, 2016, while Father Swamy was driving from Columbia to Mechanicsburg, an unbidden thought came to him—to serve the dying destitute in India. It was not until a year later that he fully understood this was an inner call from God.

Here is Father Swamy’s discerning process in his own words:

I did not think very deeply about the thought and brushed it aside as a passing thought. But it kept coming back to me, again and again. When I started thinking about it, it struck me that it could be the call of the Holy Spirit (and an inspiration from Mother Teresa of Calcutta), because Mother Teresa was canonized on September 4, 2016, a day before the thought of serving the destitute came to me.

I prayed and reflected about it for almost 5 years, made a retreat in August 2020 to further discern the call to serve the destitute. During the retreat, I was given direction: a strong desire to return to India to serve the dying destitute.

Return to India

After a very fruitful pastoral ministry in the Diocese of Harrisburg, with the approval of his Major Superior and the Bishop of Harrisburg, Father Swamy returned to India for further discernment in action; that is, by having hands-on experiences of working among the destitute and dying. He volunteered in homes for the destitute mentally and physically challenged, the aged, and the dying—homes operated by the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa, and by the Missionaries of Charity Brothers, a related order.

Father Swamy lived with the Missionaries of Charity family for 10 weeks to personally experience their simple and humble lifestyle and encounter the challenges of serving the destitute. He also had the blessed opportunity to work in Nirmal Hruday in Kalighat, the “first love” of Mother Teresa and the first home Mother started for the dying destitute.

After this meaningful, inspiring, and life-changing experience, Father Swamy, with the help of God, committed himself to the challenge of serving the dying poor and destitute.

Although serving the dying poor and destitute is a new apostolate for the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, Father Swamy’s Provincial has welcomed the proposal of a new ministry with open arms, allotting a property and requesting Father Swamy to raise the necessary funds for the ministry.

Your prayers and financial help are greatly appreciated. Please remember to introduce Shanthi Dham to your kind-hearted and generous friends.

—Friends of Shanthi Dham