Jesuit Social “Martyr” – SERGIO RESTREPO JARAMILLO, SJ. (1939 -1989)
Sergio joined the Society of Jesus because of his close involvement with Boy Scout troops and the training he received at Colegio San Ignacio in Medellín. He himself recounted that a decisive factor in his admission was the visit he made in Mérida, Venezuela, to the place of memory built by the Jesuits as a tribute to the death of 27 students from Colegio San José in a plane crash in December 1950; in a beautiful, well-defined place in the countryside, with the setting of a waterfall between the two propellers of the crashed plane, thanks to the beauty and the profound sense of the place, Sergio, still very young, lived a profound experience of transcendence.
His Jesuit formation in the post-conciliar years was not easy, but his ingenuity and closeness to the people and the culture allowed him a joyful and creative journey through the places he visited. His main ministry was in Tierralta, Córdoba, Colombia, a parish of the Society of Jesus to which he was assigned in the late 1970s. A town in the plains of the north of the country, a beautiful land of humid and fertile tropical forest, with large cattle ranches, rice, cotton and sorghum plantations, nourished by the power of the Sinú River. A territory with many interests and promises for its inhabitants since colonial times, but with silent wounds, humiliating poverty and naturalized marginalization of the indigenous and Afro-American population. Tierralta is a dusty town with precarious public services, the scene of a bitter territorial dispute - at the time - between the paramilitaries and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
We remember a small man, of average height, slim,
fair-skinned, with wavy hair and light eyes. A feverish Jesuit who, in the
mornings, wearing flip-flops - and sometimes still in his pyjamas - and with a
towel over his shoulder, began to restore the ancient clay pots of the Zenú
Indians. He was a poet, of whom we have several compositions left, among them
his Epitaph, and a book that in his last years he was 'typing' and which was
illustrated by a friend of his; a collection of poems called: La luna, el
corazón y yo.
Sergio was an alternative Jesuit, who made "Las Américas" - a bar near his home - his meeting room. In the open light, especially in the late afternoons, he would talk, dream and laugh with friends and neighbors. A Jesuit who in the mornings would laboriously walk through the municipal park and around the church, analyzing the state of the trees - many of them planted by him - which people and animals were continually depredating; a man who every morning continued to think about and adapt the architecture of the parish church. Sergio used to arrive unexpectedly at the houses of his neighbors to talk 'about life' and accompany the stories of his friends; a priest who made archaeology and the ancestors a meeting place for the educated and the peasants, a friend of 'guaqueros' and anthropologists.
In his almost 10 years of presence in Tierralta he managed to restore the parish church, and establish the Cultural House, the Museum of Zenú Culture, the Library and the Musical Band. The museum is today a pioneering work of great importance for the region for its wealth of artefacts and processes of the ancient Zenú people.
Sergio learned from the river to be a 'baquiano' and travelled almost all the roads and paths of the municipality. He was a pastor, teacher and counsellor; a life well lived, snatched away by hired killers in the service of the armed groups on 1 June 1989.
With his clear eyes, his slightly mischievous look and his smile, he is still present among giant trees and native orchids, among regional music and archaeological remains, and above all in the hearts of friends who miss him in "Las Américas" and along the roads and landscapes he loved in the savannahs of Córdoba, in Colombia.
In a few cubic meters of air and night,
Engrave this epitaph that is all my fortune:
“Here rests Sergio, Lord of cloud and dreams,
who spent his treasures of love and poetry,
until he was as clean as
this clean slab.
If you want to bring any rumor from the world to his
retreat,
Just give him that of the vast sea.
And if one day you dare to draw a portrait of him,
say:
He was a sailor stranded on dry land.
He always looked for love in the unknown routes of the
ineffable Compass Rose.
He believed in life.
He made friendship his motto.
His existence was a dream.
And upon his death, he returned his soul to God
and he returned to the land what she had given him:
– An ephemeral name. –And a handful of bones.”
Sergio Restrepo, S.J.
By Luis Alfonso Castellanos Ramírez, S.J.
Santiago de Cali, junio 24 del 2024
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