Found on a Railway Platform, Five-Year-Old Grows Up to Become a Priest

KOCHI, August 25, 2026: Twenty-eight years ago, a frightened five-year-old boy stood alone at Shoranur railway station, with no memory of his parents or the warmth of a family. Today, that child is Father Vivek Martin, a priest of the Diocese of Jhansi who has begun his ministry with a story of extraordinary human compassion and faith.

Father Vivek was ordained a priest on August 16 by Bishop Wilfred Moras of Jhansi. On August 24, he celebrated his first Holy Mass at Infant Jesus Church, Thundathinkadavu, in the Archdiocese of Verapoly.

His journey from a railway platform to the altar began when Jesus Youth member Rexy D'Cruz encountered the five-year-old Annamalai at Shoranur railway station. The child had little to hold on to except a simple dream: “Brother, I want to study.”

For Rexy and his friends, that request became a call to action. With the necessary legal permissions, they took the child into their care, giving him what he had been missing — a safe home, education and the experience of being loved.

Rexy was not alone in this effort. A small group of friends — Patrick, Jose, Rajesh and Tony — worked together to care for children in similar circumstances. Each of them opened their homes, raising as many as 10 children alongside their own families.

Vivek spent several years with Patrick and his wife Manu. At school, he distinguished himself academically and became the school leader in Class 10. Somewhere along the way, the boy who had once simply wanted an opportunity to study began discerning a deeper calling — to give his life to God.

After completing Class 10, Vivek told Rexy that he wanted to enter the seminary. Rexy advised him to wait. Vivek completed his higher secondary education and returned with the same desire. This time, the path opened for him to enter the seminary of the Diocese of Jhansi.

His formation also included an experience of serving people living with HIV. Before entering the seminary, Vivek worked as an ambulance driver and caregiver at Sneha Theeram in Aluva, a ministry serving people affected by HIV under the guidance of Camillian priests.

That experience offered him another kind of formation — one learned not from textbooks but from people facing suffering and vulnerability. It deepened his understanding of compassion and service, values that would later become central to his priestly vocation.

The boy who once stood alone at a railway station has travelled a remarkable distance — geographically, personally and spiritually. From the hills of Attappady to Kochi, and eventually to the Diocese of Jhansi, his life has been shaped by people who chose to open their homes and hearts to a child in need.

His ordination and first Mass have therefore become more than milestones in a priestly journey. They are a testimony to what can happen when compassion meets opportunity and when a child's fragile hope is taken seriously.

For Rexy D'Cruz, the story has another remarkable dimension. Two people who grew up under his care have now become priests, while two others are currently seminarians.

A child once vulnerable and alone at a railway station is now standing at the altar, preparing to accompany others through their own moments of uncertainty and suffering.

Father Vivek's story is, at once, a tribute to the power of human kindness and a reminder of the mysterious ways in which a vocation can unfold. What began with a frightened child and a stranger's compassionate response has become a priestly life — a journey from the margins to the altar, and from being cared for to becoming a servant of others.

Courtesy: Shalom News