Marino Rigon

Marino Rigon (5 January 1925 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian-Bangladeshi Xaverian missionary priest popularly known as the "friend of Bengalis". Rigon was born in Villaverla, Vicenza, Italy in 1925. In 1953 he moved to Bangladesh and during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, where he gave shelter and cared for the injured.[1][2] He lived in Bangladesh as a missionary for sixty years preaching the Gospel among Catholics using the local language (Bengali) and making a tremendous contribution to the Catholic Church of Bangladesh.[3]

Father Rigon established a Rabindra study center in Italy in 1990. He was famous for translating the works of Bengali poet and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. Rigon translated forty of Tagore's works into Italian.[3] He also translated a number of other literary works, including mystic poet Lalon Fakir's songs and Jasim Uddin's Nakshikanthar Math into Italian. Many of the books were later re-translated to French, Spanish and Portuguese. He received many literary awards during his life. With Rigon's help, a Bangladeshi theater troupe staged the musical drama Nakshikanthar Math in Italy, in 1986.[1] Rigon translated the Italian fantasy fiction book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, into Bengali.[4]

He was passionate about education and established seventeen educational institutions. He was honored as a freedom fighter of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War for his contributions during the war. In 2009 Father Marino Rigon was conferred honorary citizenship of Bangladesh by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for his tireless and exemplary contributions to society, especially in Bangladesh.[1][2] Very few foreigners are conferred such an honor. At the age of ninety-two, father Rigon died of old age complications in Vicenza, Italy, on 19 October 2017.[1][5]