Mangalore Priest's Courageous Piety...

  •   Mon, Oct 06 2025
  •   By Ivan Saldanha-Shet
October 6, 2025
 
The Universal Roman Catholic Church and its priests stand out in many parts of the world and there is an inexplicable shine in unique ways. Many of them have very special grace and gifts, a blessing from the Almighty, no doubt.  Qualities that manifest in these priests can only be attributed and recognized in their lives and work.  The manner in which their families, friends and all they serve, support in ways uncounted is no surprise. When unusual circumstances surround a priest of the Church and may face challenges unknown generally, his rise can be only attributed to the 'MOST HIGH GOD' without any doubt.  As humans our memories have to be often reignited as we tend to forget very easily as time passes.  Here, Let me bring to the limelight a phenomenal Mangalore priest who in spite of starting well was cornered by an unexpected tragic accident while travelling by train near Mumbai, on August 20, 2005 - that is Rev Fr Ivan Madtha, also known as  'Magician Father'.  I never expected he could lead an active priestly life of service again, when I saw him in a hospital in Bandra, Mumbai, just a few days after his unfortunate accident with his mother and family members present . It really surprised me to note that he was very confident and serene, accepting the situation with a positivity that only can come from the 'Supreme' creator and courageously serving people in unique ways.
 
 












 
Fr Ivan Madtha, a trained and long performing master magician, changes lives through his illusions and magic tricks in Schools and institutions in many regions of India and now diversified to multi paths of evangelization using IT and AI and planting deeper Catholic devotion. A Catholic Priest in the Diocese of Mangalore, Fr. Ivan was born on October 13, 1963. His father, the Late Fredrick Madtha was a naval officer and his mother Alice Madtha is a retired teacher about whom he is always attentive.

Fr Ivan joined St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore in 1981 and was ordained priest in 1991. During his theological and philosophical studies he also studied science and the arts of illusion. He was not from a family of magicians, but he had the support of his mother, his present Bishop Rev Dr. Peter Paul Saldanha, and previous Bishop Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, and many others. In his seminary days, it was Fr Mathew Vas who inspired him to use his talent for Evangelization and Magician Alwyn Menezes who introduced him to the world of magic skills.

Fr Ivan performed his first magic show on January 11, 1996 in Town Hall, Mangalore. He is a dedicated human. He holds the record of performing 34 shows in a month and 12 shows in 3 days. He went around India presenting shows in all types of Educational and social institutions. He was the first to perform a full length magic show at the District Jail in Mangalore. Prison Ministry India (PMI) too utilised his services before and after his accident to raise funds for prison work.  Now he is more focussed on retreats and devotional preaching. He holds exhibitions on the sidelines of retreats and displays holy objects like rare crosses, relics and  rosaries gathered from all over the world.  He is in his spare time researching rare aspects of the life of Mother Mary for a book he is compiling systematically of which a fair part is done.  

His life was shattered on August 30, 2005, when he met with an accident at a railway station near Mumbai and lost his left arm above the elbow and two fingers of his right hand, besides sustaining other injuries. This was a huge setback to his life and career. He underwent more than 12 operations and found out he had 60% disability in his arms and 40% disability in his legs. But with the help of prayer, faith and a positive mind set and sheer will power he brought his life and career back on track. Now though he uses a dummy hand to mask his deficiency, he has not been fortunate in getting any advanced limb system to help him; yet his will power and positive determination has taken him out of all negative feelings. He is now 60 plus years of age and lives an active religious life putting all his handicaps and inconveniences in the back seats.

Driving his own specially licensed Jeep, provided by his family and benefactors,  loaded with all his equipment and so on he furthers a one man vision of the missions. When essential he is assisted by familiar volunteers. In the last three years he has established a new form of serving the cause of God - preparing acrylic based A4 size attractive coloured pictures to display and motivate School students and expose them to the "Search and Research Mindset" . A few of his many pictures, which he paints in his available spare time in between his work and travels.  His work and concern is a gift of the Supreme.  Why? Fr. Ivan Madtha is 85% disabled as per Govt Medical certification. Having totally lost his left hand below the shoulder, several fingers of his right hand, damage to knees and feet and consequent psychological trauma he faced.

What makes Fr Madtha’s shows unique is that he strives to spread life values through his work and change people’s lives. He organized a show for prison inmates in 2003, and performs regularly in educational institutions. He has also developed audio visual aids to help him spread better values among the youth. The magician-priest is also a collector of stamps and coins of various countries. His multifaceted work for society has liberated him from self pity and any sort of negative attitude.  May GOD Bless him and shower all things for his future and progress of good works for community and humanity.  

CPCI (Catholic Priests Conference of India) ,in November 2011 selected Fr Ivan in recognition for his work as a Magician priest, for the creative use of the art of magic for the promotion of the Kingdom  values and for his great resilient enthusiasm in his mission even after  losing one of his hands in a train accident.  He had been nominated by several prominent individuals and institutions for this award. Fr Ivan was also awarded the Daijiworld "Swabhiman" award for physically challenged achievers. Living at the retired priest's home at Jeppu in Mangalore, Fr Madtha travels around also giving retreats, value based talks, Personality development workshops and value based magic shows where required. May awareness of his valuable work for GOD be better known and all concerned extend a better  support  to insure his services are encouraged and his enthusiasm rises higher for the good of our folks in Kanara.

In recent times there is a tremendous will and enthusiasm in Rev Fr Ivan Madtha - he was last week in Kateel had arranged his special exhibits of religious objects, pictures and giving talks on Mother Mary his favourite subject. With the Canonisation of teen St Carlo Acutis, notedly he has been spreading Audio Visual talks and seminars which has the attention of many youth and educational institutions. He is really busy these days and all is pointedly the result of his prayer and efforts/struggles which allow him to surmount all hurdles and handicaps for the glory of GOD ALMIGHTY!  

 

 

 

 
By Ivan Saldanha-Shet
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