SALLA Pierre (Father) - France

PIARRA, you leave us a beautiful testimony : a rich legacy as a man, as a religious and as a priest.
In your family first, in Juxue, “Otsania” house, with your relatives, you knew and experienced poverty and happiness at the same time. Betharram too, your second family, was very dear to you.
Your long service as a missionary in Thailand has left a deep mark on you in many respects. There, the difficult conditions of the first fifteen years or so seasoned you: you did not lack courage and determination to remain faithful to the missions entrusted to your good will and to your determination to always do good.
You were totally committed to Jesus Christ and to the proclamation of his Good News. Prayer played a big role in your life, both personally and in community. You liked to withdraw and take time for yourself on one of the beautiful hill tops of Juxue, in this wonderful corner of «Jaunabordetan» to meditate and make your retreat as a person consecrated to GOD. To meet with your religious brothers was a joy for you. Your loyalty to your family in Otsania, in the village of Juxue, in the Basque Country, was a constant.
I had the opportunity and the blessing to live a few years with you, in community, in Saint-Palais. Your discretion, your availability to listen, your fraternal attention, your good sense of humour , all did us a power of good. The living footprints of older brothers like you remind us of what is essential: being close to God and being close to people are totally intertwined. Piarra, you experienced this reality intensely and very seriously. Prayer and work, action and contemplation, these were the realities in your life. A big thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your kindness and your radiant smile live on in us. Piarra, we love you. 

Fr. Joseph Ruspil SCJ

«... We entrust and recommend Peter to God, our Father of tenderness. We give Him thanks, for Peter, for what he is in himself for us, for all the good, beautiful and great things he achieved, during his life on earth, especially in Thailand where, as a missionary, he spent his life in the service of Jesus Christ, of the Christian communities and of his religious brothers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram. »

Fr. Bertrand Salla scj, his brother

Pierre, 4th in a family of twelve children, was born in Juxue, Otsarania house, on 28 February 1927. From his childhood, he expressed the desire to become a priest. After a year spent at the Etchecopar house in Saint-Palais, he joined Bétharram, in class 6, for a six-year cycle of studies. After that, he entered the scholasticate of Floirac, near Bordeaux, for his studies in philosophy and theology.
Six years later, he was ordained as a priest in the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Bétharram, by Cardinal Richaud, in St-André Cathedral in Bordeaux, on 29 June, 1953.
Eager to work in a mission country, he joined other Betharramites in Thailand where he worked for 52 years.
At the age of 80, he preferred to return to France to allow his younger brothers to carry on the missionary work. He retired to the Betharramite community of Saint-Palais in 2007. He joined the retirement home in Bétharram in 2017.
For those who knew him well, he leaves a memory of a discreet religious, deeply attached to prayer and to the spiritual life.

Fr. Joseph Ruspil SCJ