Paramanantham Israel Samuel Baboo was born on January 1, 1906. He grew up in humble circumstances in Senthiambalem, a hamlet in Tamil Nadu, South India. Annammal, his blind mother, recognised his potential and spared no sacrifice as she watched him create history as the first person from his village to graduate with a B.A. from Madurai, a B.D. from the Bishop's College in Calcutta and the opportunity to work overseas.

Affectionately known as the Pathriar, Canon Samuel Baboo was the vicar of Christ Church Singapore from 1938 to 1971. When he sailed out to Singapore as a young priest from South India, leaving his bride, Saramma, to complete her medical studies in Madras, he had no idea that a war would separate them for many years leaving them incommunicado and presumed dead. Nor did he know that his contract of one year would extend to 32 years, perhaps the longest serving term of any priest in Christ Church. 

Rev C. Abraham Caldwell, vicar of Christ Church, Singapore from 1973-78, wrote in 1975: "Rev Canon P.I. Samuel Baboo took charge of the Parish of Christ Church on February 18, 1939. After 33 years of faithful service, he retired on December 31, 1972. It seldom happens in any parish to have the same Vicar for such a long period. It is due to his able and devoted service and the loyal co-operation of the members that the parish of Christ Church has achieved many great things.

" Both Rev Canon Baboo and the congregation deserve praise and will be remembered with gratitude and admiration.”^[1]

The writer grew up as an only child in the parsonage with the congregation as her extended family and saw Canon Samuel Baboo’s life from a different perspective. 

He was the Pathriar first. The Church was his whole life. The role of husband, father and any other role that he was asked to play came after that. Every morning his day started with a communion service at 7am. Anyone who had a birthday, an anniversary or no reason at all could walk in with the assurance that the church would always be open. When the writer asked him if he conducted services when the pews were empty, his eyes would twinkle as he smiled to tell her that the angels were there.

Priests normally take a day off during the week but the writer never knew her father to do that. The only time he hung up his cassock was when he went on furlough to India, once every three or four years. From Monday to Friday he was the principal of the Christ Church School, a venture he started as a visionary to make and keep Christ Church financially independent. One of the many fund-raising events that placed brick on brick was the annual fun fair and fete when No. 1 Dorset Road wore a festive look and the stalls overflowed with music, games and food. The Assembly Hall, an addition to reinforce the church resources, was leased out for receptions and conferences, making Christ Church a self-sufficient Tamil congregation in the Diocese of Singapore.

On Saturdays, the family gathered at church in the evening. Mr P.V. Samuel would conduct the choir practices with Mrs Beebee at the organ. Mrs Eames would arrange the flowers at the altar and everyone's favourite, Davis Thatha, would give the children sweets after the Tamil classes that they took to read and sing the Tamil hymns and lyrics during the Tamil Eucharist service on Sundays. Meanwhile, at the parsonage, the writer’s mother would make a mountain of jam and butter sandwiches for tea after the Sunday morning service.

The highlight of the week was Sunday when parishioners arrived in their finery to a sung service that lasted close to two hours. After the service, the congregation gathered for fellowship over coffee and sandwiches while the children attended Sunday School where they were taught hymns from “Golden Bells” and verses from the Bible that they remembered all the days of their lives. At Christmas, the Sunday School would put up an elaborate nativity play showcasing the children’s talents. Midnight services were held on the eve of Christmas, New Year and Easter. They went carol singing over Christmas with Uncle Manson's band accompanying them to a lively interlude when new carols were belted out to popular Bollywood tunes.

There were no shortcuts in Canon Baboo’s almanac. He would never skip verses in a hymn nor sentences in an order of service to accommodate time or clock. Once when he was conducting a funeral the weather changed quite dramatically during the service at the graveyard. Soon it started pouring and everyone ran for shelter except Canon Baboo, the corpse in the coffin and his widow. The muddy grave slowly filled up with rainwater. The coffin dislodged itself and started shifting, threatening to float up and out of the grave. Undeterred, Canon Baboo finished all the pages under a torn umbrella shielding the prayer book, not missing comma or colon.

In 1971, the writer’s parents returned to Madras to retire. The resident CSI Bishop, Rev Leslie Newbegin, invited Canon Baboo to look after St. Mark's Church in Georgetown, Madras. The church was struggling to stay alive and faced imminent closure. With his vast experience and generous contributions from his parishioners in Singapore, Canon Baboo started a school in the compound, turned the finances around and set St. Mark's on firma terra before he moved to help at the St. Thomas Garrison Church.

Though he was actively involved in church services and pastoral care for the next 15 years often as a stepney priest to relieve pastors on furlough, his heart was in Christ Church and in the Epiphany Church at the Naval Base in Sembawang where he had worked for the better part of his life. He loved getting news of his parishioners and welcomed them to their home in St. Thomas Mount when they passed through Madras.

Canon Baboo was a good, simple and honest man. He worked hard and he never forgot his humble beginnings no matter where or how life took him. He never forgot who he was and where he had come from. His life was a living testimony to the living God he worshipped and served all his life.

He died on March 10, 1986, 20 months after his wife passed away and was laid to rest beside her in the St. Thomas Garrison Church Cemetery in St. Thomas Mount, Madras.

His epitaph reads…

“Those we truly love,

Never die

They live on

In the love we shared

The memories we cherish

And in the certainty 

That we will meet again 

He kept the faith

He walked with God.

Rest eternal grant unto him

O Lord,

Let light perpetual

Shine upon him."