In 65 years as a priest, Father Matthew Elanjileth has made a lot of friends.
Some friends take him to Panera Bread after Masses.
Others say "hi" to the 89-year-old Catholic priest in the halls of UPMC McKeesport Hospital, where he visits 50-60 patients daily.
About 200 of his closest friends — including parishioners at St. Mary's Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church in McKeesport, where he preached for 28 years — will celebrate Elanjileth's 65 years of priesthood Sunday with a dinner party.
"I discovered by observation that Father Matthew was very well known and loved in the area," said Father Paul Voida, pastor of St. Mary's since Elanjileth retired last year. "Almost every time he would take me out to lunch ... some other patron in the restaurant would see him and would quietly pick up the tab."
Elanjileth was born April 26, 1921, in Kerala, India. He became Catholic at age 8 and was ordained a priest at 24. At age 42, he came to Pittsburgh.
"I feel happy that I made so many friends coming to this country without anyone here," Elanjileth said. "I can say I learned a lot from other people, and I enjoy it."
Elanjileth attracts people's friendship by making them comfortable and showing compassion, said Franny Flaherty, 55, of McKeesport.
"He's so easy to talk to," Flaherty said. "He doesn't place any limits on his generosity, and his compassion is just unbelievable."
During 47 years in Pittsburgh, Elanjileth ministered at seven churches, including parishes in Downtown, Swissvale, Coraopolis, Brentwood, McKeesport and two in Garfield.
"I enjoy being in all these different places, and I still have friends from all these places," Elanjileth said.
Although he only met her once on a plane in India, Elanjileth said he wrote a letter to Mother Teresa in 1979, which resulted in the well-known nun paying a short visit to Pittsburgh that year.
When he began at St. Mary's Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church in 1981, Elanjileth had to learn enough Romanian to say Mass in the language. But he already spoke Latin and four other languages, so he said the transition was not difficult. The parish was small, so he had plenty of time to study and begin visiting patients at the hospital, he said.
"I tried to absorb his wisdom on how to run a little Catholic church," Voida said. "What I picked up was a sense of really trying to accommodate people where they're at and meet their needs."
The church is now larger, with about 105 parishioners, Voida said. Its priests stopped saying Masses in Romanian in the early 1990s.
Elanjileth said he watched a transition at the McKeesport church as many of its original Romanian parishioners lost their jobs when the steel mills closed.
"I did not help them deal with their lifestyle. I just catered to the people who came to me with their problems, their family problems and their personal problems," Elanjileth said.
Even with so many friends in the Pittsburgh area, Flaherty said Elanjileth did not request the 65th anniversary gathering.
"I have the best of both worlds because I have him as a friend and as a spiritual adviser," Flaherty said.
