My notes are headed "St Xavier's Festival" and there is a note saying "Suraj's village?". It was a public holiday because St Francis Xavier is the patron saint of Goa. I did not go to Suraj's village. I was supposed to but he had gone by the time I got up. I went to Old Goa. I took a bus, a ferry and another bus and I wandered around. Apart from the picture above and the one at the foot of this post all of the other illustrations are in fact postcards I bought somewhere or other. I have quoted the descriptive from the back of each card in italics below each.
Vegetable Seller Goa Market - a quiet smile lighting her face this vegetable seller threads flowers before the rush of buyers flock to the market - Photo - V.B. Anand
Goa (India) No.16
"Kunbis" - Goa's loveable tribals - are hard workers and hard worshippers. Seen at the fair, Old Goa, on St Francis Xavier's feast day
From this point on I should own up straight away and say that the historical information comes for the most part from a pamphlet I bought called Old Goa by S. Rajagopalan published by the Director General Archeological Survey of India in 1987. I can't reproduce it all but it says that Vasco de Gama landed in Calicut in 1498 and the Portuguese established their trading station at Cochin down the coast (see later) but they met opposition from the Zamorin of Calicut. I had to look up the Zamorin because his name sounds so good, and discovered that at that time the Zamorin was considered the wealthiest monarch of India who had contacts with Arab countries, Egypt and even beyond, and as a port Calicut ranked foremost on the west coast shipping the bulk of pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and ginger (my ceramic spice jar certainly does not date from this period). I read that the initial welcome of the Zamorin was dispelled because of Vasco de Gama's insignificant gifts and rude behaviour. Indeed it seems that an emissary of the Zamorin was sent back with his ears nose and hands chopped off and strung round his neck! My friend Steve tells me that in fact a whole shipful of emissaries met this fate and the ship was set on fire. To describe this as rude behaviour is understating it, isn't it?
Apart from the perhaps understandable opposition from the Zamorin, trade competition from the Arabs made life difficult so the Portuguese looked for a place from where they could control the seas. Goa was was the answer because it had natural harbours and navigable rivers.
Velha Goa, Basilica of Bom Jesus (16th Cent.)
Velha Goa: Altar of Our Lay of Dloures, Sè Cathedral (16th Cent)
With the advent of the Portuguese, both public and private buildings began to be erected. The pamphlet says there was an epidemic in 1543 that swept away 200,000 people but the city recovered and churches of lofty dimensions attached with equally large convents were built by the various religious orders who settled down in Goa under Royal mandates. The Franciscans were the earliest to arrive in 1517, followed by other orders like Carmelites, Augustinians, Dominicans, and Jesuits.
Velha Goa:Facade
St Francis of Assisi (17th Cent.)
Velha Goa: Sè Cathedral (16th Cent.)
On 7 April 1541 a small fleet of 5 ships left Lisbon on its way to the East Indies and one of the passengers was Francisco de Xavier y Jassu whose noble parents were (and I only quote this because of the extraordinarily florid names) Don Juan de Jessu y Atondo and Donna Maria de Azpilcueta Aznaraz de Sada. He was 35 years old and having been an associate of Inigo de Loyola (St Ignatious Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits). He had been given the arduous task of spreading Christianity among the subjects in the Portuguese colonies in the East. He, it says, surpassed all others in his missionary zeal. He reached Goa in May 1542 and left in September that year (managing to miss out on the above mentioned epidemic, which I suppose was lucky for him). He went south along the coast preaching but returned to Goa which was the base of his operations. He went on to Indonesia and Japan (where he was given permission to preach by King Yamaguchi) but made little headway and disappointed boarded ship to return to Goa but disembarked at an island called Sancian or Shangchuan off the Coast of China where he fell ill and died aged 46 on 3 December 1552.
Velha Goa: Main altar, Baslica of Bom Jesus (16th cent.)
"It was the 3rd of September, that day I'll always remember, 'cos that was the day my daddy died"" Those are the opening lines of "Papa was a rolling stone". In this case it was the 3rd of December, that day Goans all remember, cos that was the day St Francis Xavier died.
Velha Goa: Relic-casket, Basilica of Bom Jesus (16th Cent.)
Anyhow, he was buried at Sancian, but subsequently was dug up and moved to Malacca where his grave was opened four months later so that his successor could pay his respects (as you do) and his body was found to be fresh and life-like and so the body was moved again to St Paul's College on 16 March 1554 in Goa.
The following comes from goacentral.com
The ship carrying his body made its final voyage to Goa and arrived at Goa on 16 March 1554. It was taken in a procession to the College of St Paul where it was on display for three days. The viceroy Dom Alfonso de Noronha ordered an official medical examination of the body. Dr. Cosmas Saraiva, his personal physician and Dr. Ambrosio Ribeiro, the Vicar-General examined the body and so did Brother Antonio Dias.
Dr. Cosmas Saraiva writes "I felt and pressed all the members of the body with my fingers, and paid special attention to the abdominal region and made certain that the intestines were in their natural position. There had been no embalming of any kind nor had any artificial preservative agents been used. I observed a wound in the left side near the heart and asked two of the Society who were with me to put their fingers into it. When they withdrew them they were covered with blood which I smelt and found to be absolutely untainted. The limbs and other part of the body were entire and clothed in their flesh in such a way that, according to the laws of medicine, they could not possibly have been so preserved by any natural or artificial means, seeing that Father Francis had been dead for a year and a half and buried for a year."
Dr Ambrosio Ribeiro writes "I felt the body with my own hands from the feet up the knees and about all the other parts of the body. I certify that in all these parts the flesh was entire, covered with its natural skin and humidity without any corruption. On the left leg a little above the knee on the exterior there is a little cut or wound, a finger length, which looked like a hit. All round the wound there oozed out a streak of blood gone black. And much above in the left side near the heart there is a small hole which looked like a hit. Through it I inserted my fingers deep as I could and found it hollow. Only inside I felt some small bits which seemed to me like pieces of intestines dried up due to the long times the body lay in the grave. But I smelt no corruption although I put my face quite close to the body. The head rested on a small Chinese damask pillow leaving on it below the neck some thing like a stain of blood similar to that on the leg, faded in color and turned black.
Brother Antonio Dias writes " To others who come to see the body, they show only the hands and feet and a part of the legs and arms. But I, who am a true witness, saw the body enshrouded and with priests and brothers wrapped it up in another sheet. I assure you that it emitted a wonderful and sweet odor. I myself put one of my hands into the stomach and I found it full because they had not drawn out the intestines at his death or afterwards, and what I found there was all like coagulated blood, smooth and soft, which looked reddish and smelt sweet.
Both the above texts are signed and dated 1556, more than two and half years after the examination - the one of Saraiva on November 18 and the other on December 1, 1556.
In 1613 it was moved again to the Professed House of Bom Jesus. Then, after he was canonised, a rich silver coffin was provided and he was moved again to the Church of Bom Jesus on the Gospel side and then the Epistle side where an artistic mausoleum was built.
Velha Goa: Altar of Our lady of Hope, Basilica of Bom Jesus (16th Cent.)
The body of St Francis Xavier suffered several mutilations beginning in 1553. The first was when the person who opened his grave for transporting the body to Malacca had a small potion of the flesh removed from near to the knee to show the captain the unusually fresh condition of the corpse. His neck was broken in Malacca because he was kept in a coffin that was too short. Unbelievably during the first exposition of his body the fifth toe of his right foot was bitten off by a Portuguese lady who carried off as a relic of the Saint!
In 1890 one of the toes fell off and this is kept in a crystal case in the Sacristy of the Basilica of Bom Jesus. Part of his arm was severed and sent to Rome in 1615, a part of his right hand was cut off and send to the Jesuit province of Japan in 1916. Even parts of his intestines were removed and sent to various places as relics. His body was exposed for public viewing on the anniversary of his death particularly after he was canonised in 1622. From 1707 for 36 years there was no exposition at all. In 1744 and 1751 the body was exposed privately for the then Governors of Goa. There was then an Exposition (with a capital E) in 1752, then 1860 and, then 1879. Since 1891 there have been regular Expositions more or less every 10 years.
Velha Goa: Painting, St Francis of Assisi (17th Cent.)
Velha Goa: Wooden statue of St. Francis Xavier, Basilica of Bom Jesus (16th Cent.)
These practices are beyond me. I don't understand why people do it. During the festival thousands of people line up to kiss the relics of "Goencho Saib" (Lord of Goa). Pilgrims march huge distances to do this and in their prayers ask the Saint to intercede with God to cure sick relatives etc. The Exposition of what is left of the body between November 23rd 1994 to January 7th 1995 was attended by 2,000,000 pilgrims and tourists. I don't want to disparage all of this and if I go on I certainly won't be able to stop myself.
There are many Christians who consider the religious practices of non-believers, followers of other faiths, as "mumbo jumbo". Perhaps they are right but for goodness' sake what is putting the toe of a deceased missionary into a crystal case supposed to be about? What spiritual significance could a portion of St Francis Xavier's intestines really have?
A short distance from the Sè Cathedral and the Basilica of Bom Jesus there is a roundabout called the Mahatma Ghandi Circle. In the centre is a statue of Mahatma Ghandi. Now there was someone whose memory is revered for reasons I can understand. It's a pity no-one had bothered to clean the bird droppings off his head. I tend to think that priorities have become confused.
Before I made my way back to Calangute I got a hair cut (not a very good one). I just can't remember how I would have got back from Calangute to Jeannette's house. I might have parked the bicycle somewhere and cycled.
