Christianity and nationalism... in Aldona

[Frederick [FN] Noronha * फ्रेडरिक नोरोंया]

CHRISTIANITY AND NATIONALISM IN ALDONA

By Fr Cosme Jose Costa sfx

It is impossible for me to write the history of Aldona
without emotion as I have lived seventeen years of my
childhood and youth in an atmosphere impregnated with
devotion and studied upto my SSC in St. Thomas Boys High
School, before I decided to join the Society of Pilar.

It was in the Carona Chapel that I learnt the basic three R's
and catechism under the tender care of Fr. Tome Damiao
Cordeiro, the first resident Chaplain, a holy priest of
unforgettable memory, whose main concern was that his pupils
should not only be educated but more so, that they be men of
character and good manners.

It was in this chapel and under the guiding care of Fr.
Cordeiro that I made my first holy communion on 12nd May
1946, an event that is very much alive in my life even today.
I was confirmed in Aldona Church where I also used to attend
all Lent and Holy Week ceremonies as well as Church feasts
very year.

CONQUEST OF GOA

The religious history of Aldona is part and parcel of Bardez
and of Goa at large. Goa (i.e. Tiswadi) was definitely
conquered by Afonso de Albuquerque for the Portuguese on 25th
Nov. 1510 from the Sultan if Bijapur Yusuf Adil Khan.

In 1543 Bardez and Salcete were ceded to the Portuguese. The
reason of this cessation is said to be the fact that Ibrahim
was one of the claimants to the throne of Bijapur and wanted
to keep his rival Meale (Abdulla) Khan out of mischief. Meal
on being defeated in the contest sought asylum in Goa.

Seizing this opportunity, the Portuguese took firm possession
of the two districts of Bardez and Salcete. The Tanadar
Krishna was put in charge of collecting the revenues and
safe-guarding the customs and contracts of the ganvkars. For
about 32 years from 1510 to 1542 a few Franciscans at a time
worked in Tiswadi.

In May 1542 the Jesuits arrived in Goa headed by St. Francis
Xavier, who however left Tiswadi for South India in Sept.
1542, i.e. six months after his arrival, and before Bardez
and Salcete were ceded to the Portuguese.

When Xavier died in 1552 there was not one baptised ganvkar
in Bardez or Salcete. The Portuguese built Reis Magos Fort at
Verem as their principal defence of Bardez. Adjacent to the
Fort the Franciscans built the first Church in Bardez during
the Viceroyalty of D. Afonso de Noronha (1551-1554).
Meanwhile the Dominicans had come to Goa in 1548.

In 1555, the Viceroy D. Pedro Mascarenhas divided the then
Goa among the religious Orders to avoid inconveniences of one
Order encroaching the other's jurisdiction. Thus the
Franciscans got Bardez as their Held of Apostolate and the
Jesuits got Salcete. The villages of Tiswadi were parcelled
out among the Dominicans (who got 15 villages in the
north-western sector) and the Jesuits (who got the remaining
15 villages in the south-eastern sector including Chorao and
Divar).

The Jesuits were duty bound to write annual letters to their
Superior General in Rome, and have left minute details of
their activities in the east. The Franciscans, however,
avoided publicity and so we get very scant information in
documents, about their activities.

After Bardez was alloted to them, the Franciscans set to work
from Verem going in two directions, north and east of Verem.

In 1556, they built the second church in Bardez at Candolim,
the third at Nagoa in 1560, the fourth at Sirula (Salvador do
Mundo) in 1565, the fifth at Gaunkarvaddo of Siolim in 1568,
the sixth at Nerul in 1569 and the seventh at Coimbavaddo in
Aldona dedicated to St. Thomas, the Apostle, in 1569.

According to the official lists of the Franciscans, Friar
Alexo de Esperanca became the Rector of Aldona in 1595. The
Franciscans went on erecting churches in other villages of
Bardez till the beginning of the 18th century.

The Present Church in Aldona

Since by 1595, the number of parishioners had Increased in
Aldona, the old Church building was not sufficient. There is
a manuscript in the Goa State Archives, Mss. No. 8000, in
Goan Kannadi script, which deals with "Tombo de Aldona"
1595-1605.

Some of the minutes of meetings found in this manuscript are
transliterated into Devanagari script by Gajanana Ghantkar
and published in 1973 in his book "Introduction to Goan
Marathi Records and Halkannada Script."

As per these records, a meeting of the ganvkars was held in
1595, in which the above mentioned Rector proposed to the
members present, the construction of a new Church. The
members of the village assembly accepted the proposal and
resolved to give 125 aspigam gold coins then in use in Goa
(known as Xerafins in Portuguese) for this construction.

The following names of the ganvkars (nine of whom seem to be
newly baptised Christians because of the mention of the Hindu
names of each one's father) are given in this document as
follows:

1. Bostiao do Costa, son of Santu Kamat
2. Lourenco Ferrao, son of Ramu Kamat
3. Duarte Moniz son of Kista Prabhu
4. Manuel Sequeira son of Naras Naik
5. Pedro de Azavedo son of Hari Kamat
6. Manuel Pinto son of Narse Prabhu
7. Antonio Ferrao son of Anat Naik
8. Jeromino de Souza son of Kista
9. Prukhe Kamat
10. Anat Kamat
11. Vithu Sethi.
12. Paunne Prabhu

To identify properly, only the names of Christians are given
together with the name of their Hindu father. (Perhaps
because the components were the ganvkar families known as
"vangodd" and now by baptism their names were changed).

All these 12 components were present for the meeting held on
September 22, 1595, soon after a previous meeting to discuss
the triennial lease of the village. The present church was
thus started in 1596.

The same book records meetings held in 1600, 1601, 1603, 1604
and 1605. In these meetings always 12 vangodd took part, but
names are different. Other members of the "vangodd" were
present V and signed; some of the new Hindu names are: Santu
Kamat, Kallu Kamat, Bhogam Kamat, Bhogam Naik, Govind Naik,
Roulu Kamat, Vitol Kamat, Mahal Naik, Ram Prabhu, Gopal
Sethi, Fati Naik, Mahal Sethi, Bhogam Prabhu, Damu Sethi,
Nanu Kamat, Mahatma Sethi.

New Christian names are:- Pedro Ferrao, Diogo Sequeira, Paulo
de Lima, Belchior Fernandes, Paulo de Souza, Miguel
Rodrigues, Bernardino Azavedo, Francisco Gomes, Pedro
Bocarro, Agostinho Souza, Gonsalo Pinto, Francis Coutinho,
Rui de Mello, Nuno de Mendonca.

On 13/3/1603, the ganvkars held the meeting under the oak
tree near the old church edifice. The meeting was addressed
by the Rector of the church, Friar Rodrigo do Espirito Santo.

He told them that their old church was of mud but they had
resolved to put up a new church for which they had given the
land. The new church must be worthy of their status, strong.
The work of construction was slow for lack of funds. The
gaunkars resolved to donate for the church extension the
proceeds of sale of all fallow land in the village. This
resolution is signed by Bhanu Kamat, son of Bhalu Kamat,
Paulo de Souza, Lourenco Ferrao, Duarte Moniz, Manuel
Sequeira, Benardino Azavedo, Belchior Fernando (sic) Diogo
Sequeira, Pedro Bocairo, Paulo de Lima, Gopal Sethi son of
Vithu Sethi, Pocali Prabhu son of R. Prabhu.

On 15/ 1/1605, 14 ganvkars from Aldona, who had crossed over
to Muslim (Arbi) lands, voluntarily returned back saying that
they wanted to become Christians and asked that their lands
be restored to them. A meeting of the "Vangodd" was held and
it was decided to receive them back in the village and
restore their lands to them. Others should return by the
18th, it was resolved, otherwise their lands would be
confiscated.

A Franciscan chronicler writes in 1619 concerning the Aldona
Parish "St. Thomas Church" situated in Aldona, which is the
largest village of Sirula. The Parish includes the village of
Nachinola as well.

There are 700 communicants. 561 who go to confession and 576
baptised children. In 1690 the beautiful capela-mor was
built with the help of the Rector Frei Francisco de Virgem
Maria. Later in 1890, Caetano da Costa who took the contract
for laying the track for the Vasco Londa Railway line
offered to build a new church at his own cost on the
adjoining hill Tercena.

This plan however, did not go ahead probably for lack of
support of the villagers. In 1897-98 the Sacristy and
adjoining rooms (which had been demolished on 13/9/1897) were
rebuilt.

During this period Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of
Kottarbhatt but the Parish Priest resided in Carona, where
also the Holy Week services were held in 1898.

MISSIONARY METHODS

Be that as it may, by their methods of conveying their
teaching through interpreters, the Jesuits and Franciscans
found it very difficult in the beginning to win over to
Christianity the inhabitants of Salcete and Bardez.

They also made no efforts to understand the deep religiosity
of the natives. By now the Saraswats had spread themselves in
the 12 important villages of Bardez (Barades), Aldona, being
one of them. The minds of the people were controlled by the
Saraswats through their temples and schools.

Moreover, they forbade their subordinates to have anything to
do with the missionaries, even by expelling them from the
temples. The Missionaries thus began to have rough time. They
were stoned and afflicted in a variety of ways.

The Brahmins, however, with their command and mastery of the
Konkani language could move the people to tears or ecstasy as
they dwelt in poetic strains on the woes of a Sita or the
exploits of a Mahabharata hero. That these epics existed in
Konkani is proved by the discovery of a manuscript of 1292
pages in Roman script in the library of Braga, Portugal, a
16th century copy of Mahabharata and Ramayana attributed to
the father of Konkani language, Vishunadas Shama.

After grasping the secret of the success of the Brahmins, the
Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries applied themselves with a
will to study the language. They called the prominent Brahmin
scholars to their friaries or residences, got from them the
Devanagari alphabet, gave their correspondence in Roman
Script, made them recite the epics in the presence and wrote
them down in Roman Script.

They were thus not only able to speak in Konkani but produced
their own works in Konkani using the Roman script. Thus by
1583, Thomas Stephens, an Englishman and Jesuit, wrote the
Krista Purana in Marathi, using the Roman script, and a
grammar of the Konkani language.

By 1595 the Franciscan friar Amador de Santa Iria translated
the Lives of Saints (of Pedro de Ribandeneyra) in classical
Konkani in the Goy-Kannadi script, copies of which are found
in the Museums of Paris (France) and Madrid (Spain).

The Brahmins flocked to hear him believing him to be one of
themselves. Mastery of the Konkani language thus enabled the
missionaries not only to preach but also to hold spell bound
a whole audience, grief stricken while in moving verse they
sang the passion and death of the Saviour. and transported
while joyful strains announced the Nativity or the
Resurrection.

It was in this situation that the "Santos Passos" -- or life
size images depicting the different stages of the sufferings
of Christ were exposed to public veneration in Lent,
culminating with the carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion
and Descent from the Cross followed by public processions in
Holy Week -- had their origin.

Friar Joao de S. Mathias [1595-1631) followed by translating
Cardinal Bellarmino's Catechism of the Christian doctrine,
Friar Gaspar de S. Miguel (1635-1647) produced large original
works, such as Vivekamal in 6000 verses, a book on the
passion in 3000 verses and a Catechism of 8000 verses. The
first four parts of this Catechism dwelt on the last four
things, Death. Judgement, Hell and Heaven, and the remaining
three parts described the degradation brought about by sin.

MISSIONARY WORK IN ALDONA

We only know that the Franciscans first established
themselves at Coimbavaddo in 1569 and started making
conversions. In his book "The Ancient Franciscans Provinces in
India", Fr. Achilles Meersman OFM narrates the following
episode: One of the Franciscans who worked in Aldona was
Manuel de S. Mathias; while stationed there some Hindus
challenged him to cross over to the mainland and there
discuss their deities and customs.

He accepted the challenge for was well versed in these
matters and had even composed several books on this subject
for his confreres. He forded the river and began discussing
with some Brahmins; the result of this whole affair that he
was taken prisoner.

There was even talk of putting him to death. However, the
people of Bardez, presumably from Aldona, threatened to
attack the village and burn it to the ground, whereupon Friar
Manoel was released.

But this visit was to go without its happy ending. The man
who detained Friar Manoel was ill-treated by his co-villagers,
since he had almost implicated them in a serious conflict
with the Portuguese. He therefore fled to Aldona, was
eventually converted and became one of the most important
Catholics of that age. This happened around 1605.

Friar Manoel remained in Aldona only for four months as
care-taker and during that period made some four hundred
converts. In 1720, according to the then Rector of Aldona,
Ignacio de Madre de Deus, there were 3377 Catholics in the
parish of Aldona. As we have seen above Missionaries of the
16th and 17th century made great efforts to study the local
language and were successful in their apostolate.

MIGRATIONS FROM ALDONA

Today we find people in Mangalore, Vengurla, Bombay and in
various parts of India who claim it descent from their Aldona
ancestors and who a few years ago as long as the communidades
disbursed annual "Jon" used to come to Aldona to collect
their annual share, What were the causes of se migrations?

1) The XVI and XVII centuries were period of absolute
monarchies. Everywhere the principle in vogue followed by the
kings and emperors was 'Cujust regio ejus religio' -- the
religion of the king is the religion of the subjects. This
type of principles cannot be accepted in secular democracies
of today. But at that time the Portuguese Monarch was
absolute. The Portuguese Government wanted to have a strong
footing in Goa. Therefore the Government helped the
Missionaries to spread Christianity.

In my opinion conversions were by conviction due to the
effort of the Missionaries as seen above. I do not prescribe
to the theory of forced conversions to Christianity in the
sense that some would be forcefully baptised against their
wishes.

At least one month of intense training in Christian
principles and preparation went on in the Catechismenate of
Valverda, Betim, prior to Baptism. But the Portuguese
Government did use some means (which in today's way of
thinking may not be justified) to make it easier for the
natives to seek conversion, such as preferential treatment in
jobs, special inheritance privileges to converts etc.

The Government also denied to our non-Christian brethren many
facilities, destroyed their existing temples and finally
forced those who resisted to conversions to sell their
properties and leave their land. Thus some Hindu Brahmins
have left Goa, Aldona included, and settled elsewhere in the
16th century. A little later, the Portuguese did tolerate
their existence in Aldona and allowed the thread ceremony to
be performed there for Bardez

2) I feel Aldona has always been a stronghold of nationalism.
These nationalist tendencies had deep roots in the hoary
past. In 1560, the Portuguese introduced the Inquisition in
Goa. As seen above the Franciscans built the first Church at
Aldona in 1569. Sometimes, during the next ten years
(1569-1579) the Franciscan Missionaries started their
apostolate in Aldona.

The first baptism in Aldona might have taken place by 1573.
For in 1574, strange to say, the Inquisition forced some
Christians from Aldona to migrate to Mangalore. In the spirit
of nationalism some of the ganvkars who were converted,
wanted to preserve some Hindu practices such as name,
marriage ceremony, dress and customs. They found that these
customs did not in any way hinder their practice of
Christianity.

The Portuguese authorities however wanted the new Christians
to give up all ancient customs and to mimic European ways of
life. Some of the ganvkars were not ready for such a change.

It is said that false eases were fabricated against them,
that they were made over to the Inquisition, their property
was confiscated and that one or two were burnt alive at the
stake. This led to the first exodus of Christians from
Bardez. A tradition in Mangalore says that some ganvkars from
Aldona fled in patmaris (boats) to Kanara (Mangalore) and
settled there. In my Society of Pilar, we have Fr. Peter
D'Souza from Mangalore, whose parents told him that according
to family tradition, their ancestors fled from Aldona because
the Portuguese forced them out as they were not ready to give
up the shendi (tuft of hair) and the pudvem (white dhoti)
after baptism and yet these Christians and their descendents
remained firm in their faith inspite of severe persecutions
by Tipu Sultan in the 18th century and other vicissitudes.

This is a sure proof that they were Christians by conviction,
and not by force. Some did not change their old surnames.
Even today Naik, Prabhu etc are some of the Christian
surnames among them. Others changed their surnames, but did
not give up other old customs (except for their modern
generation). Surnames like D'Souza, Noronha, Lobo are common
to Aldona as well as Mangalore.

As soon as these Aldona Christians reached Mangalore, they
showed great expertise in coconut plantations, which at that
time were very rare in these places. The Keladi Kings of
Bednore (Mangalore) therefore, welcomed them and gave them
vast lands and money for coconut cultivation and even
encouraged them to get more people from Goa. So more people
started moving towards the South.

3) The spirit of Nationalism revealed itself again in 1683
and thereafter when Sambhaji and later on the Maratha Peshwas
threatening to drive the Portuguese out of Goa, attacked the
Portuguese possessions.

On the borders of Aldona, Corjuem became the battleground in
1710 of the Bhonsles of Kholapur. Some Christians abetted the
Marathas. However the Marathas were defeated. But the
Portuguese retaliated by banning the teaching of Konkani and
imposing Portuguese. Therefore more Christians fled from
Bardez and Salcete to Mangalore, among them some are Aldona
ganvkars.

Some carried with them the copy of the Krista-Purana of Fr.
Thomas Stephens. That is how this Krista-Purana in Marathi
became popular in Kanada lands.

4) Many Christians migrated from Aldona by the end of 18th
century to Vengurla, Sawantwadi, etc., due to famines and
plagues.

5) The Island of Bombay was ceeded by the Portuguese to the
British by way of dowry to the Portuguese Princess Catharina
of Braganza in 1665. Goans, Aldonkars included, who were
adept in culinary art and were used to sailing in sea and
river waters of their land, found ready employment in Bombay
households and as seamen and musicians in the fast expanding
merchant Navy and in princely houses of Indian Rajahs since
the later 17th century and made their homes away from their
native place.

Aldonkars were in such large numbers in Bombay that they
founded at least ten residential clubs or kudd, each one of
them named after a ward of Aldona. Others settled in Jaipur,
Pune, Karachi. and other places.

From these emigrant Aldona families came many missionaries.
religious priests and nuns, or sisters. They have also given
three Bishops to the Church: Rt Rev. Ferdinand J. Fonseca,
Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay; Rt. Rev. Anthony Lobo, Bishop of
Islamabad, Pakistan; and Rt Rev. Joseph Couto, Bishop of
Hyderabad in Sindh, Pakistan.

Fr. Subash Anand and Fr. George Soares Prabhu SJ rose to be
Professors at Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth (Papal Athenaeum), Pune.

Among laymen Mr C. D. Pinto rose to be the head of the
Department of English at the University of Bombay and Mr.
Francis Correia, head of Department of Agriculture at
Udaipur.

We find that many Konkani writers, tiatrists, journalists of
renown were sons of Aldona, among then Caridade Damaciano
Fernandes who is known as father of Konkani Romance writers.

6) To my knowledge several families from Carona migrated to
distant lands for better prospects. Thus the father of Otto
Coutinho sold his house to my grand father, Cosme Damiao
Noronha, and migrated to Portugal. From there Otto became the
Professor of Philadelphia University in USA while his sister
Maria Coutinho was an eminent poetess in Portugal.

Some of the Santa Rita Vaz family members e.g Alvaro de Santa
Rita Vaz, former editor of Herald, a Portuguese daily printed
from Panjim, also settled in Portugal. My grand father's
brother, Domingo Vicente Noronha. bought a big farm in
Bangalore and settled there. His son Dr. Fred H. Noronha rose
to be the Dean of St. Martha's Hospital in Bangalore and was
knighted by Pope Pius XII for hi selfless service. He died a
bachelor at a mature old age.

NATIVE CLERGY TAKES OVER

The Parishes in Salcete and Bardez continued in the hands of
Jesuits and Franciscans respective till the middle of the
18th century. The fervour of the first missionaries had died
down. Now the European missionaries who came to Goa, would no
linger care to study Konkani.

In villages like Aldona, the Franciscan parish priest sat in
his office and attended to those who understood Portuguese.
He had a number of native assistants who had to do all the
parish work: administer the Sacraments, care for the sick,
preside at funerals, and so on.

The Marathas, as we have seen above, constantly attacked
Bardez and Salcete. The assistant priests communicated with
them in Konkani and often welcomed them. So the Franciscans
advised the Portuguese Government to ban the teaching of
Konkani and impose the Portuguese language on Goans. Hence
knowledge of Portuguese was made compulsory for the
Sacraments of ordination and marriage.

The Archbishop Ignatius de Sta Theresa (1721 to l740) was
sympathetic towards the indigenous clergy. In 1727, the
Archbishop sent a circular making the knowledge of the
vernacular (Konkani) compulsory to occupy the post of parish
priests. The Franciscans opposed the move and claimed that
the Archbishop had no jurisdiction over them as they were an
exempt order.

The Archbishop had even to face some court cases. But he
remained firm and from 1728 he started appointing Goan
secular priests as Parish Priests in the Churches of Bardez.

By 1752, 19 Churches in Bardez were in the hands of secular
parish priests. 19 Churches in Bardez were in the hands of
secular parish priests. The first secular parish priest
appointed to Aldona was in 1767. He was Fr. Agostinho D'Souza
from S. Mathias.

In 1897, the Catholic population according to records in
Patriarchal Curia was 8170 and the Hindu population was 845.

THE MARATHAS AND THE RANES

The Portuguese finally defeated the Marathas and in 1780
conquered Pernem, Sanquelim, and Satari from them. They also
conquered Sanguem, Quepem, Canacona, Ponda from the Rajah of
Sonda.

After 1835, they allowed many Hindu families from these new
conquests to settle in the old conquests, Aldona included. At
the same time they settled some Christian families in the New
Conquests and gave them lands for a small annual rent called
"aforamento". Some Aldona families were settled thus in
Sanvordem and Quepem.

However, after the Marathas, the Ranes of Satari carried out
a relentless war of freedom against the Portuguese. History
records that from 1755 to 1822 the Ranes revolted 14 times.
Thereafter in 1852 Dipaji Rane started a very powerful revolt
which in 1895 became an armed rebellion, under the leadership
of Dada Rane.

On October 14, 1895 Dada Rane collected some men and invaded
Bardez. On their way to Mapusa, they sacked the treasury of
Tivim Communidade and took the Mapusa garrison captive. They
also over-powered the President of the Municipality and the
Treasury of the Fazenda and emptied both the treasuries.

On their way to Dargaulim, the Ranes sacked the communidade
of Colvale. These tendencies were taken as plunder and
maraudansm by the Portuguese in order to continue their hold
on Goa. Often during such revolutions there are rowdy
elements who like to fish in troubled waters.

Thus in the name of the Ranes a gang of 35 thieves from
Sanquelim-Bicholim came to rob, on October 29, 1895, the
Church of Aldona via Corjuem, but the villagers, especially
the women of Corjuem, repulsed them and most of them were
killed while crossing the river to run away.

The Ranes had nothing to do with this attack as they never
harassed the poor people or the religious places. The
Aldonakars have since kept October 29 as a thanksgiving day
to St. Thomas for saving the Church from these thieves.

The Portuguese sent a regular force of 450 soldiers to
reinforce Aldona. These were accommodated in the buildings
built on Communidade ground around the Tercena. These
buildings were later used as the Communidade house, Primary
School, and Police Post (now demolished to make room for
Community Hall). Others were sold to private parties.

Tercena means one third. It denoted one-third of a garrison.
These soldiers were removed when conditions were stable in
Aldona. However, when sent elsewhere in Bardez to fight the
Ranes these soldiers withdrew in panic in view of the
superiority of the latter.

Finally reinforcements came from Portugal but Lt. Bastos e
Silva, secretary of the military command and Commandant of
the 2nd line, was shot dead by the Ranee. Reprisals followed
and Dada Rane and his companions were arrested, tried and
deported to Timor where they died in exile.

But the fire of freedom and independence endured in Aldona
till Goa's freedom in 1961. In my own days, St. Thomas High
School where I used to study, gave great importance to study
of Hindi and nationalist tendencies openly revealed in the
school.

Three of my Professors constantly went to prison for
nationalistic ideals -- Mr. J. J. Pereira, Mr. P. J. Pinto,
Mr Godinho and my Principal Mr. Edward J. Soares also was
summoned to court for the same reason.

The road going from Tollem to the Market (Tintto) is named
after the latter. After the liberation of Goa when the
agitation for Konkani as official language and Statehood for
Goa were in full swing, Aldonnenses were in the forefront to
fight for these birthrights of Goans, and two main roads of
Aldona are named after these two movements -- namely the road
from Tintto to Quitula is named as Sollavi Janeraehi Marg
(Opinion Poll date, January 16, 1967) and the road going to
Carona as Konknni Mogi Marg (Lovers of Konkani Road).

THE RECENT PAST

In the recent past, Fr. Guilherme Coutinho rose to be Rector
of Allahabad Seminary for only one year and then was
Professor of Rachol Seminary for about 35 years and died as a
Canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Goa in 1964. Fr. George
Nazareth was also Rector for five years and continue as
Professor of Rachol Seminary.

Swami Animananda Alvahi SJ (Fr. Armando Alvares) has been a
pioneer in inculturation in Belgaum. Fr. Alfred Lobo was for
over 40 years Professor of the Sri Lanka's National Seminary
at Arnpitya, Kandy. Now he has been invited to Rome as
Consultor for the Canon Law Commission of Catholic Church.

The Aldona Parish has given the Church hundreds as religious
priests, brother and sisters who have worked hard in the
missions of India and Africa and some of them have occupied
positions of Provincials and General Councillors in their
respective religious orders or institutes.

The two confraternities which had come to be linked with
caste have been united under one casteless fraternal
confraternity. An imposing edifice has been put up for the
Parish centre. Aldona parish has four houses run by religious
Sisters and one by religious Priests. The miracle required
for the Beatification of the first Goan Blessed, Fr. Joseph
Vaz, has taken place in the Aldona Parish when, Placenta
Previs after hemorrhages from the fourth month of pregnancy
my mother, Quiteria de Noronha e Costa, delivered me hardly
2-1/2 lbs (or 1.1 kgs) in weight. Five doctors have declared
that this birth cannot be explained in medical sciences. And
the Cardinals, Bishops and the Pope accepted this as a fruit
of prayers through the intercession of Blessed Joseph Vaz.

The crowning of all these achievements was the episcopal
consecration of Bishop Philip Nery Ferrao a son of Aldona as
the Auxiliary Bishop of Goa at an imposing and fervent
religious ceremony at Old Goa, on April 10, 1994. Any
connection with the first ganvkar "Vangodd" Lawrence Ferrao
of the first and subsequent meetings on record from 1595 to
1613?

CONCLUSION

Thus, Aldona has undergone great sacrifices to prove to the
world that nationalism and Christianity can and should go
hand in hand, and that Jesus Christ, the first and greatest
of satyagrahis, is a guiding force to true and lasting
nationalism, the liberator and Saviour of mankind. May the
future generations emulate this glorious past and raise the
name of Aldona village still higher by their selfless I
service and noble deeds for the greater glory of God and for
the salvation of souls, and for the development of our
motherland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Gajanana Ghantkar: Introduction to Goan Marathi records in
Halakannada Script, published by SSB Caculo, Margao, Goa,
1973 and printed by J. D. Fernandes, Panjim.

2. F. N. Xavier - Borqueja Historico das Communidades Vol-I
Pg 102 (2a Ed.)

3. Prof. George Mark Moraes - Christianity in India and other
studies - references by Marcus de Souza Louzado on article on
the Origin of the Church in Aldona Centenary Souvenir of the
Feast of St. Thomas celebrated by Aldona Associations Bombay
(1885 - 27th Nov. 1983), pg. 11-13.

4. Letter of Antonio Quadros, dt. 6-12-1555 in Wicki
Docunienta Indica III 350.

5. Fr. Achilles Meersman OFM - The Ancient Franciscan
Provinces of India.

6. Anthony D'Costa SJ - Conversion of the Goa Islands.

7. History of Christianity in Canara Vol I by Severino Silva.

8. Evagrio George - Goan Leaders and Rebels article on
"Goa's` Own" edited by Einstein Cotta for "Lights of the
World Movement."

Note of the writer: Fr. Cosme Jose Costa, s.f.x. is a
Professor of Church History in the Major Seminary, Pilar. He
was Director of Accounts of the Pilar Society. He is the
author of "Life Sr Achievements of Blessed Joseph Vaz" and
several other books articles and study papers.

[SOURCE: Souvenir of the fourth centenary of St Thomas
Church, Aldona 1596-1996.]

THANKS TO Mrs Malia Lilia 'Bunota' D'Souza for passing on a copy of
the above souvenir, which I scanned and OCR'ed here...

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Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Ym/Gmailtalk: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org | fr...@bytesforall.org
Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9970157402
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