# Goanetters-2004 meet in Goa. Dec 21, Tuesday. 12 noon to 2 pm. # # Clube Vasco, Near Municipal Garden, Panjim. Pass the word around! # ##########################################################################
Catholic Pilgrims From All Over India Flock To Goa To Venerate Saint Xavier
OLD GOA, Goa (SAR NEWS) -- Four and a half centuries after this Spanish missionary's death, the sacred relics of Saint Francis Xavier still continue to draw hundreds of pilgrims from all corners of India.
The ongoing 43-day Sixteenth exposition at Old Goa, once the centre of Portuguese rule, will continue till January 2.
Drawing some 10,000 visitors daily, the organisers say the exposition is expected to attract over 3 million pilgrims.
The body of Saint Xavier, who died in 1552, remained miraculously intact for centuries, drawing thousands of people of all faiths. However, the body began to deteriorate in recent decades and the Catholic Church is now referring to the mortal remains of the saint as a relic.
"I could not afford to miss the Exposition," 57-year-old D. Iruthayaraj from
Mahim, Mumbai, who is in Goa to pay respects to St. Xavier, told SAR News. Although Iruthayaraj has been witness to the previous two Expositions held in 1984 an 1994, he said he was not sure whether he would ever see it again. "I can never forget the faith experience I have got here and that is why I wish more people see St. Xavier's relics and share the same faith experience," Iruthayaraj, who led a group of 96 people from Mahim to Goa, told SAR News.
"I feel accomplished as my long-felt desire has been fulfilled," 53-year-old S.M. Sironmai from Tamil Nadu told SAR News.
Sironmai said when Saint Francis Xavier had passed through Tamil Nadu he had stayed in a cave in his village in Manappadu in Tuticorin diocese because of which the villagers call themselves "Xavier Christians". He further said many pilgrims come to this village to pray at the cave and drink from a nearby spring from where the saint is believed to have drank water.
"Since my childhood I have been aching to come to Goa to see his body and now
I want to bring my family to see the relices of Saint Xavier," said Siromani, who is the Deputy Establishment Officer at the Bhabha Atomic Reseach Centre in Mumbai.
"I can say for sure that the people were touched after seeing the relics of Saint Xavier," Father John Zacharias from the Diocese of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu told SAR News.
Presently the chaplain for Tamils in Mumbai, Father Zacharias, who accompanied a group of people on their pilgrimage to Goa, said most of the people from his group simply believed and had no questions whatsoever. He further said that although some people, especially the younger generation did try to analyse and question the state of the relic, everyone accepted the phenomenon as a miracle.
Fr. Shoury Prabhakar, 31, from the Diocese of Hyderabad is the Assitant Parish Priest in Irla Parish of Mumbai. "Shoury" means Xavier in Telugu language, explained Father Prabhakar, who said that he was born after his parents visited and prayed at the Francis Xavier Church in Hyderabad and he was thus named after the saint. "I always had the desire to visit Goa, to see and pray at the relilcs of St. Francis Xavier. And now I am very happy after having seen the relics," Father Shoury told SAR NEWS.
Unlike most people who know Goa more as India's hottest tourist destination, the simple tribal people who came from a village called Dapadda in Nagar Haveli, associated Goa with Saint Xavier.
Speaking on behalf of the people, Father Agnelo Rodrigues who brought this group of 60 people, said the people were simply filled with awe seeing the holy relics. "These are Christians from the tribe of Konknnas and Warlis and have come to Goa for the first time, but they were hardly interested to see Goa as much as they were interested in seeing St. Xavier's relics," said Father Rodrigues, who celebrated a special Mass for them at the Basilica of Bom Jesus.
Fifty-year-old Francis Malik from Amristar, Punjab, was disappointed when he was unable to see the body of Saint Xavier from close quarters a couple of years ago. "The day I came to know about the news of the Exposition early this year, I decided to visit Old Goa with wife and seven children," Francis told SAR News.
