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St.Anne’s Chapel—VI The First Organized Committee of the Chapel. The person who really associated with the "capelistas" of the three wards belonging to the Chapel of St. Anne was Fr. Pedro Gabriel Saldanha, a man of foresight, energetic and dedicated to his task. He was the son of Luis de Saldanha from Arrarim and of Rosa Matias, ordained on 17 th July, 1864, at Rachol Seminary Church, by Archbishop Amorim Pessoa. This Minister of God shouldered the spiritual responsibilities of the Chapel from 1864 to 1867.Till then as there was no formation of a Committee, Fr. Pedro Gabriel Saldanha chose some of the warders( capelistas) to carry on the affairs of the chapel. In an auspicious meeting of ‘ bairristas’ held on 9th March, 1879, it was resolved that the formation of the Committee be established and the first Committee was chosen: President/.chaplain of St. Anne’s chapel, Fr. Pedro Gabriel Saldanha, Mr. Pedro Damiao Carneiro( Donvaddo) as Treasurer and two members( Vogais), Mr. Joaquim Erasmo Eufemiano Cordeiro( Mollebhatt) and Mr. Manuel Antonio Fernandes( Muddavaddi0. This Committee served from 1879 to 1887. The highlights of what they did was: A)Forward a petition to the Archbishop D. Aires de ornelas e Vasconcelos,dated 1st January, 1879, requesting His Grace to grant the ‘ bairristas’ permission to use white dress( opa branca)and blue cape(murca azul), carry a cross and two candle sticks( cirios)in the chapel of St. Anne and Saligao Church during l;iturgical services. The Archbishop, through Promoter Fr. Domingos Joao R. Pinto, Parish Priest of Panjim informed the members that permission to form an Association and write the Constitution of the chapel of St. Anne and its Confraria( Confraternity) was granted. B) The Statutes or Constitution of the Chapel and ‘Confraria’ were placed before the ‘ bairristas’, at a meeting held on 9th March 1879. It consisted of 8 Chapters and 50 Articles. After the reading and explanation of each article, it was approved and signed by the warders. According to this approval ‘confrades’ were accepted and their number was 60 on the first day( 6th July, 1879) and subsequently the enrollment of members increased. C) On that day itself, Mr. Francisco Xavier Cordeiro from Mollebhatt was chosen to celebrate the President/ Mordomo of the feast of the chapel for the year 1879, authorizing the treasurer to hand over the fixed’ consignacao’( amount of money) to him. On 30th July, 1882, Mr. Joaquim Pascoal Cordeiro ( Mollebhatt0 was nominated member-Secretary of the Committee instead of Mr. Erasmo E.Cordeiro who resigned. On this day the ‘bairristas’ imposed on the President/Mordomo, the obligation of celebrating salves in the evening and asked the warders to do the illumination. Heavy expenses were incurred and the Committee proposed to fix an amount of 8 tangas to be taken from each ‘Joneiro’ to defray the expenses. The proposal was accepted in the meeting held on 22nd September, 1882. It was also decided in the meeting not to give articles belonging to the chapel for the particular use of the ‘ bairristas’ Mr. Jose Maria Fernandes( Mudd’davaddi0 was chosen as Atorney( Procurador) and deliberated at the meeting held on 21st September, 1884, to take further two tangas of each ‘joneiro’ for expenses……to be continued. Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas. |
