Photo: CNS/Anto Akkara
EXPECTING more than 5 million pilgrims for the once-a-decade exposition of the body of St Francis Xavier in Goa, the Catholic Church in the former Portuguese colony is working to ensure the event is “spiritually nourishing” for the visitors.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to proclaim our faith,” said Archbishop Filipe de Rosario Ferrao of Goa, the tiny Indian state on the Arabian Sea coast.
“St Francis Xavier had set a great example of missionary work. The pilgrims will be inspired and deepened in their faith when they see his body and get an opportunity to pray before it,” Archbishop Ferrao told Catholic News Service on November 21, the eve of the month-long exposition’s opening on November 22 in the Se Cathedral. “We are making every effort so that the exposition will inspire more faithful to follow the path of proclaiming the Gospel that our patron saint has shown us.”
It is the 17th time the saint will be on exposition in Goa. The first exposition occurred in 1782.
Born in Spain in 1506, St Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Society of Jesus, reached Goa in 1541 as the papal nuncio when the region was a Portuguese colony. After baptising thousands along the coast of peninsula South India, he left for East Asia in 1545 and returned to Goa in 1551. During his second trip to East Asia, he fell sick and died at age 46 on China’s Sancian Island on December 3, 1552.
CNS
