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India’s first Catholic saint to get chapel in Mumbai soon
By late next year, the East Indian community will inaugurate a chapel at Manori dedicated to the first Indian Catholic saint Gonsalo Garcia.
By late next year, the East Indian community will inaugurate a chapel at Manori dedicated to the first Indian Catholic saint Gonsalo Garcia.
Garcia was born in Vasai to a Portuguese soldier and a local woman. There is a church and college dedicated in his name at Vasai. However, the local East Indian community has, for the past few years, been planning to set up a chapel in Mumbai.
“He is our native saint, but we do not have a chapel in his memory in Mumbai. Around four years ago, our community decided that he would be venerated as our patron saint. However, the land and funding was an issue” said Gleason Barrretto, founder trustee, Mobai Gaothan Panchayat (MGP).
However, a member from the community has decided to donate their land at Manori, which is opposite Kaka Baptista museum, for the chapel to be built. The community also managed to collect ₹93,540 during various festivities.
Nigel Barrett, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bombay, the apex body for Roman Catholic churches in the city, said that Garcia is the second patron of the Archdiocese, and a native patron of Vasai.
“It would be an oratory that would come up at Manori, and if the initiative is taken by the local
community, they have the complete support of the Archdiocese. There has been a college and church dedicated to the saint at Vasai, as he was a local from there,” said Barrett.
Garcia was declared a saint by the Catholic Church in 1862.
The origins of the East Indian community date back to the 15th and 16th century, when Portuguese missionaries converted members of the local farming, fishing and salt-making communities to Roman Catholicism.
The community refers to themselves as ‘mulvasis’ or the original inhabitants of the islands of Bombay.
