By Jacqueline Kelly-
We have Saints from different countries but in this article, I will be focusing on the Saints of India. Inspite of the Catholic population of India being a minority we are proud to have Saints from India and there are many who are awaiting canonization.
- Who are these holy men and women?
- Which parts of India are they from?
- What did they do?
- What can they do for us?
There are three steps that take a person to Sainthood:
Proclamation: The process begins at the diocesan level, when the Bishop, following a request from the faithful, permits investigations into the virtues of the person. This can come only five years after the person’s death. The Pope, if he desires, can waive this period as was done for Mother Teresa.
In this phase, a thorough study of the life of the candidate who is called a “Servant of God” – is done, with eyewitness accounts recorded and a detailed biography written. This is presented to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Permission is then given to exhume the body of the Servant of God and examine it. If there is enough evidence to support candidacy to Sainthood, the Pope, on the recommendation of the Congregation, makes a proclamation of the Servant of God which says that the Servant of God exhibited the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, to a heroic degree.
A candidate declared “heroic in virtue” is given the title “Venerable. While no churches may be built in the Venerable’s honour, material maybe printed to encourage the faithfull to pray for a miracle through the intercession of the Venerable. The miracle is viewed as a sign of God’s will that the person be canonized.
Beatification: It comes after a miracle is ascribed to have been worked through the intercession of he Venerable, who then becomes a “Blessed”. here is a feast day assigned and there can be churches named in honour of the Blessed in the diocese where he/she worked. Beatification is described by the Catholic Church as recognition of the Blessed’s entrance into heaven.
Canonization: It is the last step towards Sainthood and requires another miracle. The Saint’s feast can then be celebrated anywhere within the Catholic Church. For a martyr, the process differs slightly. The Pope has only to make a declaration of martyrdom, which says that the Venerable gave his life voluntarily as witness for the faith and/or in an act of heroic charity for others.
The Saints selfless and untiring service to the poor, orphaned, old and sick will be remembered by every Indian. Every Indian should be proud of them.
The first Indian Saint:
SAINT GONSALO GARCIA
Feast Day – February 5
The first Indian to attain Sainthood was a Franciscan lay brother from Portuguese India, born in the Western Coastal town of Bacaim, later Bassein now known as Vasai situated in the north of Mumbai. On February 5, 1557 AD this land gave birth to Gonsalo Garcia. His mother was a second-generation convert from the region, a very saintly woman.
He was brought up in a mixture of Portuguese and native culture. He was trained by Jesuit Priests at the college near the fort. The Jesuits were taking up more and more missionary work in Japan and Gonsalo, then a boy of 15, was sent to that Province with his tutor, Fr. Sebastian.
But his plans to join the Jesuits did not materialize as the order admitted only Europeans. He settled in Japan, learnt the language and continued with his charitable work. But storm clouds were hovering over the horizon for the missionaries as Japanese rulers suspected them of sedition. They were confined to their monastery in December 1596.
On 11th December, 1596, pressurized by his advisors, Emperor Hideyoshi ordered the Christian missionaries to be executed. In January, 1597 Gonsalo and others were arrested and imprisoned. On February 5, 1597 Gonsalo and 26 others were taken to a hill known as Nagasaki
where he and his co-martyrs were crucified.
In 1627, Gonsalo and his fellow martyrs were declared “Venerable” by Pope Urban VIII and on June 8, 1862 Pope Pius IX canonized Gonsalo Garcia and his fellow martyrs. Saint Gonsalo Garcia’s memory is kept alive with a college named after him in Vasai. He is the Patron Saint of the Vasai diocese.
SAINT KURIAKOSE ELIAS CHAVARA
Feast Day – January 3
Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, C.M.I. was an Indian Catholic Priest and Social Reformer. He was born on February 10,1805 at Kainakary, Kuttanad, Travancore, British Raj (now in Alappuzha district, Kerala, India). He was born in a Nasrani Christian family. Nasranis are Saint Thomas Christians (known as Syriac Christians).
Saint Kuriakose was the co-founder and first Prior General of the first congregation for men in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, now known as the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI). He was a great visionary and has given the Kerala Church many firsts, including the first Sanskrit school, the first Catholic printing press and the first Indian Congregation for women, known as the Carmelite Congregration for women.
Saint Kuriakose died on January 3,1871 in Koonammavu, Kingdom of Cochin, British Raj (now in Ernakulam, Kerala, India). He was Beatified on February 8, 1986 in Kottayam by Pope John Paul II and Canonized on November 23, 2014 in Rome by Pope Francis. A postal stamp was released in his honour by the President of India on December 20, 1987.
SAINT JOSEPH VAZ
Feast Day – January 16
Saint Joseph Vaz was born to Christopher and Maria Vaz on April 21, 1651, in a quiet village of Benaulim, his mother’s village in Goa, then known as Portuguese India. He has been described as one with a “spectacular sanctity”. He had taken a vow not to use footwear and kept it till his death.
For his further priestly studies he entered the Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas run by the Dominicans. He was ordained a Priest in 1676. He undertook serious missionary activities in Canara from 1681 to 1684, carrying out a lot of missionary work in Mangalore, Basroor,
Barcoor, Moolki, Kallianpur and other areas. Missionary callings took him to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in disguise of a labourer to escape detention from the Calvinist Dutch who professed the teachings of the Dutch reformed Church. For a decade, he was the only Catholic
Priest in Ceylon and a prolonged small-pox epidemic that struck the island offered him the opportunity to devote himself to the sick. The local Sinhalese King, too, had arrested him on suspicions of being a Portuguese spy but he endeared himself to the same King when he
prayed and brought rain to the drought-hit town. He worked in Sri Lanka from 1687-1711.
Worn out by his hard labour during 24 years of his expedition to Sri Lanka, he breathed his last on January 16, 1711 in Kandy, Sri Lanka. He was beatified in 1995 in Sri Lanka and canonized on January 14, 2015 at Galle Face Green, Colombo, Sri Lanka by Pope Francis.
Picture courtesy: Lord of the Sick
Next article, next week: The First Woman Saint of India