Feast of Son-of-the Soil.....Saint Joseph Vaz!

 

Today we celebrate the The feast of the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman and son-of-the-soil from Sancoale- Saint Joseph Vaz. 

Joseph Vaz was born on 21st April 1651 in Benaulim-Goa, which at that time was the capital of the Portuguese colonies in the Far East, and died on January 16, 1711. The day he was born, his father Cristovam Vaz saw a star in the Sky around midday. He wrote in his personal diary that his son would one day become a great man.. The doors of Cortalim Church opened on their own when he went to visit the Blessed Sacrament one night. He was called “the little saint” as a boy and recited the Rosary on his way to Church and school. 

Right from his childhood, he was a genuine devotee of Mother Mary and after being ordained Priest, he wrote a letter known as the ‘Letter of Slavery/Bondage’ at Sancoale Church, thereby binding himself to Mary as a slave on August 5, 1677. He served 30 years as a priest, 24 of them in the Sri Lankan Vineyard and walked barefoot for the most part of his life. He walked through the jungles like the wind. 

With eyes on the crucifix, his lips uttering the name of Jesus and his hands holding the candle, he breathed his last on January 16, 1711, after 25 years of missionary activity in Sri Lanka. 

He sent the Crucifix given to him by the Pope to Goa, now preserved in the Oratory Room of Blessed Joseph Vaz at Sancoale, Goa, India. The only relic in India! The Oratory Room is being visited by thousands of devotees from all over the world. The jackfruit tree that he played under, climbed down from the window, to visit the Blessed Sacrament in Cortalim Church quietly during the nights still stands witness to the Holy Son of Goa. 

As a true disciple of Jesus, he endured innumerable sufferings with joy and confidence, knowing that in those sufferings too God’s plans were being fulfilled. His heroic charity, shown in a particular way in his selfless devotion to the victims of the epidemic in 1697, earned him the respect of everyone.

During these days of Covid19 pandemic, may the example of Saint Joseph Vaz speak to our hearts.....

Reflecting on His last words- “Hardly will you be able to do at the time of death what you have not done during your life”.