Vasai’s Saint Gonsalo Garcia: Why clergy believe more people need to know about India’s first saint

"I feel that there are not many Mumbaikars who know much about Saint Gonsalo Garcia," expresses Father Rajesh Lopes, who is associated with Saint Gonsalo Garcia Church in Vasai's Stella neighbourhood. He continues, "I would say, he is India's forgotten saint because he was canonised many years ago, and after that the Diocese of Vasai was bifurcated much later in 1998. So, till 1998, he was a forgotten saint. We just have a few churches that are named after him in Vasai." Incidentally, Garcia also happens to be India's first saint from the Roman Catholic church.

Lopes's words hold true not only at the religious but also at the cultural level as Vasai boasts of many things of historical value and this is certainly one of them that needs to come to the fore. Lopes along with many other Vasaikars is getting ready for festivities by certain pockets of the town's Catholic community to celebrate the feast of their ‘son of the soil', Saint Gonsalo Garcia. While the day of the feast is officially celebrated on February 6, two known churches named after him in the suburban town will bring in the festivities this weekend on February 12. It will start with morning mass followed by a day-long fair including food, music and cultural activities. The other church that is named after Garcia, who is the patron saint of the Vasai Diocese, lies in Fort Bassein, more commonly known as Vasai Fort today; is said to be the place he was born and lived till he travelled to Japan.

According to various public records that go back to the Lisbon Archives, Garcia is said to be from the Agashi village in Bassein, modern day Vasai. The minimal information available to the public says he was born between 1556-1557 to a Portuguese soldier and a local from the village, who eventually settled in the fort. While living there, he got first introduced to the Jesuit Order but soon gravitated to the Franciscan Order of the Roman Catholic church -- all of which eventually led him to Japan and Philippines where he was first a successful businessman but soon turn to become a missionary and spread the word of God. Facing opposition for their missionary work, he died a martyr after being crucified along with 25 others in Japan on February 5, 1597. While he was declared ‘venerable' in 1627 by Pope Urban VIII, he was only declared a saint more than 250 years later on June 8, 1862.

While there is a month-long celebration in the Vasai Fort in January, Lopes, who hails from Giriz in Vasai, says a lot more needs to be done to celebrate the saint. "Even in Vasai, his feast day wasn't celebrated much except the one in Vasai Fort that was celebrated by the Kolis. The rest of the churches which are dedicated to Saint Gonsalo Garcia just go on normally. There is no pilgrimage centre dedicated to Saint Gonsalo Garcia and that's my concern," he adds.

Play Quiz: How much do you know about Saint Gonsalo Garcia?

Bringing in festivities
Father Francis Dabre, who is the parish priest of Vasai Koliwada's St Peter's Church, has had a busy month because he is in charge of seven churches in the fort, one of which is dedicated to Garcia. The celebrations, which started in January, saw people coming to pray from all over. "We celebrated the feast in January due to the fishing community business because they go for fishing in February but are at home in January. We had a very big feast celebrated at the Diocesan level and people come there to pay homage to Saint Gonsalo Garcia and these are not only Catholics but since he is from Vasai, there are other religious people who come from as early as 4 am to 7 pm. We decorated the church and celebrated the feast," shares Dabre, one that they weren't able to do with big fanfare during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the fort is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India, the Vasai priest from Bhuigaon says they have received special permission from the archaeological department to celebrate mass there. They have it every Sunday evening and people can witness it even if they have missed the festivities for this year, which concluded earlier this week. Like Lopes, he believes a lot more people should know about Garcia for various reasons. Reminding people that the Catholic church has accepted Garcia as India's first saint, he says, "People should know about Saint Gonsalo Garcia not only in Vasai but also in Mumbai, Maharashtra and all over India and they should propagate what he has done. There is a misunderstanding that because he did not work in India, he is not from India. He is an Indian, studied here and worked here and only went to Japan for his ministry work. We should be proud of that he is the first Indian saint."

Celebrating uniqueness
Elsewhere in Vasai in Gaas, Father Johnson Menezes is also getting ready to celebrate the feast at his church named after the saint and built in 1942. Like the one in Stella, they will also have mass services followed by a day-long fair. Like Lopes and Dabre who were introduced to the saint during their time in the seminary, Menezes is also equally fascinated with Garcia's life and believes there are many unique aspects to take from it.

He shares, "Even though he was short in height, he was tall in his faith. With his learning of the Japanese language, he became friends with people from Japan and speak the ‘Good News' to them and that was his talent with languages." It is also an aspect that Dabre points out. "He wanted to be a Jesuit but couldn't become and then he became a Franciscan and then with that zeal, he was talented with a lot of good languages and was known as a person who translates from one language to another. While he started a business, he dedicated his life to preaching," he dwells on the life of the saint.

Such was his command over languages that Garcia's work as a translator is also commendable and one that Lopes reiterates. He shares, "He was a very dynamic person who was enculturate and learned the culture of the people. So, for a young boy from Vasai to go out over 450 years ago and make a life over there is inspiring. Today, you talk about youngsters going to Canada, there is so much stress about how will they do it and will they have but for the love of the Lord, he took up the missionary journeys."

In fact, he took it a step further by pointing it out in his sermon on the feast day in a modern context. He explains, "I said some of you have been in Vasai for more than 50 years and barely know Marathi, so take the example of Gonsalo Garcia. Only when you speak the person's language does he understand you, only when you enculturate, that person appeals to you otherwise we are branded as foreigners, so we are also not doing much to help our cause." It is not only his knack for languages but also the fact that even though he was rejected by the Jesuits, he did not give up and eventually joined the Franciscans is a life lesson for people.

Even as they get ready for the feast, Lopes hopes that the clergy takes up the cause of creating a pilgrimage for saint, who calls Vasai his home. Menezes has a similar ask but on a much grander scale and that is of a museum dedicated to the saint in the region, only so that more people learn about Saint Gonsalo Garcia.

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