Certain pockets of Vasai’s Catholic community will come together to celebrate the feast of the patron saint of the Diocese of Vasai this weekend with a day-long fair. Priests from three churches in the town dedicated to the saint dwell on why more people need to know about the saint from the region
This week, Vasaikars celebrate the feast of Saint Gonsalo Garcia, who was born in Vasai in the 1500s and is regarded as India's first saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Photo Courtesy: Nascimento Pinto/mid-day
“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.
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