Thirteen kilometers away from the city of Udupi in Karnataka, nestled amid the verdant hills, lies the historically rich village of Brahmavar – an otherwise nondescript settlement that is home to the world’s only Konkani-speaking Orthodox parish.
Towards the end of the 19th century, around 4,000 Catholic families comprising predominantly fishermen, rose in revolt against the Roman Catholic Church and set up their own order, but today this vital cog in the Indian Orthodox movement is dying a slow death.The obvious question that comes to mind is how Goa is connected to this and to find an answer, one has to turn the pages of history back to 1885 when attempts to overthrow the Portuguese colonial masters in Goa began to gain momentum.
Anger against Portuguese rule that denied civil and ecclesiastical liberties to individuals had put Goa on the boil and it was here that the seeds were sown for a religious revolt that finally led to the birth of the only Konkani-speaking Orthodox movement in the world.
August 1895 saw a tenacious Roman Catholic priest from Verna, Fr Antonio Francisco Xavier Alvares being charged with “inciting people to fight for liberation.” Carmo Azaveddo chronicles in his book, ‘Patriot and Saint’, the life and struggle of Alvares who went on to become Bishop Alvares Mar Julius — the first Orthodox bishop outside Kerala.
Alvares, being a journalist, attracted the ire of the Portuguese rulers because of his pro-independence periodicals, which were also critical of the Roman Catholic Church. Unknown to Alvares, resentment against Vatican policies and colonial interference in Church administration was also festering in Brahmavar and other mission stations opened by the Padroado missionaries.
Things came to a head in 1887 when Alvares, who was already in search for a spirituality rooted in Asian culture and Indian tradition, left the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Indian Orthodox Church, also known as the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Hundreds of Goan Catholic families followed in his footsteps and joined the Indian Orthodox Church as well, states Fr David Crasta who is part of the Brahmavar (Goan) Orthodox Church.
News about Alvares soon reached the villagers of Brahmavar who invited him over to address their discontent. “It is thus that the Konkani-speaking Orthodox movement was born and how the Brahmavar (Goan) Orthodox Church – a split faction of the Roman Catholic Church – came to exist in 1889,” D Mathew Kozhencherry writes in his book ‘Martyr of Goa’.
“Alvares organized the Christian families in Brahmavar under the leadership of Padre Roque Lopez Noronha. Today, this Orthodox movement remains alive as part of the larger Indian Orthodox Church,” Crasta says.
Alvares elevated the Indian Orthodox movement, which was earlier confined to Kerala, to a national level when he along with the members of the Brahmavar (Goan) Orthodox Church joined the Indian Orthodox Church. But, over the years, the Brahmavar Christians and the original Goans who followed Alvares into the Orthodox fold have receded into the shadows.
“Today the St Mary’s Orthodox Church in Ribandar – a parish of the Indian Orthodox Church – is home to hundreds of families whose roots can be traced back to Kerala,” a local parishioner says.“Of all the mission centres and the families, just Brahmavar remains but the numbers are dwindling,” Crasta adds.
Ribandar was not always home to the Indian Orthodox Church in Goa. The first Holy Qurbana or Eucharistic service was conducted at the Bambolim Military Chapel in January 1966, records at St Mary’s Orthodox Church show. Just as a formal congregation of the Indian Orthodox Church was being established in Goa in 1967, Alvares’ tomb was discovered behind St Inez Church in Panaji. “It was 1973 by the time the plot at Ribandar could be purchased and finally, on October 5, 1979, Alvares’ remains were transferred to where they lie in repose today,” says George K Kurien, who takes a keen interest in Alvares’ contribution to the Indian Orthodox movement.
“There was stiff opposition to Alvares’ burial in the St Inez Church cemetery and it is said that the 2,000 people who attended his funeral were banned from the Roman Catholic Church,” Crasta narrates.
Noronha incidentally, earlier served as the vicar of the Ribandar Catholic Church and it seems only apt that the efforts of these two Goan priests, who were beatified recently, continue at St Mary’s Orthodox Church in Ribandar.