Divar: Sri Lankan pilgrims spent some interesting moments on the emerald island of Divar on april 4, as they participated in a Mass and visited the ancestral house of Fr Jacome Gonsalves.
After Eucharistic services for the cause of Fr Gonsalves at Our Lady of Piety Church concluded, the 45 pilgrims, together with Bishop Vianney Fernando of Kandy and four priests, interacted with the local parishioners.
Seating was arranged outside the church, as the pilgrims, who are devotees of St Joseph Vaz and Fr Gonsalves, savoured traditional Goan snacks after the Mass. Fr Gonsalves is respectfully referred to as ‘Father of Catholic literature’ in Sri Lanka.
The church, situated atop the hill at Divar, provided a panoramic vista of other islands, especially Chorao and Vanxim. “This a beautiful island and churches here are much bigger than ours back home,” Pradeep Wijayasinghe, a pilgrim, said.
As the focus had been on Fr Gonsalves and his dedicated work as a missionary in Sri Lanka, an islander pointed towards Chorao. “It was in the church on that island that he was baptized as an infant,” he told the pilgrims excitedly.
The pilgrims also visited the priest’s 400-odd year old ancestral home below the church. Standing prominently in the heart of Divar, this quaint house was Fr Gonsalves’ residence before he left it in 1705 to join St Joseph Vaz in Sri Lanka as a missionary of the Congregation of Oratory of the Holy Miraculous Cross, never to return.
“He came from a wealthy family, but left aside everything to serve the Lord and follow in St Vaz’s footsteps,” Bishop Fernando said during the homily earlier in the day.
(The Times of India)