In a bid to satiate the appetite of history lovers, Valmiki Faleiro, journalist, former municipal president of Margao and keen history student has written ‘Soaring Spirit- 450 years of Margao’s Espirito Santo Church (1565-2015)’ with its focus on one of the grandest churches in Salcete.
The first church in Salcete, he writes, wasn’t built in Verna where the first mass of the taluka was celebrated in 1519, nor in Cortalim which witnessed the first conversion to Christianity in Salcete in 1560 nor in the taluka’s principal village Margao. It was built neither by the Franciscans nor by the Jesuits. “The first church was built as a chapel at the fortified township of Rachol in 1521 by the Dominicans who accompanied the Portuguese garrison to the fort.” Holy Spirit was the second church to be constructed in Salcete in 1564-65 and historians and academicians have written about it but only very briefly. Faleiro delves into its four and a half centuries of history correcting some major misconceptions about the church that have got institutionalized over the years.
In the church he examines the altars, pulpits, the crucifix, bell towers, the grand 18th century pipe organ imported from Germany which could be heard half a kilometer away and the modern altar also throwing light on the fabrica and the confraternities. The church was one of the wealthiest in Salcete with a rich treasure of rare antiques of church art, The Times of India reported.
The church floor served as a cemetery until the late 18th century. Quoting from Dr Jose Pereira, Faleiro writes that perfumed leaves of cinnamon and champak trees were strewn among the rushes to dispel the odour of corpses that exuded from the ground. Rose water was also frequently used.
Faleiro also details the church’s allied institutions— the college and hospital. The Colegio do Espirito Santo earlier known as the Colegio de Todos os Santos, the forerunner of today’s Rachol seminary was the fourth college in the entire Jesuit province in India from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to Japan in the far east with headquarters in Goa. Faleiro writes that the college taught Portuguese and Latin, rhetoric, history, mathematics, natural sciences, jurisprudence, music, even optional philosophy and theology. It imparted general education to all and religious instruction to those aspiring to become priests. Next to the college was the 100-bed Hospital do Padre Paulo Camerte that attracted patients from Salcete and Bijapuri territories.
The Largo da Igreja or church square has only been written on from an architectural point of the view in the past. Faleiro dedicates an entire chapter to the houses, the caldeira (jail), the Cidas Almas Chapel, the Mercado de Vasco da Gama (old market) and the Camara Municipal de Salcete (municipal senate) building. He explains the history of each of the 40-plus houses in the square and traces the migration pattern of some of its occupants.
The Mercado de Vasco da Gama was the chief market in the entire taluka of Salcete, he writes. While most villages in Goa had a single market fair day, this one had two days of the fair— Thursday and Sunday. The railway line in 1887 sounded the death knell of the market.
The bloody election of September 21, 1890, where 17 persons lost their lives when the Portuguese interfered with local municipal elections also finds mention in the book. The lyrics to the mando ‘Setembrache ekvisaveru’ composed thereafter is also included in the chapter.
There weren’t any publications to mark the centenary celebrations of the church. Faleiro’s research is part of a larger book ‘From Mathgram to Margao’ in the making.
Salcete, he says has the privilege of being the most prominent taluka in Goa right from the time of the first Indo-Aryan migration to the state. “In terms of area, population and revenue collected, Salcete was always at the forefront. With Margao as its principal village, it was the trendsetter for the rest of Goa and its inhabitants were the first to revolt against the Portuguese in 1565. The ring leaders in many other subsequent revolts were traced to Salcete,” he says.
After Christianity arrived, Margao produced the largest number of (over 450+ diocesan) priests and bishops (five) in all of Goa. The book also has a list of priests ordained before 1758 till date. The book will be released on April 18 – the Saturday before the second Sunday of Easter – the day the first mass is believed to be celebrated in the church.