By Matters India Reporter
Pilar: The communication wing of the Goa-based Society of the Missionaries of St. Francis Xavier, commonly also known as the Society of Pilar, has published a song video to pay tribute to Venerable Father Agnelo de Souza, a saintly member of the society.
The Pilar Media on November 20 released “Fr. Agnelo” on the Society of Pilar YouTube Channel. The day marked the 93 death anniversary of Father Agnelo.
Father Agnelo “is an inspiration to everyone, especially Goans across the globe,” says Father Elvis Fernandes of Pilar Animation Centre in Tiswadi, a sub-district of North Goa district.
The song was written and composed by Pilar Father Dominic Alvares in the mid-eighties and had its audio release in 2004. This year, in mid-October, Pilar Media decided to make a video for the song.
“It was an exciting international collaboration of musicians based in different parts of the world,” Father Fernandes explains.
Joe Savio Fernandes, based in London, rearranged the music, Michael Pereira, a well-known theater personality directed the song, Dadadiraj Shirodkar filmed and edited the song.
The other musicians include Grayston Vaz (Lead/Rhythm Guitars), Valiston Fernandes (Bass Guitar), JSF Studio London (Drums, Violins, Keyboard).
The song begins with Friz Love setting the mood for a spiritual journey, Lulu Fortes draws everyone into a prayerful contemplation and Father Carson Dourado summing up the personality of Venerable Agnelo, raises a prayer to God for his sainthood.
“The video is truly cinematic and captures the aerial beauty of the churches in Old Goa and the Pilar hillock in Pilar,” Father Fernandes told Matters India.
He says the song video has already gone viral and has already received “lot of appreciation.”
Joseph Gonsalves, a musician based in Australia, says: “Though the video is of spiritual nature, it has taken Konkani music video to a different level”
Gary Azavedo, a journalist, says ‘superb lyrics, melodious music and cinematic scenery videography makes this video worth listening to again and again!!! May the Venerable Fr Agnelo be beatified and canonized a Saint soon…Amen.”
Venerable Agnelo was born at Goa’s Anjuna on January 21, 1869, to a pious family of Minguel Arcanj Mariano de Souza and Maria Sinforosa Perpetua Magalhaes. His father was a strict disciplinarian while his mother used to teach catechism to the children of the neighborhood.
As a child Agnelo was eager to study catechism. He had a remarkable memory and children of his age used to flock around him to hear him repeat the Sunday sermon or other stories.
He lost his parents when he was 11. Agnelo was sent to study Latin. He then studied philosophy and theology at Patriarchical Seminary of Rachol. He joined the Pilar Society on July 17, 1897. He was ordained a priest on September 24, 1898.
The next 10 years, he almost lived a hidden life preparing for missionary life. On September 8, 1908, he took his final vows in the congregation. As a Pastor at Shiroda and Sanvordem (Goa), Kumta (Karwar), Father Agnelo endeared to people as a priest, preacher, confessor and administrator.
Dom Matheus de Oliveira Xavier, the then Patriarch of Goa, appointed Father Agnelo the spiritual director of the Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol in 1918.
Father Agnelo was a man of interior silence. He used to spend hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He slept little and mortified his body through fasting and abstinence.
He died on November 20, 1927. He was preaching on the vespers of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Towards the end of sermon he collapsed on the pulpit. When he was brought down he insisted on being allowed to remain until the Benediction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Pilar Society began the process of canonization for Father Agnelo in 1947 with the permission of the Patriarch of Goa. The second process was presented to the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1959. The Sacred Congregation of Rites approved the third process ten years later. The Vatican declared Father Agnelo a venerable, the second stage in the process, on November 19, 1986. For beatification, the third stage, a miracle has to happen through his intercession.