Famous for theweekly Friday market which in earlier times was on Monday, Mapusa was a gatheringplace for the people of the neighbouring villages. Among the many places ofarchitectural significance in Mapusa is the Church of St Jerome which seems totower over the city, enveloping it in its shadow.
“St Jerome isthe patron saint of the church and he is known as the zonkar or gaonkar of thecommunidade of Mapusa,” says Fr Francisco D’Mello, parish priest of St Jerome’sChurch. The feast of St Jerome which is on September 30, is celebrated by thechurch on the following Sunday. The Church was built by the Franciscans in 1594and got its name from Frei Jeronimo do Espirito Santo, under whose tenure itwas established. St Jerome is considered as the doctor of the church and thepatron of librarians. He is known to have translated the Bible from Hebrew andGreek into Latin. The Latin version is known as Vulgate. The statue of StJerome in the Church was brought from the seminary of the Jesuits in Chorao.
The main altarof the church has the image of the Our Lady of Miracles whose feast is celebratedwith much more pomp than that of St Jerome on the third Monday after EasterSunday. “Though St Jerome is the patron of the church, people have much moredevotion to the Our Lady of Miracles and her image is considered miraculous,”says Stephen Pereira, a resident of Mapusa. “At the time of the liberation ofGoa in 1961, the bridge near the church was blasted. The sound reverberatedthrough the walls and the roof and caused the roof to blow away and the wallsto crack. It was during the renovation that the image of St Jerome was shiftedto the side alter and the image of the Our Lady of Miracles came to occupy themain alter,” says Fr D’Mello.
As the monsoonrecedes and autumn sets in, the feast of St Jerome is celebrated with quietdevotion, away from the limelight but backed by the loyalty of the faithful ofMapusa.
