The Church in Navelim is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary or ‘Igreja De Nossa Senhora Do Rosario’ in Portuguese. Today, it is the most populous parish in the Archdiocese of Goa, with a population of over 20,000 Catholics.
The parishioners celebrate the feast on third Wednesday of November, with great zeal and religious fervour, preceded by the Maddi and nine-day Novena, wherein the faithful are prepared spiritually.
HISTORY
Fr Jean de Sena, a French Jesuit, constructed the first church here in mid-1590s, it was a mud structure with thatched roof; it was financed by the villagers. He was the first parish priest here, as per the records, Mitras Lusitanas no Oriente. This Church was initially dedicated to St John the Baptist. At this time, Dom Frei Aleixo de Menezes, an Augustinian, was the archbishop of Goa (1595-1609).
According to Archdiocesan of Goa and Daman Directory, the church was constructed in 1597 and Fr Moreno de Souza in his book ‘Saxtticheo Igorjeo’ also says that the church was constructed in 1597.
According to a folk tale, the mud-structured Church was found to be too small to accommodate the Catholic population. A bigger Church of stones was then built which was financed apparently by a local merchant, ‘Mr Barreto’, who was saved from financial bankruptcy through the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary.
As per the folk tale, Barreto, while passing along the main road which ran in front of the Church, received a message of the substantial loss of money he would incur in his business.
He immediately entered the Church, and prayed to Our Lady of the Rosary to save him from this catastrophe; he even promised to reconstruct the Church on a larger scale if his prayers were answered.
His prayers were answered and Barreto kept his promise. He financed the entire reconstruction of the Church, and also renewed the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The church was ransacked first on April 25, 1717, by the Marathas under Sambhaji, then later in 1739 by Venkant Rao. After these invasions, the parishioners rebuilt the Church with alms collected specifically for this purpose and dedicated it to Our Lady of the Rosary. The new bell was brought from Europe in 1941.
ALTARS/CHAPELS
The Church has five altars; the main altar is dedicated to the patroness, Our Lady of the Rosary, the others to Our Lady of ‘Bom Patr’, St Anne, Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Piety.
The Church has about 12 chapels under its jurisdiction. The Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chapel (Telaulim) and St Joseph Chapel (Davorlim) have chaplains. Those without the chaplains are St Sebastian Chapel (Mandopa), St Francis Xavier Chapel (Fradilem), Our Lady of the Sick Chapel (Sinquetim) and Our Lady of Piety (Kuldem). Recently, the Our Lady of Rosary Chapel, Zoriwaddo, Davorlim, was elevated into a Church. Eucharistic celebration is celebrated in 6 chapels every Sunday.
FEAST
The universal Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7, but the parishioners here celebrate it on the third Wednesday of November. In the past, the village folk were farmers and harvesting would be done in October. Since their attention would be fully drawn into it, they would not be spiritually prepared to celebrate the feast. Hence, they decided to postpone it for the third Wednesday of November, a few days before the feast of Christ the King.
CANDLELIT PROCESSION
Ten days before the feast, a candlelit procession of the faithful carrying the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel would begin very early morning from the Telaulim chapel and end at the Navelim Church. Much later, the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was replaced by the image of Our Lady of Fatima donated by Jose Roque Caetano Pires. This feature continues till today.
BOILANCHEM FEST
Another feature of the Feast would be the Boilanchem Fest, the Cattle Festival, wherein men folk who returned from the ghats with the cattle and so too others who had fattened their cattle, would sell these on the occasion of the feast. This does not take place today.
Outside the Church is a big fair where one can purchase several items ranging from traditional Goan goodies to clothes.
(The writer is Superior at Casa Professa, Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa)
PARISH PRIEST’S MESSAGE
We wish all our parishioners a grace-filled and spirit-filled feast of Our Lady of Rosary. Feast is an occasion not only for us to grow and deepen our faith but also to connect ourselves socially. It was an amazing feat to see how the laity was participating in all the activities with great enthusiasm and fervour.
It is a good occasion to build a family spirit as on the occasion of the feast people get united from near and far. We admire the generosity of our parishioners in sharing resources and time for the sake of the kingdom. It is a united and meticulously planned effort by all the assistants to the parish priest that made the whole programme fruitful and a great success.
We pray that we may work tirelessly to deepen the faith of the people, strengthen fellowship and be strong witnessing community being enlightened by the Word of God and anointed by the spirit of God.
- Fr Gabriel Coutinho
PRIESTS SERVING IN NAVELIM PARISH
Fr Gabriel Coutinho (Parish Priest)
Fr Elvis Godinho (Assistant to Parish Priest)
Fr Dylon D’Costa (Assistant to Parish Priest)
Fr William D’Souza (Assistant to Parish Priest)
Fr Diogo Fernandes (Priest on the Staff)
Fr Eustaquio de Abreu (Chaplain, Mount Carmel Chapel, Telaulim)
Fr Anil Kumar (Chaplain, St Joseph Chapel, Davorlim)
MASSES ON FEAST DAY
Masses on the Feast Day will be celebrated at 5 am, 6.15 am, 7.30 am, 8.45 am and 10 am, all in Konkani and 12 pm in English. The main celebrant for the feast day Eucharistic celebration is Fr Xavier Braganza, the Parish Priest of Our Lady of Desterro, Vasco.
