the goan I network
MARGAO
Braving scorching heat and the humid conditions, thousands of devotees from far and wide poured in at the Padre Pio Chapel at Moddi, Navelim village on Saturday noon to venerate the relics of the most-loved Saint popularly known in Goa as ‘Amcho Sant Anton’.
Even before the Saint’s relics were exposed for veneration at around 3 pm after a sacred religious ceremony, hundreds of devotees had already lined up on both sides of the road leading to the Chapel.
Within minutes, the serpentine queue had spilled on to the main road stretched around half a kilometre towards the Highway and Mandopa side, before thousands more joined the queue.
The devotees comprised of young and old, women and children, the sick and the infirm, all anxiously standing in the unending queue to venerate the Saint.
