Amid the controversy created over St Francis Xavier, patron Saint of Goa, I vividly recollect an incident which was then narrated to me by my good friend who was a live witness to the incident that happened during Goa’s Liberation. It was after the Indian Army had crossed the Goa border on December 18,1961, the Portuguese administration had realized that the Indian army would be victorious so 100 soldiers were dispatched to the shrine of St Francis Xavier to lift the casket containing the holy relics and put it abroad the last plane leaving Goa that had specially been flown from Portugal.
It was learnt that in the presence of the Bishop, the Governor and the Secretary inside the closed Basilica, the force of 100 soldiers was not sufficient to lift the casket containing the immortal body of the Saint. Realizing it was a miracle, the Governor who had been ordered by Antonio Salazar to destroy Goa was forced to change his mind about carrying out Salazar's orders realising that it would also destroy the immortal relics of the Patron Saint of Goa and Defender of the East. It was the powerful intervention of St Francis Xavier that saved tiny Goa from going up in flames.
In this context it is presumed that St Francis Xavier had indeed not wanted to leave Goa's shores and has continued to be the revered Patron Saint of Goa (Goemcho Saib) forever and now no communal force can erase that history.
