Located in the centre of the capital city of Panaji, right next to the old secretariat, the statue of a caped man leaning over a woman is hard to miss. A closer look at the inset plaque reads in Portuguese: 'The place of birth on May 31, 1776, of the genial creator of scientific hypnotism, Fr. Jose Custodio de Faria known in the cultured world as Abbe Faria.'
Born Jose Custodio Faria in Candolim, Goa on May 31, 1756, Faria's parents seperated when he was a child, with his father going on to become a priest while his mother became a nun. Abbe Faria is said to have had an active part to play in the Pinto revolts in Goa against the Portugese rule in 1787. However when his attempts failed, he stayed over in Paris and participated in the French Revolution in 1795 leading an army of revolutionaries against the atrocities of the National Convention. It was after this that he embarked on his hypnotism venture following on from the work of Franz Mesmer.
Although he died a pauper in Paris in 1819, his name found mention in Alexender Duman's Count of Monte Cristo fifty years later as the Mad Monk by the name of Abbe.
