The eight re-organisers of the Society of the Missionaries of St Francis Xavier (Society of Pilar) in 1939.
September 26 is a red-letter day for the Society of the Missionaries of St Francis Xavier, known as Society of Pilar. On this day in 1887, the Society was founded by a diocesan priest Fr Bento Martins. The day is remembered by confreres of the Society and the vision of the founder is acknowledged with profound reverence.
Fr Bento was born in Orlim on January 5, 1848 and responding to God’s call to priesthood, he entered Rachol Seminary and was ordained a priest on February 9, 1879.
BIRTH OF SOCIETY
A missionary call of God was being nurtured in Fr Bento and he visited villages of the New Conquests, to serve the poor and marginalised.
He went to Valpoi and on May 12, 1889, blessed the church at Valpoi built by him. Archbishop-Patriarch of Goa Dom Antonio Sebastião Valente transferred him from Valpoi to Agonda, where there was a Chapel.
Moved by the plight of the abandoned Christians in the New Conquests, who had no priests to minister to them, Fr Bento expressed his desire to the Archbishop to start a new missionary society.
The Archbishop was convinced of the need of missionary work in the Archdiocese, especially the New Conquests, and encouraged this intrepid missionary.
However, the political environment at the time was not conducive for missionary work. By 1835, the Portuguese government had suppressed all Religious Orders in Goa.
This ban had a huge impact on the Church of Goa, and on the faith of the people. In these difficult circumstances, Fr Bento kept the fire of faith burning by establishing an indigenous missionary society.
On September 26, 1887, at a time the last Carmelite died in Pilar, a new Society was born about 60 kms away, in Agonda. Fr Bento founded this Society to cater to predominantly to the interiors of Goa (New Conquests of 1791).
The Archbishop gifted the Society the abandoned monastery at Pilar perched on a tiny hillock, which eventually became the Mother House of the Society of Pilar. The monastery had as its patroness Our Lady of Pilar, a devotion prevailing in Saragosa-Spain brought to Goa by the Franciscan friars.
After shifting the headquarters of the Society from Agonda to Pilar on February 4, 1890, the Society adopted Our Lady of Pilar as its patroness. Hence, it is called the Society of Pilar and the confreres of the Society as Pilar Fathers.
The political environment being anti-religious, Fr Bento and his companions had to face inquiries from government officials, but Fr Bento navigated the storms of life.
In those days, Fr Bento had to walk to cover long distances to visit Valpoi, Shiroda, Agonda and other remote villages. It took a toll on his life and he passed away on August 16, 1896 at Pilar, leaving behind a legacy to the Society to continue the missionary work.
RE-ORGANISATION OF SOCIETY
By 1938, the Society was on the verge of extinction with a lone surviving member of the Society, Fr Remedios do Rosario Gomes. Ven. Fr Agnelo de Souza, a saintly member of the Society, had predicted a year before he died: “The Society will not die, the finger of God is here.”
Filled with the missionary spirit, 6 priests and 2 lay brothers re-organised the dying Society of Pilar on July 2, 1939. Fr Remedios do Rosario Gomes joined the re-organising team. Incidentally in the same year on January 10, the mortal remains of Ven. Agnelo de Souza were transferred from Rachol cemetery to the Pilar monastery.
PRESENCE OF SOCIETY
The re-organised Society got a new facelift. The 8 re-organisers were subsequently referred as the Second Founders of the Society of Pilar. They gave a new thrust to missionary activity, making it the principal aim of the Society and widened its mission to embrace the whole of India.
As years passed, the Society of Pilar grew in leaps and bounds. It was recognised by Vatican as the Society of Apostolic Life Missio ad Gentes of Pontifical Right on September 30, 2010.
Presently with 387 priests and 7 lay brothers, the Society serves in 32 dioceses of India and in 8 countries, Germany, Austria, UK, Italy, USA, Nepal, Mauritania and Senegal.
[The writer is Director of Apostolic School and Assistant Parish Priest of St Francis Xavier Church at Hisar in Haryana.]
