Abandoned Brazil church has Goan links
The dedication was discovered by the curious residents of the nearest village, and interestingly a village named Nova Goa in the Brazilian state of Goias, who sought details of the church. Posted on February 4, 2014, 5:01 PM
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| File photo-- St.Catherine chapel in Old Goa |
Panaji: An abandoned church in Brazil, which resembles the chapel of St Catherine in Old Goa, has sparked a cyber discussion on the church's link with Goa.
Brazil's O Globo recently reported that the church, hidden by trees on a plain, was discovered by a farmer and it has more than just resemblance to the Goan church.
O Globo said the church was built in 1963 and quotes an old edition of the paper that covered the inaugural to state that it was constructed by Portuguese who had been expelled from Goa.?
"They (the Portuguese expelled from Goa) planned to build a city for 5,000 people around the church square, but gave up and returned to Europe," the report states.
The report has no more details of the people who built the chapel.?There is speculation on the net that these persons may have been Portuguese nationals, who after the Liberation of Goa attempted to make a living in another former Portuguese colony.
It is highly possible the Portuguese modeled the church in Brazil after the chapel in Goa, especially since it has been dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria, who is the patroness of the chapel in Goa.
The dedication was discovered by the curious residents of the nearest village, and interestingly a village named Nova Goa in the Brazilian state of Goias, who sought details of the church.
To further put matters into perspective, the chapel in Goa was once the Cathedral and St Catherine was the patroness of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman, as it was on her feast day in November 1510 that Afonso de Albuquerque had captured Goa.
The first mass on Goan soil, after the conquest of the territory, was held at the spot where the chapel exists today.
Source: Times of India
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