Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa

Francis Xavier was a Spaniard from Navarre who had never planned to go to Asia. He was sent by Ignatius of Loyola and King John III of Portugal. He arrived in Goa in 1542 and spent ten years baptising hundreds of thousands across the Indian Ocean world. He died in 1552, alone on a small island near China, aged 46, before he could enter the last country he wanted to reach. His body was brought back to Goa. It has not decomposed in 470 years. The man who gave everything is still here, in the city where his mission began.

St Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, you left everything and went to the ends of the earth with the Gospel. You baptised hundreds of thousands and died alone without having reached the last country you dreamed of. Your body lies here, incorrupt, as if still waiting to go further. Let your restlessness for souls become my own restlessness — let me too be unwilling to settle until every person I know has encountered the mercy of Christ. Amen.

Completed in 1605, the imposing Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa is an outstanding example of the architecture of Portuguese colonial India. This elaborate late-Renaissance structure contains the tomb and mortal remains of St Francis Xavier, a close friend of St Ignatius Loyola with whom he founded the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits.

St Francis Xavier

St Francis Xavier’s missionary voyages throughout the East became legendary. Much of the early missionary work in India can be attributed to the efforts of the saint. He is rightly termed the ‘Apostle of the Indies’ for the influence of his work, which continues centuries after his death. St Francis died on Sancian Island, Chuandao, Taishan, while en route to continental China on 3 December 1552. His body is placed in the mausoleum to the right, in a glass-sided coffin amid a shower of gilt stars. St Francis Xavier is considered to be one of the greatest missionaries of the Church since Paul the Apostle.

Architecture

Visitors to the Basilica of Bom Jesus will be struck by the exterior, which remains unplastered. This was the handiwork of a zealous Portuguese conservationist who, in 1950, ordered the lime plaster removed in the mistaken belief that the laterite stone of which the basilica is constructed would be strengthened if it were exposed to the elements. To date, no one has got around to replacing the plaster; hence some of the intricate carving is eroded with the battering of each successive monsoon.

Pilgrimage

Crowds throng the basilica during the annual Feast of St Francis Xavier, held on 3 December each year. Once every 10 years the saint is given an exposition, and his body viewed by multitudes of pilgrims. The next exposition will be held in 2024. Standing next to the Basilica is the Professed House of the Jesuits, a two-storey lime-plastered building made of laterite. It is even older than the Basilica, having been completed in 1585, and Jesuit missions to the East were planned and organised from this very building.

Old Goa is the place from where the Roman Catholic Church expanded in the East. Although this former colonial capital boasts several beautiful churches, the Basilica of Bom Jesus occupies pride of place among them.