35053668-Empire-of-the-Soul-Paul-William-Roberts

‘A FLAME OF FAITH’
The mutilation does not seem to have particularly outraged
Catholic authorities: the pope himself took a fancy to Xavier’s right
arm, apparently, requesting it be sent to Rome. It was not behind his
back after all: it had been somewhere in the Vatican for the past
three and a half centuries.
On March 12, 1622, Pope Gregory XV decreed Xavier’s
canonisation. Two years later, possibly to ensure that the faithful
did not chew off any more of him, the saint was transferred to his
gaudy but protected permanent home in the church of Bom Jesus,
which itself had to wait more than two hundred years for its
promotion to cathedral status. Saint Francis Xavier proved to be an
abidingly popular money-maker, and over the years the clerics
learned much about show business.
In 1975 the holy event had something of the circus freak show
about it. Rumour had it that the priests had summoned experts to
see if they could prevent the saint from becoming a pile of dust –
which he was certainly not far from being when I saw him. Each
time they wheeled the body up from the crypt for public viewing
they hinted this might be the last time Saint Francis would be shown.
I’m sure the saint will be still making his twelfth-yearly appearances
when that glass case contains nothing but a heap of lavishly
embroidered rags. If Goans thought about the role Xavier played in
the persecution of their ancestors, I wonder if they would be so keen
to continue hosting most of his remains.
In the capital, Panjim – or New Goa, as it once was – a place that
resembles a Spanish colonial town like Port Antonio in Jamaica, we
visited the picture gallery of the Institute Menezes Braganca. Among
an uninspired collection of faded, third-rate canvases, I noticed a
table bearing a plaque that read:
THE TABLE OF THE REVENUE BOARD WHICH IS SAID
TO HAVE BELONGED TO THE INQUISITION.
The golden jubilee of the start of Portuguese domination in Goa
was celebrated in 1560. To help festivities get off with a bang, the
authorities back in Lisbon had a special treat in store for their Goan
subjects.
111