Saligao Serenade

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

In the 1850s, with the decline of Old Goa, the island of Chorao too fell from grace and was gradually abandoned by the residents. As a result, the Seminary of Chorao went into decline as well and finally had to be shut in 1958. Subsequently, the retables of Our Lady of Assumption Church and the Chapel of Our Lady of Patrocinio (Protection) of the Seminary of Chorao of the Parish of Our Lady of Graca de Chorao were shifted to the Saligao Church. The Seminary of Chorao had a chequered history, which makes for interesting reading.

Dom Joao Nunes Barreto, Patriarch of Ethiopia, having resigned the mitre, fixed his residence on the island of Chorao in Goa. At that time Chorao was inhabited chiefly by the aristocracy of the City of Goa (Old Goa), and was therefore known as the Villa dos Fidalgos. After the death of this prelate, his palace was taken over by the Jesuits, greatly enlarged, and used as a Novitiate of the Order. It was accidentally burnt down on 1 January 1591, but rebuilt soon after on a very extensive scale. In 1610, with the sanction of the government, the Archbishop of Goa Dom Frei Christovao de Sa e Lisboa, added to this establishment a Diocesan Seminary, with Father Jeronymo Xavier, a relative of St. Francis Xavier, as its first rector.

The institution seems to have had some strange affinity for fire. For, it got burned down a second time on 26 June 1617, a third time on 3 December 1663, and a fourth time on 6 January 1675. If all this was not sufficient, finally in 1698 its lofty tower was struck by lightning and the buildings greatly damaged.

On the expulsion of the Jesuits from Goa in 1759, the seminary was placed in charge of the Fathers of St. Vincent the Paul, known as the Vincentinos or Lazaristas. The first rector under the new arrangement was Fr. Antonio Luiz dos Santos. In 1795, however, the congregation of St. Vincent de Paul left Goa, and the seminary once more changed hands, this time with the Oratorians, or Priests of St. Philip Nery. After the expulsion of the religious orders from the Portuguese territories in 1835, secular clergy took charge of the institution. The first rector of the secular order was Pe. Nicolau Francisco de Abreu of Anjuna, and the last, Pe. Antonio Fillipe Lourenco of Margao.

The city of Old Goa, having reached the zenith of its grandeur, gradually began to decline. Step by step, before the inroads of pestilence that hung upon the land, village after village having been torn from its enfeebled grasp, the city itself fell. With its fall, the splendour of Chorao crumbled away by degrees, and became a mere phantom of its former greatness. The island was completely depopulated, with the consequence that the seminary had to be closed down. The institution was finally shut down by a Royal Warrant in 1858, and the few students who still lingered there were sent to the Seminary of Rachol. The Chorao buildings remained uninhabited and untended, and gradually fell to ruin.

A few years back I visited the ruins of the Seminary of Chorao. It is still possible to trace the extent of the buildings of the seminary. Judging from the remains, the construction seems to have been majestic, of a good style and architecture. It had a tower that dominated the island, part of which is the great dome that we find extending towards the sky today. From the foot of the hill a series of stone steps lead to the top where stands the chapel of St. Jeronymo. Besides the church of Our Lady of Assumption, there were three other chapels attached to the Seminary of Chorao-Our Lady of Patrocinio (Protection), Out Lady of Jesus Christ, and St. Jeronymo. The last was saved from destruction in 1901.

With the closure of the Chorao Seminary in 1858, the government, having heard the complaints of the people of Bardez, established the Aulas Eclesiasticas de Mapuca, in August 1859. From 1863 it came to be known as Filiais ao Seminario de Rachol or, more commonly, Aulas Filiais de Mapuca. Almost a century later these Aulas were closed in 1945 and the Seminary of Our Lady on the plateau of Saligao-Pilerne was created. This seminary was blessed by Cardinal Legate D Manuel Goncalves Cerejeira, Patriarch of Lisbon, on 6 December 1952. The whole preparatory course with the staff was transferred from Rachol to Saligao. The Seminary of Saligao began to function in 1953.