Saligao Serenade

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

If one were called upon to single out a specific individual as the greatest benefactor of the village of Saligao, that individual would undoubtedly be Francisco Salvador Zeferino Pinto, fondly known as Salu Pinto.

Salu Pinto was born in the year 1827 at Cotula in Saligao. He was the son of Caetano Antonio Pinto and Anna Felis Perpetua da Gama Pinto, both from Cotula. As he grew up, Salvador took great interest in the welfare of the community. His contemporaries discovered him to be clear, decisive and fair. They found him to be a man of great intelligence and political acuity, who could ably handle civic, political and social problems. He was a well-accepted person in the society of Saligao, and hence, at a public meeting held in the village in November 1864, was chosen to head a committee responsible for the project of constructing the new church in the village. The meeting was held following the visit to Saligao of Archbishop D Joao Crisostomo de Amorim Pessoa, who suggested that the time had come for Saligao to separate from the parish of Nagoa and construct its own church. This suggestion was apparently the result of earlier correspondence initiated by Salvador with the ecclesiastical and civil authorities.

The people had also chosen Salvador as a leader and champion of the Partido Progressivo (Progressive Party) and member of the Municipality of Bardez. Later, he was elected Mayor of Bardez, the first son of Saligao to be elected to this high and influential position. In this capacity he left no stone unturned to secure official approval for the building of the Saligao Church. The words of Salvador Pinto in Konkani at the conclusion of the public meeting in the village thrilled the people. He remarked: “Ami soddsoddit Igroz bandteleanv“. From then on, Salvador Pinto and his committee, with the unanimous backing of Saligaokars, made speedy headway.

The plans and estimates that were submitted got official approval on 23 June 1865. It was finally decided to earmark funds of the Communidade to the tune of 49,869 xerafins and 8 ples for the construction of the church. The Inspector of Public Works, Major Martins, was asked to draw a plan for a Gothic Church. Public tenders were invited. Salvador and the committee members ensured that no ganvkar of Saligao was allowed to have any hand in submission of tenders. The final and close scrutiny was made and the plan for the construction of the church was approved. The total cost was placed at 46,920 xerafins in silver.

A special session of ganvponn was held to elicit the popular will. The open deliberations were followed by voting and the signatures of those present were recorded in the minute-book. Those unable to write “thumbed” their approval instead.

It was an eventful day for the villagers when on 7 February 1867, the foundation stone was laid for the new church. On 25 October 1873 the Archbishop of Goa officially confirmed the name of Mae de Deus for the church in Saligao.

Salvador Pinto, with an uncanny sense of timing, quickly dispatched a petition to the government and the ecclesiastical authorities, pleading that the statue of Mae de Deus at Daugim in Old Goa be allowed to be taken to the new church in Saligao. The request was promptly granted. It was a milestone in the history of the Saligao Church.

At the same time, influential circles in Panjim and Old Goa moved the Overseas Minister in Lisbon to have the Goa Governor General’s order to shift the statue rescinded. It was done. But the directive rescinding the earlier order came too late. Meanwhile the new Church of Saligao was solemnly inaugurated and blessed, and the statue of Mae de Deus was placed on the collateral altar. This happened on 26 November 1873, a red-letter day for the parishioners of Saligao, thanks in the main to the efforts of Salvador Pinto.

Two decades later, Salvador Pinto died at the age of 67, on 19 June 1894. In recognition of his services in the construction of the church, a perpetual tomb was granted to the Pinto family in the sanctuary of the church close to the altar versus populum (facing the people).