Saligao Serenade

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

It was the second week of May in the year 1952 that Padre Inácio Lourenço Pereira was appointed as supervisor of the construction of the Saligao-Pilerne Seminary (Seminary of Our Lady). He hailed from Albutriel in Portugal (Diocese of Leiria), the place where Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima. He was a missionary along with his priest brother working in Madras-Mylapore diocese. He replaced Fr Paulo Arcanjo Menezes from Sangolda, who from 1936 to 1952 was in charge of building of the Diocesan Minor Seminary.

Fr Menezes used to walk every Sunday from his residence near the unfinished seminary to St Anne’s Chapel in the village to celebrate Mass there. However in April 1952 he went on a year’s sabbatical leave to East Africa. As soon as Padre Lourenço arrived, the chapel committee members requested him to come to St Anne’s to celebrate Mass for the parishioners of the three wards — Donvaddo, Mudd’davaddi and Tabravaddo-Mollembhat. Padre Lourenço readily accepted the proposal and on 25 May 1952 along with his domestic help known simply by the name ‘Frank’, drove to the chapel along with a Donvaddo lad who directed them. We youngsters at once fell in love with this fair and hefty Portuguese priest as he had a big jeep, which was a rarity in those years. After the Mass, we altar boys forgot about our breakfast as we went on a joy ride to the seminary at the invitation of the new chaplain. From then on Padre Lourenço came to St Anne’s every Sunday for Mass.

The work of the seminary was completed by November 1952 and the inauguration took place on 6 December 1952. His eminence Cardinal Manual Gonsalves Cerejeira, Patriarch of Lisbon, inaugurated it with due pomp and solemnity. The Governor General, top officials in the government, as well as the Mayors of Bardez, Ilhas and Salcete, along with D Jose da Costa Nunes, then Archbishop-Patriarch of the Archdiocese of Goa and Damao, the auxiliary bishop D Jose Vieira Alvernaz, a large number of priests and seminarians of Rachol Seminary, and a sizeable crowd of people gave a festive look to the inauguration. We, the boys of Mater Dei Institute, were dressed in our Mocidade Portuguesa uniforms to receive the dignitaries with a salute. Even the ‘Christuleacho vôd’ (haunted banyan tree) shook mightily at the command given by our troop master.

A few weeks later, one fine Sunday morning in January 1953, the parishioners at St Anne’s gathered for the usual Mass, but there was no sign of Padre Inácio Lourenço Pereira. So some elders and youngsters walked briskly up the Donvaddo hill to his residence near the seminary. What a sight it was! His workers and helpers were all around him. Padre Lourenço remained motionless.

Frank and others began to unfold the happenings of the previous night. As usual Padre Lourenço had gone for a walk around the seminary road, but that particular night he did not return. As there was no sign of him, some of the workers went in search of him. They found him quite close to the infamous banyan tree, flat on the ground with his face in the mud. They shouted for help and their companions came with the jeep. They carried him to the jeep, drove to the residence and placed the good priest in his bed. All along he remained speechless and motionless. They kept vigil all night but he showed no signs of movement. At that moment someone shouted ‘Christalina’ and the news spread like wildfire in our entire village and the neighbouring villages that Padre Lourenço was possessed by the ghost of Christalina. It was an instant talk of the town and fear engulfed the folks of Saligao.

In the evening some people, including my uncle Anselmo Mascarenhas, went to visit the padre. Rumours were spreading that Padre Lourenço was talking in Konkani and in a female voice. People now began concocting all kinds of stories and the bizarre incident had a lasting impression on my young mind. to compose some concocted story of the whole incident which to my young mind was a bizarre and fertile happening. I lived with it for years till I entered the seminary of Saligao in 1957. But there facts which needs to be addressed to.

If my memory serves me correctly, by Lent Padre Inácio Lourenço was out of the Hospital Escolar and dispatched to Leiria, Portugal, in March 1953. An announcement was made on the 15th of March that Fr Altino Ribeiro de Santana from Porvorim (and future bishop of Angola) was appointed as the first rector of the Seminary of Our Lady. It was also a fact that a cross was fixed to one of the branches of the banyan tree by Frank and other workers. With the exception of Frank, who remained in Goa, all the others left. Frank was absorbed as the driver of the Prelate at Archbishop’s House.

I joined the seminary of Saligao-Pilerne in 1957. One day a few of us went with our Spiritual Director Fr Robert Vas to observe the cross on the banyan tree. Indeed, the vertical part of the cross was intact, while the horizontal part was missing.

In later years, one night we saw the whole banyan tree glowing in the dark. Some professors, prefects and quite a number of sturdy seminarians directed themselves towards the banyan tree. When they returned we crowded round them, expecting to hear some fantastic ghost story. They said that the light was from four carts carrying petromax lights, parked near the tree; the cart owners were busy tightening the brakes for the downhill ride to Saligao! We all had a hearty laugh.

Many years later, much after I was ordained a priest, I met up with Frank at the Archbishop’s Palace and enquired about the incident. He told me exactly what had happened to Padre Lourenço and how the story of the ghost of Christalina played on the minds of the workers of the seminary. He said it was at that time that they nailed a cross on one of the branches of the banyan tree. Padre Lourenço was muttering some incomprehensible words, was taken to hospital and later on sent back to Portugal.

I asked him if it was true that a “gaddi walla” experienced in removing the spirit and bottling had been summoned, or if any exorcism was done, as the stories circulating at the time postulated. He answered in the negative. Meanwhile Joseph Furtado’s poem ‘The Cobra Woman’ started making an impression on my mind.

In 2002 I had the good fortune to travel to Portugal and on to Fatima for the beatification ceremony of Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Pope John Paul II performed the ceremony, in the presence of Sr Lucia — I was fortunate to see the visionary.

A few days later I happened to meet the Rector of the Sanctuary of Cova da Iria from the parish of Santos o Velho in Lisbon. His name was Monsenhor Luciano Guerra. As I knew that our old chaplain Padre Inácio Lourenço Pereira was from Albutriel, I enquired if he knew the priest. He smiled and said that Padre Lourenço had been his predecessor at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima and that he knew that he and his brother had been missionaries in India. He said that both the brothers were buried in the cemetery at Albutriel in the Diocese of Leiria. I said a prayer for the chaplain’s soul but did not mention anything about the Christalina story, to avoid scandal.

Nevertheless, the story is evergreen in the minds of the elders of Saligao, as Christalina remains a veritable institution. In fact the Hindu villagers living close to the banyan tree have built a small niche and offer gifts to the spirit, whom they call Ximecho Devchar or Boundary (Protecting) Devil.