‘Will request PM to invite Pope Francis for St Francis Xavier’s exposition in Goa’: CM Pramod Sawant

The event is scheduled to be held  from November 21, 2024 to January 5, 2025. In the Budget presented last month, Sawant had announced a budgetary provision of Rs 10 crore for the exposition.

Sawant said the government will beautify the Old Goa church complex and upgrade the infrastructure at heritage sites in Old Goa and facilities for the pilgrims from across the world who will be visiting Goa.

St Francis Xavier, a Spanish Jesuit missionary, was born in Spain on April 7, 1506 and arrived in Goa, then a Portuguese colony, on May 6, 1542. His missionary work took him across Asia over the next ten years. He died on December 3, 1552, on Sancian island, off the coast of China.

His remains were first laid to rest in Portuguese Malacca (present day northern Malaysia). Two years later, his body was moved to the Portuguese colony at Goa and installed in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, near Panaji.

The remains, now considered relics, have been interred at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa since. The relics are taken down from the high altar once every ten years, a practice that began in 1782 to dispel rumours that the Jesuit priests, who had been expelled from Portuguese territories, had taken the body with them.