ASI holds key to relics of Georgian queen

Today only a part of the steeple of St Augustine’s Church is visible. But at its peak, Christianity in Goa revolved around the St Augustine’s order until in the early 19th century, the Augustine order was suppressed and the monks expelled from Goa. With the dawn of democracy in Portugal and the end of the Spanish Inquisition in the 19th century, St Augustine’s gradually faded from people’s memory.

‘‘While repositioning the laterite stones by the side of the altar of St Anne (while construction work was being carried out), a burial chamber was discovered below the flooring, in front of the altar. This unexpected find reopened the debate over the queen,’’ says historian Prajal Sakhardande, who is following the progress of ASI’s investigations.

According to historians, the queen’s right hand and right arm were buried in the Church of Our Lady of Grace within the famous St Augustine Tower at Old Goa in the 17th Century. Based on published works from over three hundred years ago, archaeologists say the queen’s relics were kept in an urn of basalt.

Another breakthrough in the investigation was the identification of four stones, including a tombstone with an inscription which indicated that it was the tomb of Dom Father Domingos da Trindade, believed to be buried in the vicinity of the Queen’s relics.

This finding now awaits the acceptance of the academic world and of the region of which she is patron saint—Georgia.