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Vasai, St. Gonsalo Garcia Church |
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Name: |
Vasai, St. Gonsalo Garcia Church | |||||||||||||
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Feast Day: |
05-Feb | ||||||||||||||
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| Contact: St. Gonsalo Garcia Church ! Soparno, Vasai, Thane Dist ! Maharashtra | |||||||||||||||
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History |
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| St. Gonsalo Garcia Church in Gass village of the Vasai Tehsil was built in 1942 and later expanded in 1957. A week-long festival is celebrated there in February, followed by a novena in the honour of Saint Gonsalo Garcia, O.F.M., (1556 – 5 February 1597) who was a Roman Catholic Franciscan friar from India, who died as a martyr in Japan and is venerated as a saint. Born in the western coastal town of Vasai, now an exurb of the city of Mumbai, Saint Gonsalo Garcia hailed from the town--then known as Bassein--during the time the town was under Portuguese colonial rule. On 8 June 1862 Garcia, along with his companions, were declared saints by Pope Pius IX.Because of the devastation to the Catholic community in Bassein, after its loss by the Portuguese in 1739, the memory of Garcia eventually faded. The festival of St. Gonsalo has come to be held on the first Sunday nearest to the neap tide following Christmas in Vasai. | |||||||||||||||
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