BASILICA OF BOM JESUS – THE TOMB OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
Basilica of Bom Jesus is one of the famous church in Old Goa. Our second day trip began with a visit to The Lone Lighthouse – Aguada Fort along with a good flying experience of Parasailing at Candolim Beach and ended with our little explore to Anjuna beach and Vagator beach.
St. Francis Xavier’s Church Goa:
We had our breakfast in the hotel and started to Old Goa. It’s roughly 22 km from Calangute. Your visit to Goa would be unfinished without a stopover at Basilica of Bom Jesus and it is one of the oldest churches in Goa. It took us an hour to reach this place and was overly-crowded.
The road-trip itself is so remarkable; Still, some of the old edifice endures the legacy of Portuguese Architecture.
Why is the Basilica of Bom Jesus famous?
Basilica of Bom Jesus is more than 400 years (built in 1594) old church which holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier. It is another UNESCO world heritage site in Old Goa.
The grandeur of the church is the highly decorated and ornately gilded main altar in Baroque Architecture. Between the Roman Doric Solomonic columns lays Infant Jesus, and above large effigy of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of Jesuits looking upwards at the medallion which has a monogram of ‘IHS’ – a Greek word for Jesus. And, The Holy Trinity was crowned above all, along with sculpted angels.
There are two saints on the left and right, one with a chalice and the other with a quail pen. We couldn’t find out who they are. We guess it could be St. Peter and St. Paul considering the shield in other hands. Do you find them? Leave a comment below.
The altar table is gilded and embellished with Jesus Christ and 12 Apostles at His Last Supper. Below which has an inscription of “Hi Mhoji Kudd”, A Konkani phrase for “This is my Body”.
The tomb of St. Francis Xavier is placed atop of the Chapel across the altar. The holy relic of St. Francis Xavier is kept in a silver casket and is taken down from the chapel for decennial exposition. It is then kept in the Se-Cathedral for 44 days. Pilgrims across the globe visit Goa for decennial exposition of the holy relics of St. Francis Xavier. The last exposition was held on Nov 2014 and feast day falls on 3rd Dec.
We then went to the art gallery and after an hour moved to Se Cathedral also called as St. Catherine’s Cathedral that’s located across Bom Jesus Church. The edifice is huge and the lime-plastered facades impress you. By the time, we reached it began to rain and we couldn’t go inside the Church due to Mass proceedings. We headed straight to the museum and spent some time.
In the evening, we went to Baga Beach for a walk.
Here is a link to our trip to Harvalem Waterfalls Goa – A Secluded Magnificence on Earth!!
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With luv,
