St Anthony, a testimony of strong faith

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2009-06-12
PANAJI- Come June 13 and we have the feast of the glorious St Anthony, all over the world, more especially in Portugal where he is a popular saint and in Goa, a testimony of strong faith of the people in the saint though sanctuaries. The festivities are held on a grand scale at Siolim where he is the Patron Saint of the main Church at Deussua, a hamlet of Chinchinim village, where a Chapel of St Anthony stands for last four centuries, and at Goa Velha located at the historic Raj Biddi below the Pilar hillock.The following churches dedicated to St Anthony also celebrate the feast: Vagator, Tiracol, Cabo de Rama, Galgi-bags, Pachvaddi and Veroda and so do the chapels at Praias (Anjuna), Cavorim (Chandor), Durgavaddo (Chinchinim), Simoesvaddo (Guirim) and Monte (Benaulim) where St Anthony is the Patron.
At Siolim Church, the statue of St Anthony holds a serpent tied to a cord. Legend has it that during the construction of the Church, a serpent’s frightful dimension and strange form harassed the Parish Priest and the labourers who could not kill the cobra and being desperate decide to choose another place. But before doing so they pray to the Saint whose statue was placed in the Capela Mor, half built. The next morning, to their astonishment, they saw the snake hanging in the snare of the cord, in the Saint’s hand, half dead.
In 1752, a Portuguese nobleman Dom Joao Antonio de Melo, who had lost his eyesight, was being taken by a machila (palanquin) from Agassaim to Ribandar. When his bearers needing rest at Goa Velha below the Pilar hillock, they made a stop beneath the mango tree and told the nobleman that a statue of St Anthony was placed in a niche carved at the wayside log of a coconut tree at Goa Velha. Immediately, the nobleman prayed to St Anthony, “You are known as the Saint of miracles, you are here in the open, in the sun or rain; if you restore my eyesight, I will build a beautiful chapel to keep your statue in.”
On return journey, Dom Joao again was lowered in the same place and there the miracle is reported to have taken place. And Dom Joao could see the statue of the Saint. When the nobleman was back home, without help he climbed the steps to the palace. As his wife could not believe, he came out in the veranda and counted the vessels he could see in the bay.
Faithful to the vow, he brought the copies of best altars from Portugal, built the Chapel, placed the life-size statue of St Anthony, which still exists in the Chapel.
Anguished people who have lost something, frightened ones who have been robbed, lonely feeling ones needing a partner to settle in life and so on flock the roads lead to the Churches and Chapels of St Anthony, seeking a miracle, more so on June 13.