Gonsalo Garcia
Encyclopedia
Saint Gonsalo Garcia, O.F.M., (1556 – 5 February 1597) 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
, he hailed from the town--then known as Bassein--during the time the town was under Portuguese colonial rule
. The festival
of St. Gonsalo has come to be held on the first Sunday nearest to the neap tide following Christmas
in Vasai.
father and a Canarese (resident of the Konkan
coast) mother. When he came of age, he was tutored by Father Sebastião Gonsalves, S.J., a priest working at the Jesuit college near Bassein. Garcia studied under the tutelage of the Jesuits for eight years from 1564 to 1572. Then, Father Gonsalves was assigned to the Jesuit mission
in Japan
and brought Garcia, who was fifteen years old, along with him. Once there, Garcia soon managed to learn the language and made good friends with the Japanese people, among whom he soon became popular as a catechist. He resigned this position and left to set up a trade. His business prospered and branches were opened in different locales in Southeast Asia
. Garcia, though, would distribute most of his profits to aid the poor.
Garcia's long cherished dream to be a Jesuit did not materialize, and so he moved to Manila
in the Philippines
as a lay
missionary
. In the Philippines, he was drawn to the Franciscan friars there and he came to be guided by Father Peter Baptist, O.F.M., (with whom he would later share martyrdom) and soon joined the Franciscan Order as a lay brother
. After working with leprosy
patients there, during his year of novitiate
, Gonsalo professed his religious vows
as a Franciscan at the friary in Manila.
suspected the missionaries of sedition
and they were placed under house arrest
in their friary in Miaco (Kyoto
) on 8 December 1596. A few days afterwards, when they were singing vespers
, they were arrested, manacled and imprisoned. They were held there with several Jesuits, and a dozen young members of the Third Order of St. Francis
, whom they had brought into the Franciscan Order.
On January 3, 1597, the left ears of the twenty-six prisoners, among them Garcia, were severed. (These were soon collected in reverence by the local Christians). On February 5, they were all marched off in the depth of winter to be crucified just outside the city of Nagasaki
. Brother Gonsalo, the first to arrive, went straight to one of the crosses--which had all been made to measure for the prisoners--and asked "Is this mine?". The reply was "It is not". Then he was taken to another cross, where he knelt down and embraced it. The others, one after another, started doing the same. "That was quite a sight, the way Brother Philip was embracing his cross. . . " comments one of the witnesses.
Garcia was the first to be extended on and nailed to his cross, which was then erected in the middle of those of his companions, as they were all lifted simultaneously. Two lance
s through the heart was the fate of each of the prisoners. While they waited for the fatal blows, Garcia and his 25 companions sang psalms and praises of God till the moment of their deaths, earning them all the martyr's title.
. The martyrs' feast day occurs on February 5 and, in 1629, their veneration was permitted throughout the Catholic Church. On 8 June 1862 Garcia, along with his companions, were declared saint
s 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. At the beginning of the 20th century, though, a noted writer put out a work on the history of the region, which brought his story back to the attention of Indian Catholics. As a result of this, with the backing of the Jesuit Archbishop of Bombay
, a native Goan priest, Msgr. Louis Caetano D'Souza, worked to re-establish St. Gonsalo's memory for the Catholics of his native region. Through his efforts, 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 his honor.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, who died as a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and is venerated as a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
. Born in the western coastal town of Vasai, now an exurb of the city of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, he hailed from the town--then known as Bassein--during the time the town was under Portuguese colonial rule
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
. The festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
of St. Gonsalo has come to be held on the first Sunday nearest to the neap tide following Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
in Vasai.
Early history
The future saint was born in 1556 to a PortuguesePortuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
father and a Canarese (resident of the Konkan
Konkan
The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...
coast) mother. When he came of age, he was tutored by Father Sebastião Gonsalves, S.J., a priest working at the Jesuit college near Bassein. Garcia studied under the tutelage of the Jesuits for eight years from 1564 to 1572. Then, Father Gonsalves was assigned to the Jesuit mission
Jesuit Asia missions
The Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order, have had a long history of missions in East and South Asia, in fact from their very foundation in the 16th century as St Francis Xavier, a friend of St...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and brought Garcia, who was fifteen years old, along with him. Once there, Garcia soon managed to learn the language and made good friends with the Japanese people, among whom he soon became popular as a catechist. He resigned this position and left to set up a trade. His business prospered and branches were opened in different locales in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. Garcia, though, would distribute most of his profits to aid the poor.
Garcia's long cherished dream to be a Jesuit did not materialize, and so he moved to Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
as a lay
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
. In the Philippines, he was drawn to the Franciscan friars there and he came to be guided by Father Peter Baptist, O.F.M., (with whom he would later share martyrdom) and soon joined the Franciscan Order as a lay brother
Lay brother
In the most common usage, lay brothers are those members of Catholic religious orders, particularly of monastic orders, occupied primarily with manual labour and with the secular affairs of a monastery or friary, in contrast to the choir monks of the same monastery who are devoted mainly to the...
. After working with leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
patients there, during his year of novitiate
Novitiate
Novitiate, alt. noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a novice monastic or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to the religious life....
, Gonsalo professed his religious vows
Religious vows
Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices and views.In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition, many different kinds of religious vows are taken by the lay community as well as by...
as a Franciscan at the friary in Manila.
Martyrdom
On May 26, 1592, the Spanish governor in the Philippines sent Father Peter on a diplomatic mission to Japan, along with a small group of friars, including Brother Gonsalo. With his familiarity with the country and his command of the language, Brother Gonsalo proved to be Father Peter's right hand in his duties as Superior of the Franciscan mission in Japan. After working for four years, however, the Japanese shogunShogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
suspected the missionaries of sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
and they were placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
in their friary in Miaco (Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
) on 8 December 1596. A few days afterwards, when they were singing vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
, they were arrested, manacled and imprisoned. They were held there with several Jesuits, and a dozen young members of the Third Order of St. Francis
Third Order of St. Francis
The Third Order of St. Francis is a third order within the Franciscan movement of the Roman Catholic Church. It includes both congregations of vowed men and women and fraternities of men and women living standard lives in the world, usually married...
, whom they had brought into the Franciscan Order.
On January 3, 1597, the left ears of the twenty-six prisoners, among them Garcia, were severed. (These were soon collected in reverence by the local Christians). On February 5, they were all marched off in the depth of winter to be crucified just outside the city of Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
. Brother Gonsalo, the first to arrive, went straight to one of the crosses--which had all been made to measure for the prisoners--and asked "Is this mine?". The reply was "It is not". Then he was taken to another cross, where he knelt down and embraced it. The others, one after another, started doing the same. "That was quite a sight, the way Brother Philip was embracing his cross. . . " comments one of the witnesses.
Garcia was the first to be extended on and nailed to his cross, which was then erected in the middle of those of his companions, as they were all lifted simultaneously. Two lance
Lance
A Lance is a pole weapon or spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior. The lance is longer, stout and heavier than an infantry spear, and unsuited for throwing, or for rapid thrusting. Lances did not have tips designed to intentionally break off or bend, unlike many throwing weapons of the...
s through the heart was the fate of each of the prisoners. While they waited for the fatal blows, Garcia and his 25 companions sang psalms and praises of God till the moment of their deaths, earning them all the martyr's title.
Veneration
On 14 September 1627, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Garcia and his fellow martyrs were beatified by Pope Urban VIIIPope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...
. The martyrs' feast day occurs on February 5 and, in 1629, their veneration was permitted throughout the Catholic Church. On 8 June 1862 Garcia, along with his companions, were declared saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s by Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
.
Because of the devastation to the Catholic community in Bassein, after its loss by the Portuguese in 1739, the memory of Garcia eventually faded. At the beginning of the 20th century, though, a noted writer put out a work on the history of the region, which brought his story back to the attention of Indian Catholics. As a result of this, with the backing of the Jesuit Archbishop of Bombay
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in India. The archdiocese has been a metropolitan see since the time it was elevated by Pope Leo XIII on September 1, 1886. The ecclesiastical province of Bombay includes the suffragan dioceses of Nashik,...
, a native Goan priest, Msgr. Louis Caetano D'Souza, worked to re-establish St. Gonsalo's memory for the Catholics of his native region. Through his efforts, St. Gonsalo Garcia Church in Gass
Gass (Maharashtra)
Gass is a village in Vasai Taluka, near Mumbai in the Maharashtra state of India. In addition to its Hindu residents, it had an approximate Roman Catholic population of 5000 in the year 2009.-References:*...
village of the Vasai Tehsil
Tehsil
A Tehsil or Tahsil/Tahasil , also known as Taluk and Mandal, is an administrative division of some country/countries of South Asia....
was built in 1942 and later expanded in 1957. A week-long festival is celebrated there in February, followed by a novena
Novena
In the Catholic Church, a novena is a devotion consisting of a prayer repeated on nine successive days, asking to obtain special graces. The prayers may come from prayer books, or consist of the recitation of the Rosary , or of short prayers through the day...
in his honor.
External links
- Gonsalo Garcia at Patron Saints Index
- Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum Home Page
- St. Gonsalo (Gundisalvus, Gonzalo) Garcia, O. F. M.
- Biographies of the 26 Martyrs http://210.136.236.116/MartyrsHP/Engmartstory.html