A missionary sacrifice blurred in the mists of obscurity

St Francis Xavier and St Joseph Vaz set out from Old Goa to the Far East and Sri Lanka, respectively, and left a blazing route all the way to immortality, but Blessed Dionysius (Dennis) and Redemptus’s itinerary to Indonesia, ending in martyrdom, has remained in the shadows of time for long.
The Discalced Carmelites of Goa, as the order based in Margao for 77 years is called, cherishes a dream; that of pulling the first two martyrs of the worldwide order out of obscurity.
In the 17th century, the golden age for Asia’s Catholic missions, Old Goa was one of the cradles and launchpads for missionaries from established orders. Xavier and Vaz are examples. Ensconced in the foothills of one of its seven holy hills, the Carmelite’s foundation monastery nurtured Blessed Redemptus, a Portuguese soldier and Fr Dionysius, a French sailor and cartographer, into missionaries of the order.
“St Xavier died far away and was brought to Goa. Now, there is so much veneration for him. St Vaz died in the 18th century and his memories were revived and kept alive. But the memory of our martyrs, who died in Sumatra, Indonesia, has almost become extinct back in Goa,” superior of the Carmelite Monastery, Margao, Fr Archibald Gonsalves says.
On November 29 last year, the Carmelites visited the ruins in Old Goa’s lesser-known spot, barely one kilometre north- east of the Gandhi circle, to relive the day of Blessed Dionysius’s and Redemptus’s martyrdom. The arches of the Do Carmo church, which was once located in a sprawling, 32,000 sq m monastery complex, still stand tall and imposing like the nearby St Augustine tower.
The site where the duo joined the Carmelites and took professional vows, has become an inspirational wellspring for the order worldwide. Two family members, descendants of one of the martyrs from Spain, also visited the site last year.
“Carmelites from around the world still visit this site regularly out of emotional attachment, as our first two martyrs were trained here and sent to Indonesia,” Gonsalves says.
The Carmelite dream is to re-establish itself at the 17th century foundation site. After the Portuguese ordered deportation of its members to Portugal, after just 90 years, they escaped from Old Goa to Sunkeri, Karwar, in 1709. They also lost their property. After Bishop Aloysius Benziger visited Goa with Fr Maric Joseph and held talks with Goa’s archbishop in 1938, the new foundation was finally set up on March 19, 1939, at Margao. This was just a year after the third centenary of the duo’s martyrdom.
In the 1980s, provincial of Carmelites, Goa-Karnataka province, Fr Nemesio Alzola, heard about the site at Old Goa. With the help of a retired bank manager, social activists and history lover Mariano Dias, he dug deep into the history of the foundation monastery.
“We have in our possession only 925 sq m, which constitutes the historical ruins of the chapel. This could be considered a silver jubilee gift from our beloved Fr Nemesio, who died in 1995, to our province,” says Gonsalves.
The Carmelites are struggling to reclaim the huge monastery and orchard around it. “We have plans to reconstruct the church like Cruz dos Milagros at Old Goa from sketches preserved in our Generalate in Rome,” says Gonsalves.
The pilgrimage site for nearly 20,000 Carmelites in Asia also has tombs of prominent royal family members and Carmelite frairs on its premises.
“This is the cradle of our Carmelites in Asia and has special significance for our order the world over. There are 80 religious Carmelites in Indonesia and now, it has become a province. We want to make this site a centre of spirituality for Carmelites in Asia,” says Gonsalves.