https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Goa-to-Sri-Lanka-From-Blessed-Vaz-to-Acharya-Kosambi/articleshow/42927389.cms
Well-deserved celebration in Goa as the longstanding candidature of native son Joseph Vaz has finally been approved for sainthood. He will be "the first saint to Sri Lanka" but the Vatican noted "since Blessed Joseph Vaz was born, educated and ordained a priest in India and opted to be a missionary in Sri Lanka, both the countries have special significance at his being raised to the honours of the altar." The Benaulim-born priest, a son of Sancoale, exemplified personal bravery in Dutch-held territories, and remained steadfast in Kandy—administering to the afflicted of all religions —when devastating plague chased away the king (who was his protector). These deeds merited canonization, but there are even more interesting facets to the man who will become Goa's first saint. Joseph Vaz is best understood within the context of anti-colonialism—indeed he organized the first public civil resistance to the Dutch in Sri Lanka's history (in 1707)—whose entire career was rejoinder to prejudices he had experienced from racist church authorities in Goa. Vaz's story is only one part of a profound legacy of Goan contributions to resistance and nationalist politics in what is now Sri Lanka. About the priests among them, historian Dr Teotonio de Souza has written, "It was an achievement of a band of Goan natives, who were regarded as unfit for religious life, and much less for missionary work, in a colonial set-up marked by white superiority." All through Vaz's life, and right into the 19th century, the colonialist church in Goa refused to admit locals to the religious orders, strictly adhering to what historian C R Boxer called "the doctrine of white superiority in church and state". But Joseph Vaz was undeterred and defied the Portuguese church fathers to lead rebellious compatriots in forming the first native congregation (in 1685), which was later recognized as the Oratorian Institute of Milagristas of Goa. Even while still rebuffed at home, Oratorians plunged incognito into Sri Lanka, where they served both Tamils and Sinhalese with distinction. Vincent do Rosario Dias (of Raia), and Caitano Pereira (of Divar) became the first Vicars Apostolic of the island territory. Jacome Gonsalves (also of Divar) mastered Tamil, and learned Sinhalese from Buddhist monks at the renowned 'Temple of the Tooth' with such facility that he is acknowledged as a lasting cultural force, remembered as the father of Sri Lankan "Christian" literature and liturgical music. Goan contributions to Sri Lanka extend far beyond the priesthood. Armand de Souza was born and raised in Assagao, but in 1907 founded the Morning Leader newspaper in Colombo, which he used to ceaselessly hammer the (now British) colonial regime over constitutional reform. A founding member of the Ceylon National Congress, his advocacy is credited with being "greatly responsible for the national awakening among the different classes and communities of the permanent population of the island...to a very large extent to the awakening of the Singhalese in particular." Joseph Vaz, Jacome Gonsalves and Armand de Souza all left their Konkan homeland to live and die in service of what is now the nation of Sri Lanka. The great Sancoale-born Dharmanand Kosambi visited for only a year, but those months were a vital turning point of a most amazing life. It was then, his translator (and grand-daughter) Dr Meera Kosambi writes, Kosambi "was finally able to learn Pali and start studying the core Buddhist texts" and was "formally initiated into the Buddhist monastic order, or Sangha, as a novice". Kosambi was a seeker exactly in the mould of his revered Gautama Buddha: In 1899 he walked out of Goa to dedicate his life to studying Buddhism, leaving behind his young wife, infant daughter and family responsibility as custodian of a coconut grove. In Bodh Gaya, he discovered that he might be able to study Pali in Sri Lanka, and underwent extreme hardship to make his way to the island. The effort was worthwhile. Here Kosambi began to learn English, and became proficient in Pali, skills which later made him prized at Harvard and Leningrad Universities. This young traveller to Sri Lanka was alert to the ironies inherent in the contrast to his Goan predecessors from centuries past. >From his marvelous biography 'Nivedan' (translated by Dr Meera Kosambi)—"Father Joseph Vaz, who greatly exerted himself propagating Roman Catholicism in Ceylon during Portuguese rule after St Francisco Xavier, was born in the same village as I. He made a thorough study of Roman Catholicism in Goa and went to Ceylon to proselytize. He could not in his wildest dreams have imagined that at the beginning of the twentieth century a young aspirant from his native village would undergo ordeals to reach Ceylon in order to study the religion he had taken such pains and endured such adversities to destroy. Strange indeed is the working of time!"