Dear Members of GHAG,
The St.Jerome's Chuch in Mapusa was completed in
1594 A.D. and is the second oldest Church in Bardez
[ after the 1543 church of Reis Magos]. The
structure of the church is,however older than any
other church. It was the temple of Tulzai, the
sister of Lairaee of Shirigao[Assonora] and one of
the seven sisters of heaven [Sapta-matrika]. It is
for this reason that "Milagris Saibinn" and her
feast pale the feast of the parton saint[ and writer
of the first Bible, the Vulgate], to a shadow.
My grandfather, Adv.Alexio Jeronimo Braganca, wrote
part of the history of the Mapusa Church in his book
on the subject "Igreja de Mapuca" published in 1929.
A copy is available with my brother and another with
Judge[Retd.] Francisco Herculano Cordeiro, father of
Adv. Filipe Cordeiro and a regular contributor to
the Mapusa Church bulletin. It may be worth
referring to it in the context of the renovation.
The Mapusa church building is obviously a property
of the Gaunkars of Mapusa that was taken over by the
Ecclesiatical Authorities under the colonial rule.
The Communidade still has some rights and duties in
respect to this church. The original inhabitants or
Gaunkars obviously had some agreements with the
church authorities. Some of these, like the mass and
blessing of the graves of the Braganzas[ formerly
Gauns] of Gaunsavaddo after the feast of the patron
saint , have been given a go by. In an era of
growing affluence and proportionately decreasing
religiousness[not to be confused with
'faith'],hardly anyone stops to protest. When the
floor was tiled in 1965, throwing the old granite
tombstones in the rubbish heap hardly anyone
protested. The skirting of Italian tiles was
replaced by ceramic tiles and now by marble. Last
year when these tiles were replaced by while marble[
wholey unnecessarily, in my humble opinion] it
passed off likewise.
The next stage has begun...the RENOVATION OF THE
PARISH HOUSE according to the donation
coupons[which,interestingly, have a "DATE OF DRAW"
on 14 April, 2005 with the implied prizes of an
Activa,Unicorn and a washing machine to make
donations interesting] issued by the Parish Priest
Fr.Amandio Valladares. I have two books of 25
"donation" coupons with a face value of Rs.10/-
each. I was told the collection was for the REPAIR
of the Residence/Parish House. To me "renovation" or
renovacao has a different connotation although the
Church may believe that it means 'renewal'. When one
'renews' a two-wheeler scooter driving licence, one
cannot drive a four- wheeler car. When one renovates
a single storeyed structure these days it, almost
invariably, becomes a ground -plus-one structure!
The plan displayed by the Mapusa Church authorities
shows the same design: one plus one equals one
structure.
Fr. Amandio Valladares is a very good priest and a
simple,soft-spoken,humble and well-meaning man. He
is, however , no conservationist by any stretch of
imagination. The recent "repairs" of the roof of the
cemetery involved replacing the timber roof with MS
angle trusses. While one may replace a wooden rafter
with relative ease, I would not hazard a gues about
a MS truss.Perhaps, the inscriptions on the
horizontal rafters will now be replaced by flex
banners or acryllic glow signs. It is by considered
opinion that in all his simplicity and honesty, Fr.
Amandio is doing irreparable harm to this heritage
structure in which lie the bones of generations of
my ancestors.The church incurred an expenditure of
Rs.17.5 lakhs to harm this piece of heritage.
The plan for the 'renovation' of the Parish House
appears to be good. It is learnt that Architect
Tulio de Souza, the President of the Institute of
Architects[Goa], member of the GSIDC Governing Board
and a fellow-Rotarian, is involve in the design
team. Architect Jose Noronha is invariably involved
with church structures. There are other names,too.
The plan is to 1.restore the Raj-angonn/Rosakond and
corridors around it and 2. to raise the existing
side-walls of the Parish House by about a metre and
divide the verticla space into two floors or ground
plus mezzanine.
Before this renovation is begun, it would be
advisable to research the matter, study the
structure and its load bearing capacity, analyse the
needs of the living church vis-a-vis the church
building and see what alternatives are available.
When Fr.Adolph Viegas[later the PP of Se
Cathedral,Old Goa]was in Mapusa, cathechism of the
church was taught in the classrooms of St.Britto
High School. The new space is ,reportedly , being
made for teaching cathechism to a growing number of
children.
In any case, the Parish residence needs repairs.
What these repairs should be should be decided by
experts in the field of conservation and
construction. It may be nice to depute Architects
Rajiv D'Silva and Conservation Architect Ketak
Nachinolkar to interact with Arch.Tulio de Souza and
Arch.Jose Noronha. I know Ketak is involved with the
feasibility studies for the "restoration" of the
Santa Anna church in Telaulim. He knows his job.
Mapusa Church can benefit from his expertise.
It is almost April and the monsoons are due in June.
A few pre-monsoon showers are also likely. I do hope
the case of the Mapusa Church is not like the
classical " Fools rush in where even the Angels fear
to thread."
Before concluding I would like to reiterate my
unreserved respect for Fr.Amandio Valladares. Rare
is a Diocesan priest of his nature,spirituality,
simplicity and honesty. Administration and
conservation are not his cup of tea. As Alexander
Pope wrote in his poem,
"Unmingled joys to no man befall.
Who least,hath some;
Who most,hath never all"
That is why two heads are better than one. Let us
contribute some expertise from GHAG to help the
Mapusa Church conserve our heritage.
> ----- Original Message -----
From: Miguel Braganca
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Goa's Heritage: FIX, REVIVE or REMIX ?
This article appears on the front page as the lead
story in the March-April edition of all the PLUS
tabloids. The North Goa Plus and the MargaoPlus have
been distributed on Thursday. I am grateful to
Ms.Heta Pandit of GHAG, for her permission to use
text and photos of the Gopinath Temple that appears
on the cover of the latest PARMAL, the house
magazine of the Goa Heritage Action Group. The other
quotes are from the public forum of the Aldona Net,
a forum that was started with the Aldona Institute
in mind but has grown in stature and membership
over the last three years well beyond the parochial
needs.
Regards,
Miguel
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