>From the Joseph Naik Vaz Institute ...
January 16 is the Feast Day of Saint Joseph Vaz (Patron Saint of the
Archdiocese of Goa and Daman) and January 15 is Martin Luther King Day. As
America celebrates the life and work of the great human rights activist, Martin
Luther King Jr., let us remember and celebrate the struggle St. Joseph Vaz led
in Sri Lanka for freedom of religion and worship.
Joseph Vaz was a missionary born on 21 April 1651 in Goa, India. He died on 16
January 1711 in Kandy, present day Sri Lanka. He was an Oratorian missionary
priest. He arrived in Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) during the Dutch
occupation. The Dutch had expelled the Portuguese who had introduced
Catholicism to Sri Lankan. The Dutch then went on to impose Calvinism as the
official religion in Sri Lanka. Father Vaz traveled throughout Sri Lanka,
bringing the Eucharist and Sacraments to clandestine groups of Catholics. He
would sometimes disguise himself as a beggar in order to facilitate his
mission. Later, he founded a shelter in the Kingdom of Kandy where he
intensified his missionary work of ministering to both the minority Tamil and
Sinhalese ethnic groups. By the time of his death, he had managed to rebuild
the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. He was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II
on 21 January 1995, in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, and canonized there by
Pope Francis on 14 January 2015.
Invitation from the Joseph Naik Vaz Institute, California - Offering Masses for
the Beatification and Canonization of our Indian and Sri Lankan Saints since
1978
2018 Annual St. Joseph Vaz Feast Day and our Indian and Sri Lankan Saints Day
Mass
12:30 p.m. on Sunday Jan 28, 2018 at St. John the Baptist Church
1152 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito CALIFORNIA 94530 (near del Norte BART station)
Come and celebrate our native Saints!
St. Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Kanara and Sri Lanka and honoring new native born
saints and candidates for sainthood and recent models of sanctity and service
Special Intention: Beatification of Ven. Fr. Agnelo of Pilar
For more information email us at: josephnaik@gmail.com
We invite you to volunteer and serve the needy, the homeless and disadvantaged
as our saints did and for today’s social justice issues like environmental
protection, housing, health care
Happy Feast Day.
Joseph Naik Vaz Institute
http://josephnaikvaz.org/