OBITUARY: Teotonio R. de Souza [Compiled for Goanet by John Nazareth in Canada, jhr_nazar...@hotmail.com]
Born 18 February 1947 in Goa - Died 20 February 2019 in Lisbon Teotonio Rosario de Souza was one of Goa's foremost historians. He completed his PhD in History from the University of Poona (1970-1977) and was a member of the Society of Jesus from 1967 to 1994. He was one of the founders of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research in Porvorim, Goa and was its Director from 1979 to 1994. He was PhD guide in History at the Goa University 1985-1994 and visiting Professor of Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth (Pune) and Vidyajyoti (Delhi) 1980-1994. He left the Jesuits and moved to Portugal where he joined the Department of History, in the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias in Lisbon in 1996, going on to serve as Professor, Head and Chair 1999-2014. John J. D’Souza recalls that "Dr. Teotonio helped to get Goacom going when we started in 1995". He was a native of the village of Moira in Bardez, Goa and took the time to write a brief history of Moira and its Church at the 350th anniversary of the Church’s founding in 1636. In November 2018, I had the good fortune to work with Teotonio when the Goan Overseas Association, Toronto was celebrating the 30th anniversary of its International Goan Convention where he was featured as part of the International Writers/Historians segment; little did we know then that this would be his swan song. No short list can do justice to the contribution of Professor De Souza to the written history of Goa. Among his book publications were: - Medieval Goa [1979, 1994 (Portuguese edition), 2009] - Indo-Portuguese History: Old Issues New Questions (1983) - Essays in Goan History (1988) - Goa Through the Ages: An economic history (1990) - Jesuits in India: in Historical Perspective (1992) co-edited with C.J. Borges - Goa to Me (1994) - Goa: Roteiro histórico-cultural (1996) - Vasco da Gama e a Índia (3 vols) (1989) co-edited with J.M. Garcia - Goa -- Outgrowing Postcolonialism (2014) Research articles by Dr. Teotonio R. de Souza: https://grupolusofona.academia.edu/TeotonioRdeSouza https://pt.scribd.com/user/723742/Teotonio-R-de-Souza In the following link, Teotonio talks about his books with Frederick Noronha, of Goa1556: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTn7qvjDjkU Time: approx 20 mins. When he passed away he was working on two publications: (1) Herald Group intention to bring out in book format his columns of opinion from 2008 till now; (2) An autobiographical book. When he was asked why he left the Jesuits, he said "I gave 26 of the best years of my life to Jesus and He will not forget me." -- John Nazareth, Toronto, February 2019