The brass band doing a reece on the route between the Basilica and the Se Cathedral.
PANAJI
Anil Couto, the Archbishop of Delhi who will lead the congregation and 10 other Bishops including Cardinal Felipe Neri Ferrao and Goa's auxiliary bishop Simião Purificação Fernandes, will not be the only ones lending a slice of spiritual aura to the e-carriage taking the relics of St Francis Xavier from the Basilica of Bom Jesus to the Se Cathedral at Old Goa after the inaugural mass of the Exposition on Thursday morning.
Adding a solemn, musical touch to the once-in-10-years proceedings will be a brass band, said to comprise of a hundred musicians, which will tail the e-carriage from the start at the Basilica to when it reaches the door-step of the Se Cathedral.
The members of the band, both male and female, are from all over Goa and will be conducted by Fr Simon D'Cunha, who heads the Diocesan Commission for Sacred Music.
The band will play to the tunes of three hymns dedicated to the sixteenth century saint: 'Sam Fransisku Xaveira' by Raimund Barreto, 'Sam Fransisk Xaviera, vhodda kunvra' by Pedro Salvador Carneiro and 'Sonvsarak Jezu diat' by the Fr Vasco Rego, SJ.
A fourth tune will be a 'Marche' 'Porgottnar Goencho Saib' which D'Cunha himself has specially composed for this year's Exposition.
The musicians drawn from across Goa have been dedicatedly practicing for nearly four weeks in separate groups at Margao in South Goa and at Merces in the North, D'Cunha who has also done all the music arrangements for the Brass instruments, told The Goan.
The brass band had combined practice sessions and also did a reece on the route between the Basilica and the Se Cathedral along which the silver-glass casket containing the saint's relics will be transported for the first time in a specially-designed e-carriage.
Formerly, the casket used to be carried on shoulders in turns, by groups of lay Catholics picked by the Church authorities, through the distance between the two iconic heritage churches at Old Goa.
The carriage is being designed to replicate the resting place of the saint's relics – the mausoleum within the Basilica – said people involved with the design team working on the electric vehicle.
A group of Jesuits (priests belonging to the Society of Jesus, the society of which St Francis Xavier was a co-founder along with St Ignatius of Loyola) will carry the casket from the Basilica's sacristy to its altar.
After the mass led by Archbishop Couto, lay groups will carry it up to the Basilica's entrance and hand it over to team of policemen in civil dress who will place it on the e-carriage which will then transport it to the Se Cathedral, the bishops, the 100-plus member brass band and the laity following it in devotional procession.
Again, at the entrance of the Se Cathedral, the same set of policemen in civil attire will be in charge of lowering the casket and hand it over to a group of 10 canons to be carried and placed inside where it will stay for the next 45 days for devotees to venerate.
Meanwhile, the inaugural mass at the Basilica will be animated by a choir comprising some 50 musicians and singers. The choir will be conducted by Fr Romeo Monteiro, who is also the director of Kala Academy’s Western Music department.
