October is the month dedicated to Mother Mary. In most of our families, we have the daily devotion of the Rosary, but very especially during the month of October. For the Pilar family, it is a special month as from October 3 to 11, all Fathers, Brothers, Seminarians and Sisters in all our communities have a Novena to prepare for the feast of our beloved Mother on October 12.
This is preceded by a procession and solemn Vespers of Our Lady of Pilar because she is the Pillar that guides all of us in our missionary activities (Columnam Ducem Habemus).
For nearly 2,000 years, the title ‘Our Lady of Pilar’ has inspired every missionary carrying the Word of God around the world, since her first apparition on the banks of the River Ebro, in Zaragoza-Spain, where there stands a huge Basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Pilar. I have been fortunate to visit Zaragoza five times to pray for myself and our missionary society under the patronage of Our Lady of Pilar.
THE TRADITION
According to ancient local tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St James while he was deep in prayer in Zaragoza, to comfort and encourage him, and she promised him her help and maternal assistance in his works of apostolic preaching. She also gave him a small wooden statue of herself and a column of jasper and instructed him to build a church in her honour at that spot.
After the apparition, St James’ evangelisation work became fruitful, as assured by Our Lady, with hundreds of people accepting the Good News that was preached to them. As a result, Spain was transformed into a nation of great faith and soon became the first Christian country at the forefront of evangelising other people throughout the world by sending out many missionaries.
This apparition, “profoundly rooted in the Spanish soul”, is unique as it deals with Mother Mary when she was still living in Jerusalem. She appeared to St James, in Zaragoza, surrounded by angles carrying a Pillar or Column, which was left at the place of the apparition as a sign of her protection, and whose veneration has given the Shrine its name.
FROM ZARAGOZA TO GOA (1613)
The first group of Capuchos, Reformed Franciscan Recollects of the Mother of God Province, came to Goa and built the Monastery of Our Lady of Pilar and from then this place came to be known as Pilar. The foundation of the Monastery was laid on July 17, 1613, by Archbishop of Goa, Dom Frei Christovam de Sa e Lisboa. A University of Science, Arts & theology was established here later.
THE CARMELITES (1855)
The Capuchos occupied this Monastery till the suppression of the Religious Orders in Goa by the Portuguese Government in 1835. After that, the Pilar Monastery was abandoned and came to be a stable for cattle. In 1855, the king of Portugal allowed some Goan Carmelites to occupy the Pilar Monastery. The last of the Carmelites died in 1857.
Meanwhile by the decree of 1878, of the Overseas Minister of Portugal, the Archbishop of Goa D Agres de Ornellas, got the Pilar Monastery as his summer residence. Had it not been for this Archbishop, the Monastery would have gone under public auction.
PILAR FAMILY AT THE MONASTERY (1890)
The Society of the Missionaries of St Francis Xavier was founded by a Goan diocesan priest Fr Jose Mariano C Bento Martins in Agonda-Canacona on September 26, 1887. The first Archbishop Patriarch of Goa, D Antonio Sebastiao Valente, secretly received the commitment of Fr Bento Martins and his three companions in his Patriarchal Palace of Panaji and appointed Fr Martins as the first Superior of the nascent Society.
In 1890, the same Archbishop Patriarch of Goa made the abandoned Pilar Monastery as the headquarters of the Society. From then on, it came to be known as the Society of Pilar. Ven Fr Agnelo was a member of this Pilar Society.
PATRONESS OF PILAR SISTERS (1988)
The Pilar family of Fathers and Brothers felt a strong need to have sisters with the identical missionary charism. This need was officially expressed and deliberated upon at the Xth General Chapter of the Society of the Missionaries of St Francis Xavier (Pilar Society) in 1977, which decided to have a Sister Institute, to collaborate and complement our Missionary Apostolate.
It took almost ten years to see the birth of our Sister Institute. On August 10, 1988, then Archbishop Raul Gonsalves approved it as The Association of Pilar Sisters, with their main house at Loutolim. In 2017, the present Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao canonically erected the Association into the Society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right under the name of Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Pilar.
Hence, it is with joy that together the Fathers, Brothers and Sisters as one Pilar family rejoice on the feast of our Patroness and pray that she may continue to be a strong Pillar to proclaim Christ and be his true witness. We pray that many young boys and girls may join our Pilar family to be with Jesus, live Jesus and give Jesus like Mother Mary.
(The writer is Superior of the Pilar Monastery)
