Goa is known as ‘Rome of the East’ which consists of many churches, chapels, convents and seminaries. It is a cradle of vocations. Many priests and nuns born on the Goan soil have been serving in various missions of India and overseas.
One of the sons of the soil is Ven. Agnelo de Souza from Anjuna, a village of scenic beauty that was Christianised by Franciscan Capuchin missionaries from the west. He was born on January 21, 1869, the same year of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth and named as Agnelo Gustavo Adolfo de Souza. It was the feast day of St Agnes, therefore he was named as ‘Agnel’ which came from this saint which etymologically means ‘lamb’ from Latin word ‘agnus’.
This year on November 20, we commemorate his 97th death anniversary. The theme taken for the celebration is: ‘Inspired by Ven. Agnelo let us be dynamic evangelizers of the Word of God.’
VOCATION TO PRIESTHOOD
Fr Agnelo’s vocation to priesthood was nurtured at home in his family which was pious and well respected in the village. Heeding the call of God he joined the diocesan seminary to be a priest. He completed his theological studies at Rachol Seminary in 1893 and was ordained a priest by Archbishop-Patriarch of Goa Dom António Sebastião Valente at See Cathedral in Old Goa on September 24, 1898. He made up his mind to join the Society of Pilar that had made its headquarters at Pilar. Before his ordination he joined Society of Pilar as a postulant on July 17, 1897.
Fr Agnelo spent 10 years of his priesthood (1898-1908) in the Pilar Monastery. He spent long hours late in the night before the Blessed Sacrament in mystical prayers and in deep contemplation. These 10 years in the Monastery refined him spiritually, strengthened his moral life and equipped him intellectually to carry out the difficult missionary work ahead in the remote areas.
From 1910 to 1917, he served in the parish of Kumta in Karnataka. The parishioners became his family. He was their compassionate pastor. He spent his time in visiting the families, placing his healing hands on the sick and praying for them and counselling the distressed members of the family.
SHEPHERD TO PARISHIONERS
As a loving pastor he smelt his sheep. He was polite and gentle with his parishioners. He also shepherded in the parishes of Shiroda and Sanvordem and was never callous to his sheep. To the orphans he was a loving father, to the widows a great moral support, to the lonely a comforter, to the sick a healer and to the aged their friend.
In 1918, Fr Agnelo was appointed at the Rachol Seminary as a Spiritual Director for the candidates to priesthood and lived there till his death. He helped some of the seminarians who were at the verge of leaving the seminary due to personal crisis.
In the seminary while preaching his last homily of nine-day Novenas on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he fell on the pulpit and passed away next day at dawn on November 20, 1927. There was not a single shirt in his trunk to dress him up for the burial; it was borrowed from another priest. Whatever belongings he had were given to the poor and needy.
Fr Agnelo was a fiery preacher. In the pulpit he used to roar like a lion but in the confessional he was meek as a lamb true to his name. In his times, the Confrarias were invested with the evils of caste distinction and class discrimination.
In his sermons, he never spared those who insisted on the superiority of caste. Fr Agnelo asserted that God is our Father and we are his children. When someone remarked about his powerful preaching and meekness in the confessional, his prompt reply was: “From the pulpit we throw our nets for catch. In the confessional we collect the catch.”
LIGHTHOUSE OF VIRTUES
On November 10, 1986, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at Vatican passed a Decree and declared Fr Agnelo, the Servant of God as Venerable. The process for his beatification is underway. Fr Agnelo was a lighthouse of virtues from whose life emanated humility, simplicity, calmness, love, truth, justice, kindness and compassion.
As a lighthouse guides the ships in the seas at night to reach the dock, Fr Agnelo guides the persons lost in life’s darkness to reach the port of spiritual enlightenment. He surrendered completely to his Master Jesus and sacrificed his life at the altar of service to humanity. Many people receive favours through his intercession.
There are many extraordinary cases in which the persons are healed without any medical aid that happened through his intercession. There are four steps to canonise a person saint: Fr Agnelo has already crossed two steps i.e. Servant of God and Venerable. The other two steps of Beatification and Canonisation are left for which there is need of authentic miracles.
The devotees of Ven. Agnelo are fervently praying that the church in Goa may get soon the second son of the soil declared a saint after the Goan Saint Joseph Vaz, the Apostle of Ceylon. Ven. Agnelo’s Day is celebrated by the Pilar Fathers at Pilar and in their mission stations in India and abroad.
[The writer is Director of Apostolic School and Assistant Parish Priest of St Francis Xavier Church at Hisar in Haryana.]
