Saint January 16 : St. Joseph Vaz : Oratorian Missionary Priest of Goa, India, Known for Miracles, who Spread the Faith in Sri Lanka




Saint Joseph Vaz was a great missionary of the Gospel and in his testimony "we see an eloquent sign of God's goodness and love for the people of Sri Lanka," as Pope Francis stated during the homily for his canonization. (See prayer to St. Joseph Vaz at Bottom of this post)
Early Life
Biography - The third of six children, Vaz was born in 1651 at Benaulim, his mother's village in Goa, then known as Portuguese India, part of the Portuguese Empire. His parents, Cristóvão Vaz and Maria de Miranda, were devout Catholics. Cristóvão belonged to a prominent Naik family of Sancoale. He was baptised on the eighth day at the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Benaulim by its pastor, Jacinto Pereira. Vaz attended the elementary school in Sancoale. He learned Portuguese in Sancoale and Latin in Benaulim.

   

 He was a bright pupil and respected by his teachers and fellow students.  He made such rapid progress in his studies that his father decided to send him to the city of Goa for further studies; where he did a course in rhetoric and humanities at the Jesuit college of St. Paul. He further studied philosophy and theology at the St. Thomas Aquinas' Academy of the Dominicans, in Goa city.

In 1675, Vaz was ordained a deacon for the Archdiocese of Goa by Custódio de Pinho, the Vicar Apostolic of Bijapur and Golconda. In 1676, he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Goa, António Brandão, S.O.Cist. Soon after his ordination, he started going barefoot to live like the poor and acquired a reputation as a popular preacher and confessor. He opened a Latin school in Sancoale for prospective seminarians. In 1677 he consecrated himself as a "slave of Mary", sealing it with a document known as the "Deed of Bondage".

An Oratorian priest, Saint Joseph Vaz was born in India in the territory of Goa on April 21, 1651 into a Christian family with a Portuguese surname. It was certainly the fervor of the faith that animated his house and matured José's priestly vocation. This fervor even continued after Fr. Vaz's death, seeing as all his nephews became priests as well. Ordained in 1676, he returned to his native village and began to exercise his priestly ministry. Following his missionary zeal, Fr. Vaz wanted to go to Ceylon about which, in the meantime, he discovered the sad reality. However, he was assigned the task of preaching in the cathedral and dedicating himself to the service of confession and spiritual direction. The diocesan authorities then sent him to Kanara, in the territory of the Archdiocese of Goa, where the Holy See had erected an Apostolic Vicariate torn by a sad dispute over responsibilities and jurisdictions.

When he left the post of Apostolic Vicar in 1684, the painful situation could be said to have been resolved. Fr. Vaz then felt even stronger the desire to become part of a religious order. However, at that time religious orders were only open to candidates of European origin. Thus, with the permission of the Archbishop of Goa, he joined three Indian priests who had begun an experience of community life at the Church of the Holy Cross of Miracles on Mount Boa Vista. 

Elected Superior, he became the founder of an authentic community to which he gave a clear spiritual physiognomy and a juridical form that allowed them to officially establish its existence. The holy reputation of the Boa Vista priests quickly spread, and driven by the missionary fervor of Fr. Vaz, they soon added to the ministry in their Church an intense apostolate in the countryside. A Bull of Clement XI, dated November 26, 1706, confirmed the establishment of the community and praised its work. Fr. Vaz felt that the time had come to respond to the never-ending vocation in favor of the increasingly abandoned Catholics of Ceylon (Modern Sri Lanka). Having laid down his habit, he adopted the habit of slaves and beggars and after a few months of hard work, he managed to land on the coast of Ceylon.

He fell ill there immediately and for a few days, he was laying on the side of the road. He would have died of hardship if it wasn't for some women who helped him by giving him some food. Despite the fear of being discovered, he began the search for Catholics, who had outwardly for the most part taken on Calvinist customs under the lash of persecution and dared not reveal themselves. Fr. Vaz then adopted a courageous method: he placed the crown of the rosary around his neck, on the bare chest of a beggar, and began to knock from door to door begging for alms. He noticed someone who looked with interest at that sign of Catholic piety, so he began with a family and when he was sure of its members’ loyalty, he revealed his own identity.

This was the beginning of the re-evangelization of the island. It continued with the midnight celebration of Mass and listening to those who turned to him for Confession and spiritual dialogue. Wanting to cut off the revival of evangelization, the governor awarded great compensation to those who handed over the priest. But no one betrayed Fr. Vaz, who was indeed safe while the wrath of the Calvinists was unleashed against the Catholic faithful. Fr. Vaz fled to the small state of Kandy, in the inner part of the island and still formally autonomous, ruled by King Vilamadharma Surya. Many Catholics who had never met a priest lived in the state, and Calvinist agents who had heard of the arrival of the religious, spread false rumors that he was a Portuguese spy.

The plan worked: as soon as he arrived in Kandy, Fr. Vaz was imprisoned. However, despite being a Buddhist, the King did not approve of the imprisonment of a foreigner of such a profoundly spiritual nature. Through the testimony of his guards, he learned about the prisoner’s sanctity of life and became his friend, transmitting to his son and successor, Narendrasinha, the veneration with which he treated the Catholic priest. Fr. Vaz thus had the opportunity to preach and spread the faith throughout the kingdom, walking by foot through its territory and restoring the presence of the Church everywhere.

The smallpox epidemic that broke out in 1697, witnessed by the King himself, would have completely destroyed the population if Fr. Vaz's charity and intelligence had not provided treatment for the sick and instructed them in hygienic standards that, in fact, contained the infection. When Fr. Vaz died, ten missionaries worked in those lands, imbued with his spirit and prepared to continue the work in which he also formed lay people, entrusting them with the care of many dispersed communities.

In 1732, Pope Benedict XIV authorized the introduction of the canonical process for his beatification. On January 14, 2015, the Holy Father Pope Francis proclaimed him a saint. In his homily, the Pope indicated three essential points: "He was an exemplary priest [...] Secondly, Saint Joseph shows us the importance of transcending religious divisions in the service of peace. His undivided love for God opened him to love for his neighbor; he ministered to those in need, whoever and wherever they were. [...] Saint Joseph gives us an example of missionary zeal. Though he came to Ceylon to minister to the Catholic community, in his evangelical charity he reached out to everyone. Leaving behind his home, his family, the comfort of his familiar surroundings, he responded to the call to go forth, to speak of Christ wherever he was led."

PRAYER (Can be said as a Novena for 9 days): Our dear patron Saint Joseph Vaz: You were a person of great heart with a passionate zeal for Christ our Saviour in your life as a preacher of the Word of God. Through your ardent efforts and spiritual gifts you brought people to Christ, changed the hearts of many, healed the sick, educated the disadvantaged, defended and aided the persecuted, comforted the afflicted, worked miracles in order to show the power of the name of Jesus. Help us to show the respect for the traditions, heritage, and cultures of those he evangelized and the trust and partnership with the Laity that he displayed in his mission work.

O God, through the intercession of Saint Joseph Vaz: Give us the discerning spirit and gifts of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. Increase our faith and enable us to grow in virtues of prudence, justice temperance and fortitude. Send us angels full of love and affection. Give us the strength to preserve Your creation, our common home and work for the sustainability of our planet. Grant us the wisdom to work in unity to overcome the human faults of racism and casteism with the help of the grace of Jesus Christ and to do our part to remove social and economic inequalities, to assist the marginalized and abandoned, and to bring about peace, justice and harmony.
Make us generous disciples of Your Son to listen to the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit and thus to work for faith, justice and peace.
May Saint Joseph Vaz intercede for us in our life’s journey to imitate our Master and Lord Jesus.
May Saint Joseph Vaz be our inspiration and model in our earthly life to be part of the Reign of God.
O Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us and for Your Son Jesus’ Blessing on all humanity that we may become united as one family in the love of Christ. Amen
Say the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father.

Prayer Source: https://josephnaikvaz.org/prayer-to-saint-joseph-vaz

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