A Temple for Xavier

Commemorating the 10^th anniversary of the donation of the casket by Teresa Mendia de Castro (New Goa) and the 400^th anniversary of the execution of the pictorial cycle, an exhibition was organised that started by analysing the casket as an artistic object, inspired both by European architecture and by Oriental taste, a syncretism present in other contemporary artistic expressions. The reliquary typology will be discussed, which has its origins in the European Middle Ages, having been exported to India, where it was subject to local aesthetic reinterpretation. The iconography of St. Francis Xavier is analysed, as a herald of Christianity, having been adapted by other religious orders responsible for missionary action in other parts of the world. The cult of the saint’s relics is also discussed, almost all of them by contact, since his body remains in Goa in almost its entirety. Finally, the importance of the saint and of his annual feast is analysed, involving music, gastronomy, social interaction and various oral traditions, as an aggregating factor of the Goan community, between the practicing Catholics and those of other religious faiths, between those living in Goa and those dispersed by the diaspora.

Visit the virtual exhibition on Google Arts and Culture