A Goan priest who rebuilt a persecuted Church in disguise
Joseph Vaz was born at Benaulim in Goa in 1651 and ordained in 1676. He joined the Oratorians and was among the founders of the first indigenous Indian religious congregation of the Latin rite.
Under Dutch rule in Ceylon, Catholic priests were expelled and the practice of the faith was suppressed. Vaz entered the island in 1687 disguised as a labourer, ragged and barefoot, and moved between communities at night, celebrating Mass in houses and jungle clearings.
He learned Sinhala and Tamil, wrote in both, and served Catholics of every background. During a smallpox epidemic in Kandy he stayed and nursed the sick, including those who were not Christian, which changed the attitude of the Kandyan court towards him and gained a measure of freedom for the Church.
He died at Kandy in 1711. Pope Francis canonised him in Colombo on 14 January 2015, during a visit to Sri Lanka, where he is honoured as the apostle of the island and remembered in Goa as one of its own.
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