THE PARISH OF OUR LADY OF SOCORRO CHURCH, SOCORRO BARDEZ GOA.

(This was a paid article published in the VOICE OF SOCORRO (VOS), special issue of October 1988, specially researched for VOS by late Rev. Fr. Moreno de Souza. VOS was owned, edited and published by me, and registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India, New Delhi, under REGN NO. GOA 74. Property of VOS, I am now posting this article on the internet, so that it may be of help to researchers in the field, or to anyone whom it interests. ~ Elmano Dias)

The name of the village, as it is known now, is Socorro, which is a Portuguese name. The Konkani speaking natives legitimately call the village Sukur. I am afraid that in course of time, the name may be anglicized and become Succour for there is a strong tendency now among the Catholic Goans to anglicize all the Portuguese names which were given to us by the Portuguese missionaries. Consequently, Piedade has become Pity which is a wrong translation. The most it could be is Our Lady of Piety and not Pity. It is a pity that Catholic Goans barring a few, have not yet entered the stream of Inculturation, which is the spirit of the present Church. My curiosity goes out in search of the Goan or native name of the present village of Socorro; no doubt it was a part and parcel of a bigger village so called Serula (1) which also unfortunately received a Portuguese name Salvador do Mundo but the good natives who love their culture and language call it Saloi. Rui Gomes Pereira in his book: Goa Volume I, HINDU TEMPLES AND DIETIES (2) does not mention the village of Socorro at all, among the 38 villages of Bardez, mentioned in that book. Britona or Penha da Frana too is not mentioned in the said book. The fact is that at that time Socorro and Penha da Frana (the church of this villge was built in Virlasa or Virlussa) formed the great village of

Serula or Shirula which is a misnomer. The parish of Socorro is the Third Rectory (3) erected by the Franciscans in the vast village of Shirula. The church was built in 1667 according to Mons. F X Gomes and its cost was defrayed by the parishioners. But according to Fr. A. Meersman, O.F.M. the church was erected most probably in 1668. This means that Christianity was preached in this village long before 1668 and the previous temples of the converts were destroyed. The hindu temples and their deities were no longer of any use when the majority of the villagers embraced Christianity and those who did not, fled the village to the mainland of the country, now Novas Conquistas, which came under the rule of the Portuguese only in 1763 (Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona) and in 1788 (Bicholim, Sattari and Pernem). Bicholim or Divchol, where the unconverted inhabitants of Socorro and Shirula some of them relatives of the present catholics fled with their deities, was already fully Portuguese in 1746. The hindu deities of Shirula are now found in Mulgo in the Bicholim taluka. The Church of Socorro was rebuilt and enlarged in1763 by the parishioners whose number must have grown by now, i.e. within 96 years. This is the case of all the churches in Goa. Usually the first church buildings were built of mud and ordinary material as it is done even now in the Missions, on the site or near the site of the village temple which was destroyed; as the number of conversions in a village increased, the primitive building was demolished and a new one was erected to accommodate the growing number of converts. Many of our Goan churches standing now are the third constructions, certainly not the first.

The Socorro parish is situated rather in the interior in Zoshi Vaddo, away from the main artery of communication which passes through Porvori (4). From Baixo de Porvori, a tarred road passing through a hill at Araddi, leads the traveler to the Church of Socorro. It was a dusty road some years and the people were afraid to cross the hill which was cut forming a sort of open tunnel where even during daytime rays of light did not easily reach (5); that tunnel was haunted by robbers who attacked the travelers. Now the tunnel is deepened to reduce the climb and broadened on the top so that more light can enter.
The church has four altars, one of which is dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order (1182-1226). The altar is situated at the left side as you enter the church. To the right side is the altar dedicated to St. Sebastian, a soldier saint who is found practically in all the catholic villages of Goa. The saints feast is celebrated with great solemnity, on the 20th of January by different vaddes (wards) which go in this order: Zoshi Vaddo, Maina (6), Ambirna, Araddi (7), Porvori m(Baixo), Carrem, Vaddem and Alto de Porvorim. This last vaddo was added some 65 to 70 years back when some houses were built on the hill of Alto de Porvorim and a new vaddo was formed. To serve new families, a chapel dedicated to the Sacred Family was built according to Mons. F X Gomes

Cato, in recent times. This 8th vaddo of Alto de Porvorim no longer contributes to the celebration of the feast of St. Sebastian, for it has become now part of a new parish of Sacred/Holy Family, Alto de Porvorim. At the Socorro church, the feast in honour of Our Lady of Socorro (Help) is always celebrated on the 21st of November. The main altar is dedicated to Our Lady of Socorro. The throne of this altar with its niches and the pulpit came from the Convent of Cruz Milagres, now at Old Goa. The fourth altar below is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. On the church yard there stands a monument of Christ the King, built in 1939. Since Socorro has no comunidade of its own, the feast of Novem or Novidades (the earcorns of rice the first fruit from the fields of Comunidade) was not celebrated in this parish. Rev. Fr. Nicolau Fernandes, when he was the Parish priest of Socorro, introduced this feast. Socorros comunidade is that of Serula which celebrated this feast of Novem on 6th August, in front of the Church of Salvador do Mundo, near the main-road, where once stood the temple of Ravalnath (8). CHAPELS: In the parish of Socorro at present, there exist 6 chapels. 1. Our Lady of Rosary, at Carrem. It was founded under the invocation of Our Lady of Rosary and Santa Anna by Fr. Agostinho do Rosario Pinto and his brother Silvestre Pinto, from Carrem. It was blessed and erected on 14.8.1782. It was rebuilt in 1848 and blessed on 1.1.1849. 2. Our Lady of Remedios at Vaddem. Founded by Fr. Jose Gomes, an Oratorian from the city of Goa (Tiswaddi), in round about 1737, on the property of Voll in Vaddem; the said oratorian by his will of 20.10.1748 left some property for the maintenance and re-edification of the chapel. The said property was afterwards bought in public auction by the forefathers of Dr. Antonio Pinto do Rosario from Porvorim in 1842 (9). 3. Santa Cruz Chapel, a small one, at Ambirna, blessed by the acting vicar of Socorro, Fr. Vitorino Gomes Cato on 7.12.1935. 4. St. Sebastian Chapel at Vadeem built by the pot makers of that locality.

5. Holy Cross Chapel at Maina. This chapel was blessed by Bacharel Fr. Joo Francisco Lobo on 15.4.1917 6. Our Lady of Candles of Lights (Candelaria), at Baixo de Porvorim. Not known when it was erected. ETIMOLOGY: 2. Translated into English from the original in Portuguese by Antonio Victor Couto in 1978. 3. Third Rectory, 1565: I would prefer to call it fourth Rectory; first in Reis Magos (1555), the second and third in Candolim and Nagoa(Nagvem) respectively, both in 1560. 4. Porvori(m) is a misnomer. The Portuguese to suit their phonetic needs added a nasal sound at the end of our Goan village names, which sound is now represented by the letter M, which is really our anuswar or the Portuguese TIL. The correct form will be Kandoli, Sioli or Sivoli, Giri, etc.. Porvor means the floor of a house. Floor corn remaining upon the thrashing floor after the removal of the whole heap of the corn. Also means a kind of vegetable (The Aryabhushan, School dictionary: MarathiEnglish). It may be on this hill, now called Alto de Porvorim, same corn was grown or it looked like a flat floor of a house (plateau). 5. Tunnel actually means an artificial subterranean passage through a hill or under a road or river. This tunnel of Socorro is open on the top. On the way leading from Zoshi Vaddo to Carrem and Vaddem, you come across another, but smaller tunnel and a little further, another very small one unique cases in Bardez. 6. Maionn means a marshy place, watery soil a spring is always found in every Maina. There is Maina in Pilerne where there is also a spring and areca trees grow. In Salcette also there is Maina, once a section of Curtorim parish, but now an independent parish from 1960. 7. Araddi: I cannot find the meaning of this name but I think it means a vaddo or a place on the slope of a hill. Araddi is found on the slopes of the hill in Saligao, Candolim and in Parra. There may be other villages having Araddis. 8. Mss. Of Dr. Marinho de Azavedo 9. In Pilerne, around the Chapel of Our Lady of Candelaria, now standing solitary on a hill, once there was a Kumbhar Vaddo and the inhabitants made earthen pots. When the plague epidemic came, all the people of that Vaddo left the place. Some of the pot makers fled to Vaddem of Socorro. Once when I was in Old Goa, I went to see the pot-makers who used to come with their wares on the feast day of St. Francis Xavier and made inquiries about the Pilernikares and in fact I found some. They told me that there were three or four families in Vaddem who are called Pilernikares. HISTORICAL GLEANINGS: Parish of Socorro Fr. Achilles Meersman, O.F.M. Lector of Church history, St. Anthonys Friary, Bangalore India, has written a book entitled The Ancient Franciscan Provinces i n India: 1500-1935. The said book was published in Christian Literature Society Press, Bangalore, 1971. On page

137 in the Chapter Franciscan Residence in Bardez under No. 23, the author gives some glimpses of the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Socorro, and I am happy to transcribe that chapter here. The author is no longer with us in this world. He calls the parish as dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual help, but according to our Goan historian, the late Mons. Francisco Xavier Gomes Cato, the patroness of the parish is Nossa Senhora do Socorro i.e, Our Lady of Help. No. 23 (Fr. Achilles Meersman) transcription: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Socorro This parish dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in Portuguese, Nossa Senhora do Socorro and therefore conveniently called Socorro, was the third Rectorate the Franciscans established within the confines of the original parish of Sirula. The Rectorate was established (111a) most probably in 1668 when Antonio da Assumpo was Provincial (1668-71). The Gaoncares bore all the costs, also when in later years it was extended. According to the Report of 1713, Socorro was one of the two parishes, the other being Pilerne, which was not included in the list of parishes entitled to an annual grant. However, they shared equally in the amount received for the other ones (112). It was only later that this parish was given the same subsidy as the others. When Joo de S. Diogo was Rector, there were according to his own statement dated 15 th December, 1720, 2996 Catholics in the parish (113) During some years there were two Friars attached to Socorro. Thus in 1730-1, we find Joo de S. Antonio and Francisco de S. Rosa stationed there and in 1732-3, Duarte de S. Isabel. Other Rectors were: Manoel de Graca, 1746-1753; Francisco de S. Joaquim, 1765; Antonio de S. Rita 1766 the last Franciscan Rector (113a). 111a: By 1601, there were a number of Catholics in Socorro, served, so it seems from Sirula. 112: Meersman, Annual Reports Report 2: November 25, 1713. 113: Historical Archives Goa, Panjim 113a: Meersman, Annual Reports Report 33: January 19, 1767