Blessed Joseph Vaz
(Goa, 1651- Kandy, 1711)

Apostle of Kanara (Mangalore) and Sri Lanka

FOUNDER INDIAN BRANCH OF ORATORY OF S. FILIPPO NERI, GOA 1685  

                                                

                                                IMPRIMATUR

                                                                             Edoardo Aldo Cerrato dell'Oratorio

Life Of Blessed Joseph Vaz
The Work Of Blessed Joseph Vaz
The Tablet, New York (1987)
Sages And Saints Of India (1992)
Canonize Bl. Joseph Vaz As India And Sri Lanka’s First Catholic Saint!
Pope John Paul II On The Occasion Of The Beatification
The Cause Off Bl. Joseph Vaz Has Suffered Many Setbacks
The Pope Could Canonize Bl. Joseph Vaz
Sri Lanka Pioneer Beat Persecution
Sages And Saints Of India
The Polish Connection
“Apostles Like Him”
Petition To His Holiness Pope John Paul II For The Canonization Of Blessed Joseph
Vaz
Letter To The Holy Father
Novena Prayer

Life Of Blessed Joseph Vaz

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The Work Of Blessed Joseph Vaz

His missionary work was not colonial, not helped, authorized, associated with colonial conquest.
He gained the protection of the Buddhist, non-Christian King of Kandy, Sri Lanka.
He used Inculturation as a missionary method. He founded a Catholic para-liturgy and literature using the two languages and cultures of Sri Lanka, Tamil and Sinhalese.
He educated his servant John Vaz, a member of the Indigenous tribe of Kunbis, and sent him back to Goa with a letter of recommendation to the priesthood. The Portuguese Church Councils had reserved the priesthood for the two higher castes.

He founded the miraculous Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu It was crowned in 1924 and is one of the five officially crowned Marian Shrines of the Church, along with Czestova, Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe.

He is the first non-European native in modern times to found a Mission and Church in a “Third World” country; to found a fully native Catholic Religious Congregation; and to be given the official title of “Apostle” (of Kanara and Sri Lanka) by the Church, for his work in rescuing the Church there. His Indian Oratorian Mission is the only fully native, non-European Catholic Mission of our colonial era.

The Church he re‑founded in Sri Lanka was persecuted and survived isolation from Rome for 140 years.

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The Tablet, New York (1987)
Msgr. John Condors.
Propagation of the Faith

“Saviour of the Catholic Faith in Sri Lanka, founder of
a native religious congregation at a time when such
institutions were non-existent, coordinator of a
missionary society which supplied Asian missionaries
to another Asian country, and capable Church
administrator even during times of persecution, Fr. Joseph
Vaz holds a very special place in mission history.”

(Index)

 

Sages And Saints Of India (1992)
English writer, Fr. Roger H. Lesser 

When he died ...there were 70,000 practicing Catholics..
Of these no less than 30,000 were converts from other
religions. Not one had come in through motives other
than religious, since Vat had neither money to bribe
nor power to influence or entice them.”

(Index)

Canonize Bl. Joseph Vaz As India And Sri Lanka’s First Catholic Saint!

* The Indian converts of the Archdiocese of Goa have been Catholic since the Portuguese conquered Goa in 1510. They were allowed to have a native clergy and have worked as missionaries for the Portuguese Missions as well as those of the Propaganda Fide for almost half a millennium now. These Indian missionaries have extended the Church in India and other parts of Asia and Africa as no other Third World community has done. Since Indian Independence, most of the Bishops of India and Pakistan have been Indians from Goa, guiding the Church through difficult times.

* Sri Lankan Catholics were also converted by the Portuguese, starting in 1505, and then again by B1. Joseph Vaz. They remained loyal to the Church under 140 years of Dutch persecution, cut off from Rome except for Bl. Joseph Vaz and his native Indian missionaries from Goa.

* These Indian and Sri Lankan Catholics are disappointed and sad that they do not have a canonized Saint while so many Asian and African communities (who did not do such extended missionary work or suffer such persecution) have been given Saints.

* Blessed Joseph Vaz should be canonized as a representative of the missionary work of Indian Catholics and the heroic loyalty under persecution of Sri Lankan Catholics.

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Pope John Paul II On The Occasion Of The Beatification

 

“I came to Sri Lanka above all to honour Bl. Joseph
Vaz ... Like a star shining in the Asian sky, this great
spiritual guide teaches us many lessons about the
goodness of the human person and the nobility of our
destiny as human beings.” January 21, 1995

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The Cause Off Bl. Joseph Vaz Has Suffered Many Setbacks

His first Cause, started in 1713, was annulled by Pope Benedict XIV in 1738 and severe persecution in Sri Lanka hampered the collection of new miracles.

His second Cause was completed and submitted by the Portuguese Patriarch of Goa, D. Jose da Costa Nunes, with volumes of miracles in 1955. All 78 Bishops of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Burma, and 150,000 Laity petitioned Pope Pius XII to beatify him. No beatification was given.

In 1957, his Cause was put in the Historical Section. As the original documents required were mostly lost, the Cause ended here. Fr. Gasbarri, the Oratorian Postulator, resigned.

In 1965, Portuguese historian, Mons. Manuel da Costa Nunes, discovered the original Goan Oratorian Records in a Lisbon archive. He described the discovery as a major miracle that saved the Cause.

After the “Positio Historica” was completed in 1985, new miracles were again required.

Thus there was no beatification until 1995, for the Pope’s visit to Sri Lanka. Since October l999, 4 big miracles have been reported but their approval is still pending.

(Index)

The Pope Could Canonize Bl. Joseph Vaz

without further miracles as he did Maximilien Kolbe, perhaps on the same grounds, that persecution hampered his Cause

We invite all those with access to the Pope to ask His Holiness for this long overdue and just canonization

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Sri Lanka Pioneer Beat Persecution
By Msgr. John Condon 

SRI LANKA is a large island at the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. It has had a civilization from pre-Christian times. It had its own rulers and was politically independent up to the 16^th century in spite of repeated invasions from South India. The religion of the great majority of its people is Buddhism, brought into the country by their missionaries sent by the Indian emperor Asoka in the third century B.C.

Early in the 16^th century the Portuguese built a fort in Colombo, the present capital, and their influence began to be felt in the country.

With the Portuguese came also the Catholic faith: Missionaries of several religious orders worked on the island. The first to come were the Franciscans, in 1543. The Jesuits came in 1602, and soon after, in 1606, the Dominicans and Augustinians. They made many conversions and firmly planted the faith in the island.

Severe Persecution

By the middle of the seventeenth century another colonial power from the West came on the scene: the Dutch. They overthrew the Portuguese in Sri Lanka and occupied the territories that had been held by them. The Dutch were Calvinists. Through fear that the Catholic faith might remain a political link between the Sri Lankans and the Portuguese, they began to persecute the Catholics. determined to root out Catholicism from the island.

For about 30 years after the advent of the Dutch. the Catholics had no priests to minister to them. It was then that in 1687, a remarkable man of God, an Indian priest of the Archdiocese of Goa, Father Joseph Vaz. hearing of the sad situation in which Sri Lanka’s Catholics found themselves, came into the country in secret and in disguise to tend the abandoned flock.

First alone on the entire island, and later assisted by a small group of other Indian priests, he labored in Sri Lanka, tirelessly and relentlessly and without ever going back up to his death in 1711.

In the quarter of a century of his labors in Sri Lanka he rebuilt and rejuvenated the Church which sustained by the impact of his saintly personality successfully weathered the storm by persecution under Dutch rule (1658-1796) until, with the coming of the British, freedom was restored to Catholics in 1806. The influence of Father Vaz on the Church in Sri Lanka has endured and is felt even today.

Father Vaz’s extraordinary achievement in Sri Lanka is itself reason enough for him to be ranked among the great missionaries of the Church.

Pioneer Organizer

When the Dutch persecution of the Catholics of Sri Lanka began, it was no longer possible for European missionaries to come into the country. Even if they were willing to come, it would have been difficult for them to hide their identity. The color of their skin itself would have betrayed them. Indian missionaries wouldn’t have that difficulty. Providentially, at this critical moment in the history of the Church in Sri Lanka, a society came into being in Goa which, thanks to the efforts, enterprise and foresight of Father Vaz, began to supply Indian priests to Sri Lanka, with Father Vaz himself as pioneer, leader and trailblazer.

Had he come alone as just a priest of the Archdiocese of Goa, he certainly would have achieved much, as he actually did, but there wouldn’t have been others to follow up and continue his work. The Oratory, a community he founded, on the other hand, became a means of recruiting worker, for Sri Lanka. In reality it became a missionary society. It supplied Indian missionaries to Sri Lanka for over 150 years until with freedom restored to Catholics by the British missionaries from the West were again able to resume work on the island.

Saviour of the Catholic faith in Sri Lanka founder of a native religious congregation at a time when such institutions were non-existent, coordinator of a missionary society which supplied Asian missionaries, to another Asian country and capable Church administrator even during times of persecution. Father Joseph Vaz holds a very special place in mission history.

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Sages And Saints Of India
Rev. R. H. Lesser,

English writer living in Rajasthan India,
from his book:

“Xavier (St. Francis Xavier) came to India as the Pope’s personal representative (Ambassador), a position of great power and. prestige... He had the full might of the Portuguese empire behind him; and he did not hesitate to call on it if necessary. He had behind him… a well­ organized, powerful society -the Society of Jesus ... He seems to have had at his disposal considerable funds, provided not only by his society but also by the Queen’s ‘Slipper Money’. He never worked alone... He never had to encounter any serious opposition from local rulers ...

Vaz... had no funds, no support from anyone, ecclesiastical or civil... When he went to Ceylon, no one, apart from the Archbishop of Goa and his own local superior even knew he was going. His only companion was his faithful servant, John. They had no money, no resources, no luggage, except a breviary and Mass kit. He always traveled barefoot­. He would accept no gifts, not even a Mass stipend. His first two years in Jaffna were spent in daily danger of death from the Dutch... His entry into Kandy was in chains. He was for two years a prisoner, for the first five days without food. One is tempted to compare him with St. Paul (1 Cor., 4:10-13).

Xavier worked mainly among non-Christians. Modern scholars estimate that 10,000 people were drawn to Christ through his efforts.

Vaz worked mainly among Catholics, weak and lapsed. When he arrived in Ceylon, there were some of these, scattered, frightened, deprived of the Sacraments for 30, 40, or 50 years. When he died, after 24 years’ work... there were 70,000 practicing Catholics, served by catechists whom he had trained… Of these no less than 30,000 were converts from other religions. Not one had come in through motives other than religious, since Vaz had neither money to bribe nor power to influence or entice them.” (Note: Vaz converts suffered persecution, loss of hereditary titles, property, and political rights).

(Index)

The Polish Connection

Mons. Ladislas Nicolau Zaleski
was a native of Poland who re-discovered, Blessed Joseph Vaz
at the end of the nineteenth century
Mons. Zaleski became Blessed Joseph Vaz’ devotee and admirer
published accounts of his life
held him up as a model of the native clergy he had been sent to train, and
proposed that a new Cause for Canonization be started for him
It is a remarkable historical coincidence that a Polish Pope,
John Paul II, fulfilled his Polish compatriot’s wish and
beatified the “Apostle of Kanara and Sri Lanka” in 1995

 

(Index)

“Apostles Like Him”

By P. Ciampa, S.J.
an Italian Jesuit who worked in Sri Lanka for many years
Madras, India, 1960

Mgr. L.N. Zaleski has been the third Apostolic Delegate in India from 1892 to 1916.

Mgr. Zaleski had a two-point programme: first, the formation of an Indian clergy, and secondly, the formation of missionary-mindedness among this clergy. He found a great inspiration in carrying out this two-point programme. It was the life of a saintly Indian Priest, the Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz, who inspired Mgr. Zaleski with faith and trust in the Indian Clergy and its potentialities. Mgr. Zaleski knew that, if he could do something to encourage the Indian priests to follow and imitate the examples of sanctity and missionary-mindedness of Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz, his “most cherished work... entrusted to his special care by Pope Leo XIII” would be successful. For the salvation of India therefore he wanted Indian priests like Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz.

A Most Effective Proof

The life of Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz, Son of India and Apostle of Ceylon, became in the hands of Mgr. Zaleski a most effective proof to convince the Ecclesiastical circles in Rome and the unsympathetic in India of “what an Indian Priest, well trained and full of apostolic zeal, is capable of.” (Zaleski, L ‘Apotre du Ceylon. P.J. Vaz, Calcutta, 1896, p. II). Mgr. Zaleski published the life of the Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz first in French (Calcutta. 1896), then in Italian (Mangalore, 1897), and finally in English (London, 1913). Thus all the missionaries working in India could read it in their own mother tongue, without any excuse of misunderstanding

Mgr. Zaleski discovered that “in the beginning of this century (19^th), people had in Ceylon a great veneration for Fr. Vaz. It was equal to that which surrounded the memory of St. Francis Xavier...” And he concluded,

“Fr. Vaz’s life should be known today more than ever, since His Holiness Pope Leo XIII gave a new impetus to the formation of an Indian Clergy in the whole of India. His life, if it were more known, would be a model to all Indian Priests, and it would show what an Indian Priest, well trained and full of apostolic zeal, is capable of...”

So he dreamt of the day when Fr. Joseph Vaz would be beatified. He wrote: “ Indeed, we have had Saints in India, but as yet do not have a single India (Confessor) Saint...” Therefore he hoped to hasten that day, because “’the beatification of an Indian Priest would no doubt give a new encouragement towards the creation of an Indian Clergy. Without an Indian Clergy the mission will never be able to develop in this vast country, since the number of the missionaries sent from Europe can hardly meet the needs of the Christians and in many places cannot cope with the situation. Yet we have to bring the Gospel to non‑Christians.” (ibid. pp. II-III).

Message of Mgr. Zaleski

Though Mgr. Zaleski died in Rome, he expressed the wish that his remains come to rest among those for whom he had laboured so valiantly. With the transfer of the Papal Seminary, which he founded, from Kandy to its new location in Pune, the Alumni of the same Seminary, some of whom had known Mgr. Zaleski, have fulfilled his wish. Mgr. Zaleski’s remains now rest in the Seminary at the floor of the altar in the new Chapel of the Seminary. From there his message will be repeated to the future generations of Indian Priests:

“Be priests and missionaries like your model and patron, Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz.... I want you to be like him. India needs priests like him.” (Cfr. Zaleski, Epistolae ad Missionaris, Vol, I, II).

The Papal Seminary “will be a monument to Mgr. Zaleski’s zeal in seconding Pope Leo XIII’s efforts for the formation of an efficient Indian Clergy.” (Mgr. L.P. Kierkels, C.P.). And if the Seminaries form priests like Ven. Fr. Joseph Vaz, Mgr. Zaleski’s hopes will be fulfilled. Thus the two great friends, Zaleski and Vaz, will continue their mission in the service of the Clergy in the New India.

 

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Petition To His Holiness Pope John Paul II For The Canonization Of Blessed Joseph Vaz

Joseph Naik Vaz Institute
746 Peralta Avenue, Berkeley, Ca 94707. U.S.A.

Your Holiness

We humbly petition Your Holiness to grant the canonization of Blessed Joseph Vaz as a native saint for the nations of India and Sri Lanka and their loyal and devoted Catholics. The Churches of India and Sri Lanka, unlike other Asian and African Churches, still do not have a native canonized Saint.

We beg Your Holiness to waive all further requirements for the canonization of Blessed Joseph Vaz. Only Your Holiness can waive the rules for canonization as in the case of the Causes of Mother Teresa and St. Maximilien Kolbe. In the case of Mother Teresa the 5-year waiting period was waived because of her obvious saintly life and work. As Your Holiness knows, the splendor of the heroic missionary work and life of Blessed Joseph Vaz is still with us today. The Sri Lankan Catholics have held him as their Protector Saint for three centuries now. His Eminence, Angelo Cardinal Sodano, recently approved the declaration of Blessed Joseph Vaz as the “Patron Saint of the Archdiocese of Goa and Damao.” Since his installation as Patron Saint of Goa on January 16, 2000, he is, for all practical purposes, a “Saint” in India. The Bishops of India and Sri Lanka have asked Your Holiness for his official Beatification and Canonization many times as all are convinced that he is one of the greatest saints and missionaries of the Church.

We respectfully beg Your Holiness to also consider the parallels in the acts of heroism and the Causes of St. Maximilien Kolbe and Blessed Joseph Vaz. St. Kolbe volunteered his life for a man condemned to die in a Nazi camp. Blessed Joseph Vaz volunteered his life under persecution to save the Catholic faith of an entire nation, Sri Lanka. Today the descendants of the Church he rescued from extinction number one million Catholics. Sri Lanka has ten percent of Catholics in a largely Buddhist country, second only to the Philippines in percentage of Catholics in any nation of Asia, because he volunteered his very life for the Church there.

Your Holiness waived the miracles in the case of St. Maximilien Kolbe on the grounds that persecution hampered the collection and testimony to miracles during the Communist regime in Poland. In the case of Blessed Joseph Vaz, the Dutch persecution lasted for 140 years in Sri Lanka and hampered the collection of miracles and testimony. The first Process of Miracles was annulled by Pope Benedict XIV in 1738 precisely because all priests were banned and no religious Congregation other than the Oratorians of Bl. Joseph Vaz could enter Sri Lanka. The Indian Oratorians and their Sri Lankan flock were cut off from Rome for 140 years and it was near-impossible to prosecute his Cause. In the mid-nineteenth century the Masonic and anti-Catholic Government of Portugal banned all religious Orders, including Bl. Vaz Oratorians, and this caused the extinction of his Congregation and his Cause. These two conditions of religious persecution far outweigh anything encountered by the Cause of St. Maximilien Kolbe. We therefore respectfully beg Your Holiness to waive the final miracle required for the canonization of BI. Joseph Vaz for the same reasons as for the beatification and canonization of St. Kolbe, namely that persecution hampered his Cause.

In canonizing Blessed Joseph Vaz. Your Holiness and the Church would be giving a model of heroism and great loyalty to the Catholic Church under conditions of persecution and political turmoil so relevant to the present situation in India and Sri Lanka. We therefore humbly beg Your Holiness to canonize Blessed Joseph Vaz for the greater good of the Catholic Church in India and Sri Lanka and as a sign of Your Holiness loving concern for their devoted Catholics.

Yours respectfully in Christ - Devotees of Blessed Joseph Vaz

June 12, 2000

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 Letter To The Holy Father
(Sgd.) JAMES CARDINAL LERCARO
Archbishop’s House,
Bologna (Italy), 1^st August 1955.

Most Holy Father,

Considering the admirable life and virtues of the Servant of God, Joseph Vaz, these words seem applicable: “When he makes himself a guilt-offering, he shall see posterity, shall prolong his life” (Isaias, 52 : 10).

For he, treading under foot his most noble lineage, accounted riches and all good things of this earth as naught, that he might win souls to Christ by becoming a devoted brother to the poor and the sick, specially to those stricken with morbid pestilence or those who could count on no human aid.

Accordingly, after he had spared neither sweat nor labours in such apostolic charity for 24 years, he went round the whole island of Ceylon and there restored and established the Christian faith, so that he merits to be compared with Xavier, that other apostle of those regions, in his untiring zeal and ardent and extensive labours.

His memory is still in veneration among those peoples, who look on him as a man of the highest sanctity endowed with singular virtues.

Most Holy Father, it is my conviction that, if the heavenly honours are bestowed on this Servant of God, it will prove to be of very great benefit to the clergy and people of that island and of the whole of India, nay more, he will be chosen as a protector and as an example to be imitated. Since there is every reason to believe that this honour will redound to the good of all nations bound together by fraternal ties under Holy Mother the Church, suppliant at your feet I presume to suggest that you appoint a commission in the Sacred Congregation to look into the introduction of the Cause of the Servant of God.

Prostrate at your feet and imploring your
Apostolic Blessing.

(Index)

 

Novena Prayer

Imprimatur.
+ Teotonio, Patriarch of Goa & Indies, 1937 

O God of infinite goodness! Full of confidence
in Your kindness and in the mercy which You
showed to Your faithful servant, Blessed
Joseph Vaz, we humbly implore You to inspire
our Holy Church to take into consideration the
meritorious life and apostolic works of this
Servant of God and to grant him the full
honors of the altar and public devotion, if this
is for Your greater glory and for our salvation,
so that imitating his virtues and placing
ourselves under his patronage, we will reach
Eternal Glory. Amen.
O God, through the intercession of Blessed
Joseph Vaz grant me the grace of ...........
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.  

Joseph Naik Vaz Institute
746 Peralta Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707, U.S.A
A California Nonprofit Corporation
e-mail:  josephnaikvaz@aol.com
website:  http://members.aol.com/josephnaikvaz/thirdworldsaint
Tel: (408)-227-7497