THE MAN


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Joseph Vaz was born in Benaulim, Salcette, Goa at the ancestral home of his mother. This August event was mysteriously heralded to his pious father through the appearance of a star shining bright at noon up above the sky in his native place, Sancoale. This prompted him to record the following in his family register: "On 21st of April, 1651, a son was born to me. He was christened on the 8th day with the name of Joseph. In course of time he will achieve greatness". Right from the start the hand of the Lord molded him. The boy grew so much in the love of God that automatically he was drawn to pass this gigot on to the less fortunate and socially backward children of his surroundings by teaching them catechism and prayers. It guided him also to share his food and belongings with the poor and the destitute. Gradually the whole village became proud of such a jewel.

DoorsOpenUniqueness As A Child His deep piety made such progress that he often his parents found him praying in the advanced hours of the night, and local tradition has it that he would quietly escape to his parish church early in the morning and its doors would automatically open wide to welcome him into the sanctuary, where he would spend hours on end before the Blessed Sacrament and praying to his dear Mother Mary to whom he would later on sell himself as her slave. Born in a home where virtue was held in high esteem, where Christian ethical and morals values were much emphasized, where fixed times were set aside for family prayers and spiritual reading, Joseph Vaz grew up, gentle and kind, greatly given to piety and endowed with a singular love for the poor and a somewhat precious desire to be unseen and unobserved in his piety and alms-deeds. He had inherited the gravity of manners and earnestness from his father. His discernment was a bit superior to his age and his love for study and inclination to virtue revealed that grace rather than nature dominated in him, in such a way that, in the village of Benaulim and Sancoale where he grew up and completed his primary studies, other parents would point out to him as a "Holy Child" and exhort their children to imitate him.

From his very childhood Joseph Vaz wanted to escape from the conversations of men to be alone with God in prayer; so lively was the faith guiding him to search God in whom he believed ardently. He always insisted that at least once a day every one should make the acts of faith, hope and charity and he himself made the same acts many times a day. Moved by the love of God, the young Joseph Vaz chose to serve Him as a priest. At a very young age he cultivated the true wisdom which consisted in holy fear and love of God. His greatest aspiration was to make the Lord God known and loved by all men. He prayed ardently for the conversion of souls and wanted everyone to belong to the fold of the Church.

His Prayerful Life Right from his childhood Bl. Joseph Vaz would escape from the games and be found in solitary places alone with God, reciting some prayers according to his age. He used to get up at night while his brothers were asleep and pray on knees for a long time. Thus he was sometimes late to get up in the morning and, before knowing the cause, his parents even thought that he was a bit lazy. One day he was praying behind the door. His Father, not knowing it, pushed the door with force and the boy was hurt gravely. However he gave no signs of pain. He had tender loving devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. Even as a young boy while going to school and returning from it, he would often recite the Rosary on the way. As a child while studying in Benaulim, he used to attend daily Mass. He used to accompany the "viaticum" whenever the priest would take it for the sick. He received Holy Communion many times during the year. As soon as he had learnt to read, he would read spiritual books and lives of saints at the invitation of the two aunties he had at home. As a boy if he saw a funeral, he would accompany the procession up to the cemetery and pray for the soul of the dead. Whenever someone died in the village he would go round telling his neighbors about the dead and asking them to pray for the eternal repose of the soul. At night he would recommend the souls of the dying and the dead and offer prayers for them.

Selfless Service Fr. Joseph Vaz manifested his love towards all men but his charity towards the sick, the poor and his enemies was proverbial. At a very young age he used to teach children whatever he had learnt from school. When the teacher once asked him to box the ears of an elder student, he refused saying that being of a lower age he would not dare to punish his elders. When the teacher asked him to give a ruler stroke to those who had not studied the lesson, he struck himself with the ruler as soon as the teacher turned his back. As a child whenever he saw a poor beggar asking alms he would immediately go to the back of the house and would give him a portion of his food.

Purity When he was a child, Joseph Vaz avoided indecent language in his presence others would not dare to say anything reprehensible. When he was sent by his parents to the house of their relatives on the occasion of weddings and feasts, if he was compelled to sleep in the company of others, Joseph Vaz would retire to a corner and accommodate himself under a chair to avoid any inconveniences that could result sleeping amidst others. Fr. S. do Rego says that he was so modest that he would answer the call of nature only at night and in far off places. Fr. Francisco Vaz says that he was therefore considered by all as a youth of innocent life and pure customs, and never was any immodesty or uncouth behavior seen in him, which is quite often seen in many youth of that age. Food In his food habits too he was very mortified and austere. As a child he ate common food; he abstained from delicate and tasty food. Courage the young Joseph Vaz once noticed that his companions were getting afraid and would run away when they reached a certain spot where there was a big tree, saying that the devil was appearing there in different and fearful forms and the tree was shaken violently. The young boy Joseph Vaz started praying to God on the spot on his knees and taking discipline to do penance.

Since then the fearful sights and the violent shaking disappeared and the tree became calm. Basic Priestly Studies Joseph Vaz attended the elementary school at Sancoale, his paternal village. He was said to be a model pupil; bright, attentive in class, diligent in his lessons, obedient to the teacher and loved by his companions. When he grew up his father sent him to a school at Benaulim to learn Latin as a preparation for his priestly studies. Joseph's stay in Benaulim was a time of great joy since he could exercise better his love for prayer, charity and altar. He participated in the Mass everyday, frequented the Sacraments, recited the Rosary on the way to the Church, loved to follow processions and take part in the Stations of the Cross. Besides being deeply engaged in all the above religious practices, Joseph Vaz made such rapid progress in his studies that his father decided to send him to the city of Goa to follow a course of Rhetoric and Humanities in the Jesuit College of St. Paul.

After completing his humanistic studies with the Jesuits, Joseph Vaz entered the Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas for his philosophical and theological studies. During this time he stayed in the collegiate Church of Our Lady of the Rosary along with the other students studying for priesthood. All through these six years of study, he continued to live a serious and devout life, unshaken by all the distractions and scandals around him. Joseph Vaz was like the light of the sun which passes through clean as well as sordid places and illumines them all but does not suffer any loss in its brightness. Joseph Vaz in his 6 years sojourn through the scandalous city did not allow himself to be contaminated by the scum of those incidents but teered himself clear on wings of ever increasing holiness. His Exemplary Life For his companions in the seminary, he was an example of virtue and a mirror of perfection. He was as careful of his prayers as of the matter that he was studying, for while his companions were loitering in their sleep paying their dues to Nature, they would see him in prayer, offering the first moments of the day to God from whose hands he had received t he gift of life.

His faith in the Eucharist was so intense that even as a student whatever free time he could get after his daily classes, he would spend it studying and praying in the Church. As a student when he was staying at the Church of Our lady of the Rosary at Old Goa, he would quietly go to the Choir or in the Chapel to enjoy the presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar. Joseph Vaz An extant letter shows that Blessed Joseph Vaz signed his name as Joseph Vaas, in time "Vaas" got written as Vaz. Most scholars accept that Joseph Vaz is the appropriate name by which he should be remembered. Benaulim The Arabian Sea laps monotonously against the coast throwing white sprays against the reddish earth of India. A curtain of slender and bent coconut palms stretches along the shore and covers the interior with a sea of thick, green tufts.

Beneath a magnificent, verdant nave of mighty banyan trees, twining lianas and small shrubs of various green hues, the houses of the people are concealed, houses of beaten earth or wood or little brickwork, terrace houses with the roofs of tiles or of interwoven palm leaves. They dwellings built in the best way possible, to protect the people against the heat and the heavy rains, which fall periodically on this land making it more fertile in vegetation. A tar road passes through the palm trees and connects the various groups of villages, which form the small town of Benaulim. In a green glade with huge tropical trees, rises the ancient façade of the Parish Church. Two tall spires decorated with baroque volutes frame the large portal, which opens on to the central nave with a wood barrel roof, at the end of which stands the main altar flanked on the sides by the benches of the collegiate. On the left as one enters a modest little chapel, is the baptismal font overhung by a canopy in the shape of a pointed tent. Behind that hill there is the sea, the great Arabian Sea, deep blue and rippled by the wind. In the thick coconut grove, just near the lane, which joins the dwellings of the people of Benaulim, rose one of the many houses, which on a summer day was cheered by a birth.

Benaulim had on that Friday of April 21, 1651, one more son. A child about whom much would be spoken in his country and in the far off island of Ceylon. The happy event occurred in the suffocating heat of the tropical summer, which preceded the rainy season. Eight days later a little procession of white dresses and sparkling saris of different colors passed beneath the stately palm trees and wended its way from the little reddish house to the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist. The tiny baby was introduced to the Parish Priest, the Jesuit Father Jacinto Pereira, who bestowed on him, with the baptismal water, the character of a Christian and the name of Joseph, in the Portuguese language: Jose, Sebastiano Vaz was the god-father and Speranza de Miranda was the god-mother. Joseph was the son of Christopher Vaz and Maria de Miranda; the former hailed from the nearby village of Sancoale and the latter was from Benaulim. They were both of modest means. Christopher had a smattering of education. Besides being well versed in Konkani, he could also speak and write in Portuguese. Both parents were fervent Catholics and affectionate by nature. This was their third child; little Peter and a young sister Ann had already arrived to brighten the home.

There was nothing unusual about the event and it was soon forgotten in the sleepy hollow, which consisted of only a few huts and cottages. Meanwhile little Joseph grew up and started toddling on the sands near the sea or on the banks of the Sale, the small river that flows into the Arabian Sea, not very far from Benaulim. His skin, similar to that of his countrymen, was of chocolate color, more or less dark and it contrasted with the whiteness of his simple dress. He was tall, thin and good-looking. Joseph started his life like many boys in the great land of India. But the careful attention of his family had a great influence on him, due to his docile nature. In fact, his parents and close relatives on his mother's side were really good Catholics, and as years passed by four of Maria's children and of her sister Angela Do Rego were ordained priests. They were the Oratorian Fathers Joseph, John, and Christopher Vaz and Joseph Carvalho, three of whom also became missionaries in Ceylon, with their cousin.

Thus in the male line the Vaz family became extinct. Joseph soon showed signs of gravity of manner and earnestness of disposition, which he inherited from his father, as his first biographer (his cousin Sebastian do Rego, who followed him in the priesthood and to the Oratorian Institute) records. Already in his boyhood he showed a marked tendency towards piety; he devoted much of his free time to prayer, remaining absorbed in it, when he might have gone out to play with his brothers and friends. He loved to conceal his piety and did not like to be seen praying. His desire to be alone with God absorbed in silent meditation was the occasion of an accident, which could have done him much bodily harm. Once while his father was opening a door in the house, behind which little Joseph was lost in prayer, the child was dashed inadvertently and violently against a wall; but as the local tradition has it, the door was a shield for his body and left its imprint on him. That he was not cold by nature but rather had warmth of affection is revealed in his later life. He was helped in his education by two of his aunts who, when they became widows, came to live at Christopher's house.

While he was attending the elementary school at Sancoale he was a model pupil; for he was diligent and docile, without being a plodder. The signs of the divine call became evident to him in the early years of his life; he soon expressed his desire to become a priest and at the same time showed a deep spirit of charity to others, particularly by offering to the poor the little money he was given at home. His father did not stand in the way of his noble desires; but he wanted to make sure that his son's ambitions were not those of an innocent child lacking experience. In fact, later on, when from the behavior and success of Joseph in his studies there was enough evidence to show that the young man's desire was undoubtedly a call from heaven, Christopher did not hesitate to make all the sacrifices needed in order to give his son a proper education in preparation for his exalted mission. Biographers of Fr. Joseph Vaz tell us that his father, at the time of his birth, had a sort of presentiment about the future of his son. In a notebook, after writing about the happy event in his home, recalling the baptism of his child, he jotted down the following sentence: "One day he will become a great man." Considered in the light of the events that followed this prediction acquires great value and justifies what his biographers have handed down to us, namely, that Christopher Vaz had a prophetic dream, at the time of his son's birth he saw a star rising in the sky.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that Christopher was probably influenced by this foreboding and paid particular care to the education of his son. Joseph also attended the high school at Benaulim, where he began to learn Latin. His stay in Benaulim was a source of great joy to him because he had more chances of practicing devotion and charity, and of attending Mass everyday in the beautiful church. Being unable to help the poor as he used to do in his hometown of Sancoale he practiced charity towards the souls in Purgatory, attending funerals and praying for souls of the dead or accompanying the Viaticum to the sick. When in the evening the bell rang to invite the people to pray for the souls of the dead, not only did he pray, but he also tried to induce his friends to do the same. In his dealings with his schoolmates, he inspired them by his sense or order and his good example; He always did his best to help them, since he was the most gifted in the school. He always tried to avoid becoming a prefect of discipline lest he should be called upon to inflict corporal punishment on his classmates in lieu of his teacher.

When he finished high school he went to the University of Goa and took up rhetoric and the humanities, courses that were conducted in the capital by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. He spent six years at Goa; his residence was at the College of our Lady of the Rosary. He completed his literary studies at the Jesuit College of St. Paul. He then joined the Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas - directed by the Dominicans - for his philosophical and theological studies. He continued his austere way of life, devoting himself seriously to the preparation for the priesthood. His ardent desire to do good to others, without being observed, increased, as the time of his ordination approached. His general behavior was probably a positive reaction against the frivolities of life in Goa at the time and, of which the clergy also felt the effects.


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Contact: Rector (Vice Postulator - Goa)

Sanctuary of Blessed Joseph Vaz, 413 Blessed Joseph Vaz Road, P. O. Cortalim, SANCOALE - Goa - 403710-INDIA

Contact Office Tel: 00 91 832 2550263 / 2550517 e-mail: sanjovaz@blessedjosephvaz.org [www.blessedjosephvaz.org]

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