Goan wedding brings Filipino woman face to face with SFX

PANAJI: When Joan Janola Rodriguez entered the Basilica of Bom Jesus on Tuesday, she remembered the words of her grandmother about the saint who is laid to rest there.

Rodriguez was just one of many casual-looking tourists who enter the church every day, but her being here was a culmination of a life-long devotion to the saint. “It was like all my grandmother’s teachings came to life,” she said.“I never imagined I would be able to pay homage to St Xavier’s relics.”
Rodriguez is from Abuyog in the Philippines’ Leyte province. Some believe the 16th century Spanish saint visited Mindanao, one of the 7,000-odd islands that comprise the southeast Asian nation, but others dispute that.
“He did not come to Abuyog, but the devotion to him in our municipality is very deep,” she told TOI.
Rodriguez was in Goa on invitation from a Goan colleague in Qatar, who called her for his family wedding. Apart from the celebration, for Rodriguez, it turned out to be a divine opporunity to fulfill a lifelong dream.
Back home in Abuyog, there are nearly 60,000 residents and Roman Catholicism is the prevalent religion there. There is also a three century-old church dedicated to St Francis Xavier.
Just like in Goa, where it is believed that ‘Goencho Saib’ protects the state from disasters, Abuyog’s residents too believe the Spanish Jesuit extends a protective influence. “We believe he protects us from disasters,” Rodriguez says.
“The storms always pass through our island, Leyte. In 2013, Supertyphoon Yolanda caused much damage, but there were no casualties.” The islands of the Philippines are often battered by nature’s forces. Yolanda, for instance, killed thousands and affected around 11 million people. When a storm signal is hoisted in Abuyog, parishioners march in a procession from their church to the seashore.
“Here, we see the crabs,” she said, referring to the belief that a crab brought to shore a cross the saint had lost at sea.
When Rodriguez thinks of St Xavier, her thoughts go back to her grandmother, Virgilia Janola, who taught her to pray to the saint for safety and personal devotion.
“My grandmother is no more,” she says. “Whenever I visit a holy place for the first time, I make a wish. But when I prayed to St Xavier in Old Goa, I told him ‘I leave everything to you’. The saint’s blessings are overflowing, and it is enough,” says Rodriguez, who will return to work in Qatar on Tuesday.