OUR LADY OF ROSARY CHURCH

Sheryl  Ferrao   Fybcom  B

C1832-32

History

The Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Navelim, Goa is called ‘Nossa Senhora do Rosaria em Navelim, Goa’ in Portuguese. The Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Navelim, is popularly known locally as ‘The Navelim Church’ locally in Goa.

 The Navelim Church was founded by a French Jesuit.Today the Our Lady of the Rosary Church,  is the most populous parish in the Archdiocese of Goa.

As time passed,the church became small for the growing population.Later on,it was reconstructed with laterite stones on a large scale by a rich goan mercant.

This merchant according to legend ,while passing throught the main road running in front of the above church,received this message that he would lose a certain amount of money in his business.
As soon as he received this message,he entered the churchand started praying to Our Lady of Rosary,requesting her to relieve and free him from this catastrophe.

If his prayers were answered he promised to reconstruct the church on a larger scale. In the event he not only recovered what he lost , but he also received double the amount .He then reconstructed the entire church and also renovated the statue of Our Lady of Rosary.

NAVELIM FEAST

The celebration of the feast of Rosary begins every third wednesday in November.The Rosary church comprises of celebration like traditional procession and novenas.Each year the church paints on the outside fifteen days before the feast.The inside of the church is also beautifully decorated and the outside is covered with fairy lights.Most of the houses and streets in the village are lit up with colourful lights during the celebration.

Every four year,the statue of Our Lady is brought down from the alter and a procession takes her to the Holy Rosary School where the mass is held on the playground.
During this one day celebration of Our Lady,children from the school act out scenes from the bible and the playground is filled with the crowds of villagers.

Every November a candle light procession carries a statue of Our Lady of Rosarytowards the church,the celebration of the feast continues for several days.

Main Alter of Our Lady of Rosary Church

The inside of the church is also very beautiful and pretigious. The material used for construction of this church are lime,plaster,and laterite.Majority of paintings of this church are carried out on wooden borders.

 It consist of a main alter and two side alters , in total three alters.The church is located across the main road and infront there is a rosary school too.

Enterance of the church 

The church has a main door with two small door and two side door. There are five huge television set since there's a lot of crowed and not all people can fit in it even though it is huge.

Almost every year ther are around thousands of people coming everyday and during the major celebration (feast,christmas and new year ) there are over millions and millions of people.Eucharistic masses are celebrated almost everyday 

Statue of Our Lady of Rosary

There are people  that offer flower,candle to the statue .There are tons of tourist that visit this church and they click photos and pray for their loved one's.There is also a huge place where people can park their vehichles on either side.

Statue of Saint Joseph Vaz 

This is the statue of  Saint Joseph Vaz .The feast of St. Joseph Vaz is celebrated on 16 January every year and tons of people come . The main Eucharistic celebration is celebrated at 7:00 pm which is done near this statue followed by, rest masses are done inside the church.  

as most of you'll know that he has done alot of miracle this is the one that i know 

Miraculous Shower of Rain

There was a time in Mandy where there used to be no rain and had a lot of drought.Thereupon the King sent some of his Catholic people to Caz inviting him to pray for rain. Realise g that this was more or less a challenge to test his powers of intercession with God , he sent back a word that if the King had faith and if it was to the glory of God ,rain would certainly come down,and he set up an alter in the public opposite the palace,placed a cross upon and prayed to God to glorify his name by sending down rain.

 Before he rose from his Knees,rain fell in abundance but not a drop fell on him. This was the turning point in the career of Caz for the King thereafter gave him personal order to preach anywhere in his kingdom and also to go far and beyond it and to visit the other towns as he pleased.

Getting There

Well since this church is nearby it hardly take 15-20 mins for us to reach. I went with my sister .We went with our own vehicle .It is easy to come to this church since it is on the main road. It is also connected to major parts. There are various option that you can select.One can come with their vehicle while others can come by the public buses.

So, if you ever want to visit another church I would recommend you to do visit this church.