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| Holy spirit church in Margao keywordsuggest.org |
The Holy Spirit church - Espirito Santo Church (1565-2015)' is one of the most famous of Margao’s architectural attractions. This church which is more than 450 years old is built in Indo-Portuguese architecture. Even to day it has a functional parish and is most popular for its annual feast that is held on the occasion of Pentecost, usually in the month of May.
It was first church in Salcete, according to Journalist and Historian Valmiki Faleiro; the very first mass
was held in Verna (1519) and not here. Likewise,
first conversion of Christianity took place in Cortalim(1560).
The Dominicans who accompanied the Portuguese garrison to the fort took the initiative and built the first church as a chapel in 1521 in the small fortified town of Rachol. " Holy Spirit" was the second church to be constructed in Salcete in 1564-65. There was no involvement of either the Franciscans or the Jesuits in the constructon of the church. Believed to be one of the richest churches in Salcete, it has a German made 18th century pipe organ that could be heard at a far off distance, besides, there are rare and valuable antiques stored in this place of worship.
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| Holy spirit church in Margao Flickriver |
Faleiro mentions that the church's allied institutions are the college and hospital. The Colegio do Espirito Santo earlier known as the Colegio de Todos os Santos, is the the forerunner of today's Rachol seminary. This seminary was the fourth college in the entire Jesuit province in India from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to Japan in the far east with headquarters in Goa. Adjacent to the the college was the 100-bed Hospital do Padre Paulo Camerte that attracted patients from Salcete and Bijapuri territories in those days.
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| Interior, holy spirit Church, margoa. Flickr com. |
Salcete, it is said was the most prominent taluka in Goa in the by-gone era. Margao being its principal village, its inhabitants were the first to revolt against the Portuguese in 1565 as the Portuguese rule was quite unpopular because of forced religious conversion, etc.
http://goa-tourism.com/GTDC-holidays/places-to-see-goa/holy-spirit-church.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Dispelling-misconceptions-of-the-Holy-Spirit-Church/articleshow/4692547
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