Pedro Ferrão | Impressions

Frescoe of Joseph Vaz (Source: communio.stblogs.org) (Custom) — Frescoe of Joseph Vaz (Source: communio.stblogs.org)

The Dutch Governor came to know about the happenings in Colombo among the Catholics. He ordered a Dutch Dissawe to apprehend the priest. By the time the Dissawe got his orders, Joseph Vaz had left Colombo and was in Negombo, preaching there.

After a few months, Joseph Vaz returned to his church in Kandy. Then he received two letters from two Missionaries who had just arrived in Puttalam. Joseph Vaz was happy that his superiors in Goa had finally acknowledged his request for helpers.

In February 1696, after obtaining testimonial letters from the Archbishop of Goa and from Dom Pedro Pacheco, Bishop of Cochin under whose jurisdiction Ceylon was, two priests, Father Jose Menezes of Sancoale and Father Joseph Carvalho from the Oratory of Goa set out towards Ceylon. Both were able men, full of zeal and tried in virtue. They were Konkani Brahmins. Joseph Carvalho was a nephew of Joseph Vaz, the son of one of his sisters and his first pupil at the Sancoale School.

On March 18, 1696, the two priests reached Quilon. They stayed for six months at the Jesuit Seminary in Ambazhakad (Sambalur) as guests of the Jesuits. They studied Tamil that would help them to enter the Northern part of Ceylon with ease. They also learned the art of disguise.

On August 18, 1696, they wrote a letter to their Superiors in Goa in which they said that they had sent a letter to Joseph Vaz through a Venetian merchant requesting him to send his servant John to help them in their journey.

On September 30, 1696, they left Ambazhakad Seminary. Travelling along the Coromondal Coast they arrived in Tuticorin on October 5, 1696.

'Negapatnam van Choromandel', 18th century Dutch engraving of Nagapattinam after original engraving by Johannes Kip c. 1680 — ‘Negapatnam van Choromandel’, 18th century Dutch engraving of Nagapattinam after original engraving by Johannes Kip c. 1680Negapatnam van Choromandel’, 18th century Dutch engraving of Nagapattinam after original engraving by Johannes Kip c. 1680

From Tuticorin, they set out on a canoe and after four days at sea reached Nagapattinam. Due to the severity of the travel from Goa to Nagapattinam, on land and on the rough sea, Joseph Carvalho fell ill.

Leaving Carvalho in Nagapattinam, Menezes decided to proceed alone. He boarded a ship bound for Jaffnapattinam in the guise of a merchant. A Dutch sergeant traveling in the same ship suspected Menezes to be a priest and not a merchant and enquired about his baggage. He also tried to glean about him by the manner of his speech. To avoid the risk of imprisonment by the Dutch authorities. Father Menezes threw his baggage into the sea along with the Breviary and some books he had brought for the mission in Ceylon.

Jose Menezes arrived in Jaffna on November 12, 1696. In the meantime, Joseph Carvalho having recovered, arrived in Jaffna a month later on December 15, 1696. After passing through Mannar and Mantota, Carvalho arrived at Puttalam on January 19, 1697.

Joseph Vaz went to Puttalam to meet the two priests who had arrived there. After giving thanks to God for their safe arrival, he approached a highly placed official in Kandy to get the permission of the king to enable one more priest to enter Kandy. The official informed him that permission was not necessary.

As Superior and Vicar General of the mission in Ceylon, Joseph Vaz had to decide who was more suitable for the missionary work in Kandy and who could be in charge of the Dutch territory. He appointed Jose Menezes as missionary of Puttalam, Negombo and its districts up to Sitawaka and Colombo, and he took his nephew Father Joseph Carvalho along with him to Kandy.

Since his intention was to visit all the Catholics on the Island of Ceylon Joseph Vaz did not want to have a fixed abode. So, he appointed Father Joseph Carvalho as the Parish Priest of Mahanuwara.

Joseph Vaz then sent John, back to Goa with a letter of recommendation to the priesthood. At that time, the Portuguese Church Councils reserved the priesthood only for the two higher castes in Goa. Since John was a member of the Indigenous Kumbi tribe, he was not accepted for the priesthood.

A third Missionary, Oratorian Father Pedro Ferrão arrives

Joseph Vaz went to the Jaffna region. This was his second visit after the persecution of and the ordeal he had undergone after the Christmas Day of 1689.

He entered Jaffna and laboured day and night administering the Blessed Sacraments. But everything did not go smoothly. A Catholic maidservant, to avenge the punishment meted out to her by her mistress in whose house the priest was about to celebrate the Mass that night, tipped off the Dutch captain of Jaffna.

However, the vigilant Catholics seeing the soldiers approaching, hid Joseph Vaz in a hut and had time to dismantle the altar and hide the statues. But the soldiers searched not only that house but also all the houses on the way, but it did not occur to them to search the hut, and so Joseph Vaz escaped, narrowly.

About this time, a third Oratorian, Father Pedro Ferrão of Margao, came to Jaffna from India and slipped into the Vanni region. Joseph Vaz met him. Father Pedro Ferrão brought with him letters from Dom Pedro Pacheco, Bishop of Cochin, to whose diocese Sri Lanka had been attached since 1558.

In a letter dated February 10, 1696, the Bishop appointed Joseph Vaz as his Vicar General with all the powers and full jurisdiction, spiritual as well as temporal, to administer the Church over the entire Island of Ceylon. Joseph Vaz accepted this appointment reluctantly saying “though I am not worthy of it“.

Joseph Vaz told Pedro Ferrão to remain in Mantota in charge of the mission of Jaffna, Mantota, Vanni and other places in the North of the Island.

Now there were four Catholic Missionaries in Ceylon!

Next → Part 14 – Smallpox Epidemic in Kandy

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