Saint Gonsalo Garcia (1556–1597) is the first Indian born Roman Catholic saint . Born in the western coastal town of Vasai, an exurb of the city of Bombay, he preached from the Bassein fort during the time the town was under Portuguese colonial rule. The feast of St. Garcia has traditionally been held on the first Sunday nearest to the neap tide following Christmas in Vasai.
- Early history
Gonsalo Garcia was born Gundi Slavus Garcia to a Portuguese father and a Canarese (resident of the Konkan coast) mother in Bassein, on February 5, 1557. He was the right hand of father St. Peter Baptist Superior of Franciscan mission in Japan. He was tutored by Fr. Sebastião Gonçalves, a Jesuit priest working in Vasai, in the college near Bassein fort. Garcia studied under the tutelage of the Jesuits for eight years from 1564 to 1572. Then, at the age of fifteen, Fr. Sebastião took Garcia to Japan. He soon managed to learn the language and since was seen as an affable person; he soon became popular in the local community as a catechist. He resigned and left to Alcao to set up trade. His business prospered and branches were opened in different locales in Southeast Asia.
Gonsalo's long cherished dream to be a Jesuit did not materialise and moved on to Manila in the Philippines as a lay missionary. In the Philippines, he was influenced by a Franciscan priest, Fr. Peter Baptista and soon joined the Seraphic Order as a lay brother. After working with the leprosy patients there he was formally ordained as a Franciscan as the Friars Minor at Manila.
- Martyrdom
On May 26, 1592, the Spanish governor in the Philippines sent Gonsalo on a diplomatic mission back to Japan along with Baptista. After working for four years, the Japanese shogun suspected the missionaries of sedition and were placed under house arrest in their monastery in Miaco (Kyoto) on 8 December 1596. A few days afterwards, when they were singing vespers, they were arrested, manacled and immured.
On January 3, 1597, the left ears of twenty-six confessors among them Garcia, were exscinded; but were then collected in reverence by the local Christians. On February 5, Garcia was crucified on Nagasaki Hills with twenty six of his companions. St. Garcia was the first to be extended on, and nailed to, the cross, which was then erected in the middle of those of his companions. While being nailed, Garcia sang praises of God, earning him the martyr's title.
- Canonisation
In 1627, Garcia and his fellow martyrs were declared as Venerable by Pope Urban VIII. The martyr's feast day occurs on February 5th and in 1629, their veneration was permitted throughout the Catholic Church. On June 8, 1862 Garcia was declared a saint by Pope Pius IX. The Gonsalo Garcia Church in Gass,Vasai was built in 1942 and renovated in 1957. A weeklong feast is celebrated there in February followed by a Novena in his honour. It was built by Msgr. Louise Caitan D'souza, a Goan priest.