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Mighty sixteen century Se Cathedral, the Episcopal seat of the Archdiocese of Goa and the largest church in Asia. Envisaged by its Founder, Viceroy Redondo. It took eighty years to build. Work on the interior was beset by financial problems and only completed in 1652. Although designed for the Dominican Order, the Cathedral takes its cue from Jesuit architecture. |
However, one typically Goan inclusion were the 2 square bell towers flanking the main façade. The campanile still standing on the south side - the other collapsed after being struck by lightning in 1776 - houses the largest bell in Asia, the legendary Sino do Ouro or "Golden Bell", famed for its mellow tone. During the Inquisition, its tooling announced the start of Goa's gruesome autos da fé held in the square in front of the Sé (now a lawn), to which suspected heretics would be led from the Palace of the Inquisition's dungeons opposite.
The main entrance opens onto an awe inspiring interior, in which rows of huge pillars separate the broad barrel - vaulted naves from its side aisles. Ahead, the magnificent reredos rises above the main altar to the ceiling, contrasting sharply with plain white surroundings. Deeply carved and layered with gold leaf, it features six finely painted panels depicting scenes from the life and martyrdom of Saint Catherine, to whom the Sé in dedicated, suffused by light from the lofty side windows. The one on the top left shows her debating philosophy with foreign scholars. Opposite, she awaits execution for her heresy, before being beheaded in the bottom - left panel. Finally, in the bottom-right panel, her headless body is carried away by angels to Mount Sinai. The spiked wheel on which Saint Catherine was tortured is also depicted. In 1065 this became the symbol of the Order of Knights of Saint John, formed to protect the holy relics after Saint Catherine's corpse was disinterred in Alexandria, where she was executed, and taken to Sinai.
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Also much revered is the Cruz dos Milagres, or "Miraculous Cross", In 1619 a simple cross made by local shepherds was erected on a hillside near Old Goa. The cross grew bigger and several witnessed, saw an apparition of Christ hanging on it. When details of the miracle became known, it was decided to build a Church on the spot where the vision had appeared and while this was being done the cross was stored nearby. When the time came to move the cross from its temporarily hut into the new church it was found that it had grown again and that the doors of the Church had to be widened to accommodate it So the story goes. The cross was moved to the cathedral in 1845. |
Two chapels further down, which pilgrims petition to cure sickness. Housed behind an opulently carved wooden screen, the cross, which allegedly grew from a braid of palm leaves planted in a rock by a local priest, stood in a Goan village until an apparition on Christ appeared hanging from it in 1619. The chapel next to the entrance (also on the north side) contains another famous holy object : the font that Saint Francis Xavier used to baptize new converts.
