St. Diogo’s Church, Goa

St. Diogo Church is a well-known Franciscan Church situated at the foot hills of Monte de Guirim. The Church was built by Fr Miguel de Sam Boaventura in 1604, with support from the local Comunidade. It was repaired in 1703 when two belfries were added to it. Finally, in 2004 on the occasion of its 4th centenary, a significant volume of renovation work of the church and the parochial residence was carried out.

The feast of St. Diogo was celebrated every year on the 2nd Sunday of November. Moreover, Guirkars would not even display sufficient festive fervor on the occasion of the feast of patron St Diogo. They had celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Rosary with much more pomp. Ironically too, Sangottkars and Guirkars would occupy the left and right-side pews respectively in the church.

History

St. Diogo Church is a well-known Franciscan Church situated at the foothills of Monte de Guirim. The Church was built by Fr Miguel de Sam Boaventura in 1604, with support from the local Comunidade. It was repaired in 1703 when two belfries were added to it. Finally, in 2004 on the occasion of its 4th centenary, a significant volume of renovation work of the church and the parochial residence was carried out.

Architecture

The Church was built in Mannerist Neo-Roman style. This magnificent Church is the 13th of the 24 Churches erected in the Bardez taluka. The main altar is dedicated to the patron St. Diogo and on either side is St. Anthony of Padua and St. Francis of Assisi. There are 5 other ornate altars present in the nave. The altar on the left-hand side is dedicated to infant Jesus and on the right is dedicated to Our Lady of Rosary.
There are 3 bells to this Church, 2 belong to Sangolda and 1 to Guirim. The Church also has 3 entrances to this church, 1 for Sangolda, the Main entrance, and the other for Guirim. There are many stories about this church and the people of the two villages. This one is of the 3 bells. As the church is shared between 2 villages, the elders decided that the villagers who install the bell will claim the rights. When they were working on the church it was very late and was decided that they sleep it over and start the work on the bells the next day. The Guirim villagers went home but the Sangolda villagers worked through the night and installed 2 of the 3 bells and rang them aloud waking both the villages. Hence Sangolda claims 2 Bells of the church.