The Basilica of Bom Jesus at Old Goa is not the only place where the relics of St Francis Xavier can be found. In select churches, chapels and even a private home, the saint’s relics in the form of skin, bone, fingernail, a piece of cloth and a wooden relic of the case in which the body of the saint was laid for several years, are being venerated

In his office at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Margao, Fr Antonio Amandio Valadares opens a case that has for long been carefully guarded.
It contains the relic of St Francis Xavier, and is available for public veneration only during the nine-day novenas in Nov-Dec. For the rest of the year, the reliquary remains under lock and key.
“The relic is kept inside the strong room (at the church), with two separate locks,” Fr Valadares told TOI. The keys to the two locks are with different persons.
The church is among very few places outside the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old Goa, that has a first-class relic of Xavier. There is no documentation available with the Basilica or the Archdiocese of Goa about the saint’s relics outside Old Goa, but a 1950 note in Latin from the then archbishop confirms its authenticity.
Translated from Latin and dated Dec 12, 1950, it reads, “this here contains the relic of a small piece of skin of the body of St Francis Xavier, that is kept in the Basilica of Bom Jesus.” The note has the signature of ‘Jose, Patriarch of Indies’.

Ever since the incorruptible body of Xavier was brought to Goa on the night of March 14, 1554, there was a clamour for the saint’s relics. “Everyone wanted to possess relics which were supposed to be the link between mortals and the supernatural, so that several benefits would accrue to the owner of the relics. As such, several people took pieces of the body or vestments of the saint. Those in whose possession the body was also took the liberty of distributing relics as gifts,” writes I P Newman Fernandes in his book, St Francis Xavier & Old Goa.
As documented in ‘Pilgrimages to the tomb of Goencho Saib or St Francis Xavier’, “in the early years, skin and vestments pieces of St Francis Xavier would be bestowed as gifts upon important political and ecclesiastical dignitaries”.
Yet, the relics spread across Goa in churches and chapels appear more recent. The piece of skin in Margao is from 1950, and the St Francis Xavier Church in Bhatpal, Canacona, is in possession of a small bone of the saint, kept inside a monstrance reliquary.
“Earlier, people used to say it’s the saint’s nail, but there’s ‘ossibus’ written on it, which means it’s bone (in Latin),” said parish priest Fr Fredy Lobo. “Not just Catholics, a lot of Hindus too come here for veneration. It is the faith of the people that draws them to the saint.”

No records are available when the relic was placed at Bhatpal. The church was originally a chapel, built on Aug 30, 1936. It functioned under the jurisdiction of the parish of Canacona, and in 1968, the St Francis Xavier Chapel was detached from the Canacona parish and elevated into an independent parish.
Even at the SFX chapel at Portais, Panaji, which has another first-class relic identified in Latin as ‘ex pelle S. Franc Xav’ or ‘from the skin of St Francis Xavier’, there is no documentation to show since when the chapel has been in possession of the relic.

“This relic is special and keeps us closer to the saint,” said chapel committee member Olave Dias. “It has been here since the chapel was built. We had another chapel nearby and this one is more recent.”
The altar at the chapel has Feb 1941 engraved on it, while the older chapel was built in 1880.
“The Holy Spirit Church in Margao, Bhatpal in Canacona, and Portais, these are the three places in Goa, at least that we know, where the relics of St Francis Xavier are kept,” said Fr Henry Falcao, convener of the Exposition Committee of the Archdiocese.
What’s not commonly known is the presence of a relic at Chandor. The 17th century Braganza House has antique treasures collected from around the world, including gifts from the King of Portugal. But what remains a prized possession is the relic of Xavier in the form of his fingernail, carefully preserved inside a private chapel for over two hundred years.

According to the owners, the relic was brought by Jesuit priest Antonio Pereira, the last of the five priests in the family, between 1790 and 1810.
Other popular places where the saint’s relics are venerated are at the St. Francis Xavier Church, Borim. It is kept inside a monstrance with a note from Fr A Le Tellier. It reads: “A small piece of cloth which was placed by myself on the head, the hand and the feet of St Francis Xavier, when his body was shifted to the new silver and crystal casket in February 1955.”
St. Francis Xavier Chapel, Monte, Benaulim, has a “small piece of cloth”, while last year, “a wooden relic of the case in which the body of the saint was laid for several years” was installed at the Mae de Deus chapel, Gaunsa-Vaddo, Siolim.