Joseph Vaz

Joseph Vaz (* April 21, 1651 in Benaulim, Salcete Taluk of, India, † January 16, 1711 in Kandy, Sri Lanka ) was a Catholic priest from India and one of the main missionaries from Sri Lanka. He is a blessed of the Catholic Church and the Apostles is called Ceylon.

Life and work

In India

Joseph Vaz was the third of six children of Indian couple Christopher Vaz ( from Sancoale ) and Maria de Miranda ( from Benaulim ). His family originally belonged to the Brahmin caste, but was turned Catholic and had adopted the Portuguese family name Vaz. The boy learned Portuguese and Latin in Sancoale in Benaulim. His father sent him to Goa, where he completed his studies at the Jesuit College of St. Paul and the Dominican College of St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1675 he became a deacon, in 1676 he was ordained a priest by Archbishop António Brandão of Goa. Joseph Vaz was a great Marian devotion, which is why he liked to call himself a " slave of the Virgin Mary." He quickly became known as a good preacher and confessor in his homeland.

Vaz asked the bishop's authority for deployment in the mission. Instead, he was entrusted with the thankless task of a vicar general in South Kanara, with its capital at Mangalore. Here was at this time a competing Catholic jurisdiction that led to the Goan schism later. On the one hand, the area belonged for ages to the Archbishopric of Goa or to its suffragan Angamaly, on the other hand, the Pope had there appointed a Vicar Apostolic named Thomas de Castro and territories later joined the Apostolic Vicariate of Malabar or Verapoly to manage, since the Portuguese colonial rulers India's west coast were now supplanted by the Dutch and the latter do not tolerate portugal dependent bishops in their areas. Regardless of the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic practicable knocked the Portuguese but on their historical rights, which led to constant tensions within the Church and to great annoyance. The Goan bishops could not personally manage their dioceses and these - mostly through agents - supply simply particular. However, they held fast to the historic jurisdictions with great tenacity. Once they were able to reach one or the other parish again by changing political circumstances, they took possession of it immediately and expelled the officials of the opposite side. Sometimes the jurisdictions of individual communities changed several times within a few years. One of these officers of the Portuguese Archbishop of Goa was now Joseph Vaz. He should make the rights asserted there and represent him.

1681 met Joseph Vaz in Bangalore along with the Apostolic Vicar Thomas de Castro. That thoroughly explained to him the situation and convinced Vaz of the papal confirmation of his office. Instead of remaining on the Goan counter position, Vaz submitted to the Apostolic Vicar, pending a final decision from Rome. He was now in charge of this with the same office that had been given him in Goa and was thus undisturbed proselytize in the field, where he represented so to speak, both competing jurisdictions simultaneously.

When the goanesische Archbishop Manuel de Sousa e Menezes of the agreement between Vaz and the Apostolic Vicar de Castro learned he was very unhappy about it and rebuked the priests sustainable. At his own request Vaz was finally replaced in 1684 from his post in South India and returned to Goa; Despite his relatively short stay, he stood there generally in the highest esteem, as a pious and peace-loving missionary priests. He also founded several churches and rebuild or remodel leave, the most famous of which is the Rosary Cathedral of Mangalore.

1685 Joseph Vaz came into Goa in the Order of the Oratory and was soon their local Oberer.

Apostle of Ceylon

When Joseph Vaz learned the sad lot of Catholics in Ceylon, which were strongly suppressed by the Dutch, who allowed no clergy to them, he decided to go there. Moreover, there were also large areas where Christianity was still not widespread. 1686 he received permission to commencement of his mission and arrived in 1687 by ship from Kollam on Tuticorin to Sri Lanka.

The priest landed in Jaffna, but there could only work in secret and had to have constant fear of reprisals by the Dutch. In 1691, he moved therefore into the Buddhist kingdom of Kandy. Here he was detained along with two other co-religionists, as the alleged Portuguese spy and had thus leisure to learn the Ortsprache Sinhala. When a great drought prevailed and the Buddhist priests could not remedy, King Vimaladharmasurya II turned to Father Vaz. He erected an altar with cross and prayed for rain, which began shortly afterwards. Thus, he was released and he evangelized now of Kandy in the Dutch area around Colombo. His selfless in a smallpox epidemic gave Joseph Vaz then even the permission in the Kingdom of Kandy to proselytize. Archbishop Pedro Pacheco of Cochin, suffragan of Goa, had now officially appointed him his vicar-general in Ceylon. Along with others, nachgekommenen from India priests of his order unfolded Vaz an active mission work, both in the under Dutch colonial sovereign territories, as well as in the areas of local princes. He also translated several religious works in Sinhala.

King Vimaladharmasurya II died in 1707, his successor King Vira Narendra Sinha supported Joseph Vaz and his brothers also. Father Joseph Vaz died in 1711, with 59 years to Kandy, generally in the odor of sanctity and miracles activity standing. They buried him at the instigation of the king in Kandy; later, however, all sites of Christianity were destroyed here, which is why the grave of Joseph Vaz is now lost.

Bishop Francisco de Vasconcellos S. J. Cochin initiated already in 1737 the beatification process for Joseph Vaz one, however due to the circumstances of the time a long time did not come to a conclusion and finally sank into oblivion. The resident in Kandy Apostolic Delegate of the East Indies, Ladislaus Zaleski (1852-1925), kept hearing reports of this died in the odor of sanctity priest. He presented his own research about him, was a great admirer of Joseph Vaz and published a multi- issued biography of him. Then the beatification process was resumed and completed in 1953 by the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman positive. On January 21, 1995, beatified in Colombo Joseph Vaz of Pope John Paul II; his feast day is the 17th of January.