| Church of St. Augustine | |
|---|---|
| Church of Nossa Senhora da Graca | |
 The complex and the imposing tower | |
  Location on a map of India | |
| 15°30′01.5″N73°54′23.8″E / 15.500417°N 73.906611°E | |
| Country | India |
| History | |
| Status | Church |
| Founded | 1597 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Ruins |
| Completed | 1602 |
| Closed | 1938 |
Church of St. Augustine is a ruined church complex located in Old Goa. The church was completed in 1602 and is part of the World Heritage Site, Churches and convents of Goa. [1]
The church was built on top of the Monte Santo (Holy Hill), between 1597 and 1602 by Augustinian friars who landed in Goa in 1587. The church was considered one of the three great Augustinian churches in the Iberian world along with El Escorial and the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora. [1]
The church was abandoned in 1835 after the Portuguese government of Goa began evicting many religious orders in Goa under its new repressive policies. The subsequent neglect caused the vault of the church to collapse in 1842. The body collapsed soon after and by 1871, the bell was moved from the tower to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Panjim, where it remains to date. In 1931, the facade of the church and half the tower collapsed and by 1938, most of the other parts had also collapsed. Currently only half the tower remains, and it is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Goa. The ruins were featured in the song Gumnaam Hai Koi from the 1965 suspense thriller movie Gumnaam [1] [2] [3] and 'Saathiya' from the Bollywood hit Singham.
The church had four towers of which only one remains. The remaining tower is a four-storied structure built of laterite and 46 m in height. Excavations show that the complex had eight chapels, four altars and a convent. [1] [4]
In the late 1980s, archaeologists from the Soviet Union and Georgia began efforts to trace the relics of Ketevan the Martyr, a Georgian queen who had delivered herself as a hostage to Shah Abbas I and was martyred on 13 September 1624 for refusing to deny her faith; the relics were believed to be in Goa. A Georgian team conducted excavations in the church, which were followed by independent efforts by the Archaeological Survey of India. The missions were looking for a black box which was supposed to contain the saint's bones, based on information collected by Professor António da Silva Rego in 1958 from Portuguese historical documents about their missions in the East. [3]
A 2005 excavation project by the ASI, yielded bone fragments. The samples were tested at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology to conduct DNA studies. The studies showed the presence of the U1b Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup in the bones, which is absent in India, besides revealing that it belonged to a woman. Based on these findings and the historical material available, it was concluded that the bones most likely belonged to the Queen. [3]
A multimedia board game about the excavation project, called The Travelling Hand was made by documentary filmmaker Gayatri Kodikal. The Ketevan World Sacred Music Festival has been held in the church complex since 2015. [5] [6]
Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13th centuries:
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, shamanism, and many other religions. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.
The Red Abbey in Cork, Ireland was a 14th-century Augustinian abbey which took its name from the reddish sandstone used in construction. Today all that remains of the structure is the central bell tower of the abbey church, which is one of the last remaining visible structures dating to the medieval walled town of Cork.
Saint Peter's tomb is a site under St. Peter's Basilica that includes several graves and a structure said by Vatican authorities to have been built to memorialize the location of Saint Peter's grave. St. Peter's tomb is alleged near the west end of a complex of mausoleums, the Vatican Necropolis, that date between about AD 130 and AD 300. The complex was partially torn down and filled with earth to provide a foundation for the building of the first St. Peter's Basilica during the reign of Constantine I in about AD 330. Though many bones have been found at the site of the 2nd-century shrine, as the result of two campaigns of archaeological excavation, Pope Pius XII stated in December 1950 that none could be confirmed to be Saint Peter's with absolute certainty. Following the discovery of bones that had been transferred from a second tomb under the monument, on June 26, 1968, Pope Paul VI said that the relics of Saint Peter had been identified in a manner considered convincing. Only circumstantial evidence was provided to support the claim.
Ketevan the Martyr was a queen consort of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. She was regent of Kakheti during the minority of her son Teimuraz I of Kakheti from 1605 to 1614. She was killed at Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged tortures by the Safavid suzerains of Kakheti for refusing to give up the Christian faith and convert to Islam. She has been canonized as a saint by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The Order of Saint Augustine, abbreviated OSA, is a religious mendicant order of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremitical groups in the Tuscany region who were following the Rule of Saint Augustine, written by Saint Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century.
October 16 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - October 18
Georgia and India maintain diplomatic relations. The Embassy of India in Yerevan, Armenia is concurrently accredited to Georgia. Georgia maintains an embassy in New Delhi.
The Abbey of Flône is located in Wallonia on the left bank of the river Meuse at Flône (Amay), in the province of Liège (Belgium). It was founded in 1075.
The Augustinian Convent of Toulouse was founded in 1286 for members of the Augustinian religious order. It was first established outside the city walls, near the Matabiau quarter, then, between 1310 and 1341 moved to the corner of rue du Musée and rue des Arts. In 1790 it ceased to be a convent and today its buildings house the Musée des Augustins.
The Church and convent of San Agustín is a Catholic temple located in the Historic Center of the city of Quito, run by the Augustinian Order. The complex of the temple and convent is located on calle Chile, between Guayaquil and Flores.
Stephen is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who angered members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul, a Pharisee and Roman citizen who would later become a Christian apostle, participated in Stephen's martyrdom.
The Santa Monica Parish Church, commonly known as the Minalin Church, is a Baroque church, located in poblacion area of San Nicolas in Minalin, Pampanga, Philippines. The church, built during the Spanish era, was declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the National Museum of the Philippines on August 27, 2011, one of 37 churches in the country bestowed that honor.
The San Pedro Apostol Parish Church, commonly known as Loboc Church and alternatively as the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, is a Roman Catholic church in the municipality of Loboc, Bohol, Philippines, within the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tagbilaran.
The Archdiocesan Shrine of Patrocinio de Maria Santisima, commonly known as Boljoon Church, is a Roman Catholic Church dedicated to the Our Lady of the Patronage in the municipality of Boljoon, Cebu, Philippines, under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu.
San Trifone in Posterula was an ancient titular church of Rome, now lost. It was located at the corner of Via dei Portoghesi and Via della Scrofa, in the Campo Marzio rione of the city.
Sant'Elena, also sometimes called Santa Lena, is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church at the extreme east end of the sestiere of Castello in the City of Venice, Italy.
Churches and Convents of Goa is the name given by UNESCO to a set of religious monuments located in Goa Velha, in the state of Goa, India, which were declared a World Heritage Site in 1986.
St Thomas of Canterbury Church is a Roman Catholic Parish church in Canterbury, Kent, England. It was built from 1874 to 1875 in the Gothic Revival style. It is situated on the corner of Burgate and Canterbury Lane, west of Lower Bridge Street, opposite the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral in the centre of the city. It is the only Roman Catholic church in Canterbury, built on the site of a medieval church ; the old St Mary Magdalen’s Tower was retained. The church contains relics of Thomas Becket.
Sant'Agostino is a ruined Roman Catholic church in Amatrice, province of Rieti, Lazio, Italy. It was built in 1428 and it was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, but it was modified over subsequent centuries and rededicated to Saint Augustine of Hippo. Most of the church was destroyed in a series of earthquakes in 2016–17.