With a devotion born of the many miracles
he witnessed in his life, Oscar Noronha knew that his best tribute to St Jose
Vaz would be to make the saint’s works known to the people. ‘Of Divine Bondage: the Epic Life of St
Joseph Vaz’ which released on December 2014, received a huge response. A
Konkani translation ‘Bhag Juze Vaz: Jezucho ani Moriecho Gulam’, released on
April 21 this year, was aimed at reaching out to wider local readership of
Goa’s beloved saint.
“I was devoted to St Jose Vaz right from
childhood and I have witnessed several miracles, including two major ones that
have saved the life of my son, Fernando.
So when the canonisation was announced in September, I decided to write
a book on his life. In 2011, I had been commissioned by the Archdiocese to
write 12 series on the life of St Jose Vaz for the Daily Flash. I expanded on
these for the book,” explains Associate Professor and author Oscar de Noronha,
who was also a committee member for the cause of canonisation. Having authored three books on various topics
earlier, the one on St Jose Vaz was a labour of love.
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A simple yet, comprehensive account of the
life of St Jose Vaz, the 144 page compilation includes two interviews with
former vice postulators for the cause of canonisation, Fr Urbino Monteiro and
Fr Eremito Rebelo; a chronology of events in the last 364 years of the saint’s
life (1651-2015); Oscar’s testimony about his son and a new prayer of
thanksgiving for canonisation. “In the two interviews of the vice postulators I
was able to give, through their perspective, the historical background of the
process. My son’s cure is one of the
miraculous signs considered in the process of canonisation,” explains Oscar of
the book which also contains 24 pages of coloured pictures in the English
edition and black and white in the Konkani translation.
Interestingly, the Konkani translations
were done by a team of 11 people – five priests, two lay persons and four
seminarians, before being edited by Fr Mousinho de Ataide. “The translations
have been undertaken by different people.
What I did was to give it one form.
The book as such is not only a biography of St Jose Vaz, but a spiritual
reading. For Oscar the book was a work
of love,” surmises Fr Ataide, Parish Priest, Neura.
‘It’s a labour of love,’ acknowledges Oscar
of an effort that had the support of his entire family.
