Team Herald
PANJIM: The mastrillian casket, that houses the relics of St Francis Xavier, will undergo a major restoration work post the annual feast scheduled on December 3, almost three hundred years after it was put together.
The casket comprising of Silver, Wood and Cloth was originally made by Italian Jesuit Marcelo Mastrili, which is now showing the signs of wearing out. The Archeology Survey of India (ASI), which is holding charge of the Old Goa Heritage Monument complex, has decided to take up the work of restoration.
Fr Patricio Fernandes, the Rector of Basilica of Bom Jesus, said that the casket is there from 1637. He said that the urn where the relics are preserved was changed from wooden to the glass in the year 1953, so that the devotees can see them through the glass panels. “But the casket was not changed. It remained the same from the year 1637,” Fr Fernandes said.
He, however, said that the casket is wearing off and can sustain for another ten years only. “It’s wooden, cloth and silver. The cloth things are falling apart. If we don’t take care now, in ten years time, it will fall apart,” Father said.
The Church had invited experts from Italy in the month of May this year, who suggested that the casket needs to be transported to their workshop in Florence in Italy and it would be returned back after a year.
However, Government of India refused the proposal to send the casket to Italy and instead recommended that the ASI can take up the work.
Fr Fernandes said that ASI will restore the casket and most probably, the work will start after the annual feast of St Francis Xavier. “This will be for the first time, since 17th Century, that the casket would be taken up for restoration,” he stated.
