Livrant Saibinn: Our Lady of Liberation
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PUBLISHED on the Internet: Dec. 16, 2005.
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The name "Livrant" is the Concannim (i.e., "Konkani") language form of the Portuguese "Livramento". The chapel in my village parish of Sangolda, Goa, is dedicated to Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God, under the invocation "Nossa Senhora do Livramento", of which, the Concannim form is "Livrant Saibinn".
The present chapel is about a hundred years old. It was built to replace another chapel which was destroyed by a fire after being struck by lightening, a few hundred metres or so to the west of the present location. The old chapel, now represented by a cross at which a feast is held once a year, was built on the site of the original Hindu temple of the village (or more precisely, "Vaddo" or hamlet), and over which my Brahmin ancestors then presided, before being evangelized about four centuries ago.
It seems that the name "Nossa Senhora do Livramento" is the same as the Italian "Santa Maria Liberatrice" (See here).
The presumable Latin form of "Livramento", which would be Liberamentum, should mean "Liberation", while Liberatrice (Latin, "Liberatrix") is the feminine form of "Liberator".
The Chapel (Copel, in Concannim) is right above my house, which is also called "Livrant" and sometimes "Liwrant", e.g. on land survey documents. The Vaddo is also called "Nossa Senhora do Livramento" or, in short, "Livrament-Vaddo".
As chapels go in Goa, this one is pretty large, and bigger than some parish churches. Chapels in Goa are usually only about a hundred square feet, and can hardly accomodate 10 - 15 persons. This one can accomodate more than a hundred people. The chapel is still used, but only once a week, given the spiritual devastations and loss of vocations in the wake of Vatican II.
The chapel used to belong under the parish of Saint Didacus (Saõ Diogo) in Sangolda, although the site of the parish church is popularly called Guirim, after the village which begins immediately next to it.
The chapel had been renovated in the early 1940s, which is also when the presbytery was added. At the time of this renovation, the chapel had daily services. I believe that it was being readied for elevation as a parish church.
Inside the verandah of the presbytery, is a long marble plaque bearing the names of villagers who donated for the renovation and extension. My father's name figures sixth or seventh on the list, having donated Rs. 300/-, a large sum at that time, and when my father's own means were sketchy.
The last regular priest who used to service the chapel was a Fr. Antonio Faria, an elderly man and a native of the village who died about 15 years ago. On the hill opposite the one on which the chapel stands, is the Monte de Guirim facility, which had been a monastery devastated by the Freemason Pombal (Jose de Melo) and which had been revived as a school (O Colegio de Santo Antonio) in 1909 with an orphanage added by the famous Padre Higino Assuncao Hipolito de Luna in the early 1920s. It is one of the places my father had been schooled in.
Lúcio Mascarenhas, Bombay.
(Author of The Aarti Controversy).
Photographs by Lúcio Mascarenhas, August 2005Photographs taken using the Cool-iCam digital mini-camera |
Facade of the Chapel |
Facade of the Chapel |
Facade of the Chapel |
Facade of the Chapel |
Chapel Presbytery |
Cross at site of former chapel |
Cross at site of former chapel |
Hut of a pagan tenant (mundcar) below my house |
Delapidated old house at junction of Livrament and Belavist vaddos |
New house below chapel; the Monte (Hill) de Guirim is in the far background |
New house below chapel; the Monte (Hill) de Guirim is in the far background |
View down to the fields |
View up from the fields |
Another view down from the chapel |