Saint Joseph Vaz

Joseph Vaz CO (21 April 1651 – 16 January 1711) was a Oratorian priest and missionary in Dutch Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Originally from Sancoale in Goa, Portuguese India Vaz arrived in Ceylon during the Dutch occupation, a time when the Dutch had banned Catholicism in Ceylon and imposed Calvinism as the official religion after taking control from the Portuguese Empire. He travelled throughout the island bringing the Eucharist and the Sacraments to clandestine groups of crypto-Catholics. Later in his mission, he found shelter in the Kingdom of Kandy where he was able to work freely. By the time of his death, Vaz had managed to rebuild the Catholic Church on the island. As a result of his labors, Vaz is known as the Apostle of Ceylon. On 21 January 1995, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Colombo. He was canonized on 14 January 2015 by Pope Francis in an open-air Mass ceremony at the Galle Face Green in Colombo. The third of six children, Vaz was born in 1651 at Benaulim, his mother's village in Goa, then known as Portuguese India. His parents, Cristóvão Vaz and Maria de Miranda, were devout Catholics. Cristóvão belonged to a prominent Naik family of Sancoale. He was baptised on the eighth day at the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Benaulim by its pastor, Jacinto Pereira. Vaz attended the elementary school in Sancoale. He learned Portuguese in Sancoale and Latin in Benaulim. He was a bright pupil and respected by his teachers and fellow students. He made such rapid progress in his studies that his father decided to send him to the city of Velha Goa for further studies; where he did a course in rhetoric and humanities at the Jesuits' College of St. Paul. He further studied philosophy and theology at the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy, run by the Dominicans. In 1675, Vaz was ordained a deacon for the Archdiocese of Goa by Custódio de Pinho, the Vicar Apostolic of Bijapur and Golconda.