The story of a saint

Writer and tiatist Michael Gracias has recently released a book, published in six languages, and two docudramas on the life of St. Francis Xavier. He shares more with NT BUZZ

KALYANI JHA | NT BUZZ

St. Francis Xavier, also known as ‘Gõycho Saib’ to the faithful, is a saint revered not only by the Roman Catholic community of Goa but by people of all faiths irrespective of caste and creed.

This year, during the ongoing decennial Exposition of the sacred relics, many books, plays, and songs have been released on the saint. Among these, are a book and two docudramas by author and tiatrist Michael Gracias which were released recently. The book titled ‘The Lord of Goa’, has been published in six languages while the docudrama in English is titled ‘For the Greater Glory of God’. ‘Devache Vorte Mhoime Khatir’ is the Konkani version of the same film. Both the book and films have been done in collaboration with Agnelo Alcasoas under the banner of Queeny Productions and Publications, and aim to propagate the life teachings, miracles and works of Goa’s beloved saint.

“One day, as I was coming out of the Basilica, a tourist asked me, ‘Woh mum’mi kahan hai?’ (Where is the mummy?) The tourist was referring to the relics of St Francis and was a victim of the misinformation fed by the social media. When I narrated this to Agnelo, he too was of the opinion that we should publish our factual narration so that the devotees could read the true life and works of St Xavier,” shares Gracias.

In fact, Alcasoas and Gracias have released a lot of works together. Gracias has also been the editor of Konkani magazine Jivit of Alcasoas’ publication which ran for 14 years.

And last year after Alcasoas watched the tiatr ‘Goykarponn’ directed by Gracias, which focused on the topic of the Inquisition, he urged Gracias to make an in depth study on the life and works of the saint.

Gracias who has written 18 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and in both English and Konkani, agreed to do a book in Romi Konkani.

“For this book I have consulted PhD scholars who have been studying of St. Xavier. In the book, I have brought out the information that has already been documented but not studied by people because of access to that documentation,” says Gracias.

After completing the Romi Konkani book, Gracias then did an English translation of the work. Fr. Roman Rodrigues transliterated the book in Devanagari Konkani while the Konkani Association of St. Aloysius College in Mangaluru worked on the transliteration in Kannada script of Konkani.

Dr. Magdalena D’Souza and professor Salim Gaded volunteered the translation in Hindi, while journalist Raju B Naik took the responsibility of the Marathi translation. Nini George Varghese translated the book in Malayalam language. The Konkani book in Kannada script will be released at a special function to be held in Mangaluru in January.

“We are ready to go ahead with translations in any other language if we get the chance,” says Gracias, adding that they are also in talks for a translation in Gujarati and Telegu. Speaking about the docudramas, Gracias shares that having staged the tiatr ‘Gõycho Saib’ all over Goa, he then decided to channelise the matter in a documentary format.

The docudrama film was shot in English and Konkani languages separately with Dadadiraj Shirodkar as the cinematographer and Gracias as the director. The singing sensation Cielda Pereira sings the title song to the music of Lenoy Gomendes.

“In this film, we are talking about St. Francis Xavier’s life, miracles, and his viewpoint on different things including the Inquisition. We look at questions like why did he write a letter for the Inquisition? What was the Inquisition aiming at? We have also talked about the 1961 episode where the governor with a troop of 100 men had gone to the Basilica to lift the body of Francis Xavier to take it back to Portugal but couldn’t carry it,” shares Gracias, adding that the film features PhD scholars and priests. Some of the sections, he adds, have been dramatised.