Goencho Saib’s most popular hymn gets a Portuguese tribute at Old Goa

Panaji: When the relics of Saint Francis Xavier were brought out from their resting place at the Basilica of Bom Jesus to be taken to the nearby Se Cathedral for the 45-day Exposition, it was fitting that the choir played ‘Sam Franciscu Xaviera, tuji kuddu goyam xhara’.
Since first played during the feast Mass in 1893, Raimundo Barreto’s over-a-century-old hymn has become the most popular hymnal tribute to Goencho Saib ever — the anthem of the Goan Catholic community at home and abroad.
At Old Goa, during the novena Mass on Sunday, the hymn got a Portuguese version for the first time. It was sung by the choir from the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Panaji, the only place in Goa where a Portuguese Mass is held every Sunday.
“The whole hymn, which is of 11 stanzas, reflects the simple but deep faith of the Goan people in St Francis Xavier,” said Oscar de Noronha, who translated the hymn from Konkani to Portuguese. “I have always known this hymn right from my childhood, and we used to sing it at home, just a verse and the chorus. But I was always curious to know the original lyrics, the full hymn.”
On a suggestion from Fr Mousinho de Ataide this Oct, de Noronha, an associate professor of English, chanced upon ‘Konkani Bhagtigitam’, compiled by the Goan academician Jose Pereira. To his delight, the book had the original lyrics, that too in full.
“Over the years, possibly for the past 40-50 years, the lyrics (of the hymn) have changed, but the music has remained the same. The hymn has 11 stanzas and what I saw (in the book) blew my mind,” said de Noronha.
The score for the hymn was published in Fr Antonio da Costa’s book, ‘Songs of Praise, Adli Kristi Bhogtigitam.’
A video of the hymn, sung by ten members and two generations of the de Noronha family, was uploaded on social media and has garnered rich praise over the past 48 hours. In a fitting tribute, his eldest son, a special child, who was baptised in extremis on the feast day in 1995, has a role in the video.
“My son acquired a hospital infection after he was born, and was on his deathbed. He now sings the hymn in this video. What else can be a better connection? We are all in gratitude to St Francis Xavier,” said de Noronha.
Church historian Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas, US-based academician Jose Pereira, history researcher Valmiki Faleiro, and culture chronicler Radharao Gracias have all, in the past, written about the unusual story behind the popular hymn.
According to these reports, Raimundo Barreto (Feb 16, 1837-July 23, 1906) was a gaunkar of Loutolim and took up residence in St Matias, Divar. He was Mestre da Capela at the Se Cathedral, and besides conducting the then largest choir at the cathedral, he had to maintain accounts, collect monthly grants to its canons from the state treasury in Panaji, and disburse their salaries.
“He was returning from Panaji one evening, money from the canons’ salary in the bag that he tightly clutched. With reason: river waters were choppy and the boat tossed more than usual. Passengers were apprehensive. The boat had reached the Ribandar area, when it suddenly rolled, jettisoning everyone into the waters,” Faleiro wrote in TOI in Nov 2014.
As Barreto sank to the riverbed, sure that he was dying, he prayed to St Xavier that if he was saved, he would pay with his best talents a tribute in the saint’s honour.
After being saved by alert villagers, Barreto first cleared the dues of the canons by selling his ground-plus-one storeyed mansion at St Matias, and then put his heart, mind, and soul into composing ‘Sam Franciscu Xaviera, tuji kuddu goyam xhara’.
“It was unveiled the next Dec 3, at the feast Mass at the Basilica. ‘Sam Franciscu Xaviera, tuji kuddu goyam xhara’ awestruck the congregation, led by the archbishop-patriarch-and the canons. Never had such a hymn, so Goan and almost in the mando metre, been heard before,” wrote Faleiro.