What started as a simple thanksgiving service on August 15, 1947, has now become part of a larger tradition for the Catholic residents of Nana Chowk
Musician Agnelo J Pinto, 77, has been leading the prayer band for 25 years
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It was August 15, 1947, when John Xavier and his wife Ana Francisca Da Costa, both devout Catholics and ardent supporters of the freedom struggle, truly believed that their prayers had finally been answered.
On that day, John, an ex-military man, who first witnessed Mahatma Gandhi's cry for independence with the Quit India movement in the neighbouring August Kranti Maidan, brought home a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and placed it on the passage of his home at the Old Rajda building in Nana Chowk.
The reason, his daughter-in-law Sally Da Costa recalls, was not just to mark the feast of the Assumption of Mother Mary (into heaven), but to also offer thanks to her for bringing true the dreams of millions of Indians. Seventy years on, residents of the building, now renamed Old Kanga, continue to pray to the same hand-painted photograph of Our Lady - now chipping at the corners and shielded in a glass frame — whose feast was celebrated yesterday. The tradition, which first began with John and Ana on the day India got its freedom from the British rule, has now been kept alive by their family and neighbours, who firmly feel that Mary's intervention helped "ward off all kinds of evil" from their lives.
What makes the prayer service remarkable is that the songs and processions are in Latin - the traditional service once followed by the Indian Catholics.
"We may not understand Latin, but these same hymns have been sung for the last 70 years on this day, and have now become an integral part of the larger tradition here," says Herman Gomes, 25, a family member of the Da Costa family.
Musician Agnelo J Pinto, 77, who has been leading the residents in song and prayer, along with his band of violinists for the last 25 years, says that it was his father who introduced him to Latin prayer.
"It's faith that keeps us all going," says Pinto of the 60-odd residents who have gathered at the building. "A lot of residents have moved abroad or to the suburbs. But, to this day, many of them make it a point to come down to participate in the service. It all started when India made history. We don't want to forget that day," says Sally.
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