On this day …
On this day: Dec 2., 2014 thousands of pilgrims went to India. Destination Goa.
A bit of history: In the 16th century, he spent a lot of time on his feet, throughout Spain, France, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, Sri Lanka, and India, dying at sea en route to China. His body a few months later, they were surprised to see it in a perfect state of preservation. But just as in life, his “incorrupt body” didn’t stay at rest for long. In its first public exhibition of his corpse in Goa, India, in a fit of reverence, a Portuguese woman bit off his big toe. Allegedly, the toe gushed blood, and she was caught when people followed the grisly trail to her home.
Today, St. Francis Xavier’s toe is on display in a silver reliquary in a cathedral in Goa. And it isn’t the only part of St. Xavier’s corpse to travel: There’s a diamond-encrusted fingernail on display in a different village in Goa, part of an arm was sent to Rome, and there’s a hand in Japan.
Okay, kids, let’s go back!
Photographs and Memories 