The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa and Daman (, , ) encompasses the

Goa state Goa (; ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan Plateau, Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian sta ...

and the Damaon territory in the Konkan region, by the west coast of India. The

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

of Goa and Damaon includes a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...

, the Sindhudurg Diocese that comprises the

Malvani Malvani may refer to: *Malvani people, people from the Malvan region of Maharashtra, on the Konkan coast of western India * Malvani language, a dialect of Konkani, with heavy influence from Marathi *Malvani cuisine Malvani may refer to: *Malvani peo ...

areas of (central Konkan). The Archbishop of Goa also holds the titles of Primate of the East and Patriarch of the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

. The beginnings lie in the '' Padroado'' system of Portuguese Goa and Damaon, in the early 1900s the primatial see was transferred back to the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, as the ''Padroado'' system of the Indo-Portuguese era was being dismantled. It is the oldest

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

of the Latin Rite of worship in terms of activity in the

, with its origins linked to the

Portuguese discoveries Portuguese maritime explorations resulted in numerous territories and maritime routes recorded by the Portuguese on journeys during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European exploration, chronicling and mapp ...

, and their subsequent arrival at the St Mary's islands and

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

, on the coast of the Malabar region. The current Metropolitan Archbishop and Patriarch of the East Indies is Filipe Neri Ferrão.

Special churches

* The archbishop's cathedral see, the Se Cathedral, or Sé Catedral de Santa Catarina, is in the city of Old Goa,

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. *The diocese also has a

minor basilica Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectura ...

, the

Basilica of Bom Jesus The Basilica of Bom Jesus (; Konkani language, Konkani: ''Borea Jezuchi Bajilika'') is a Catholic Church, Catholic basilica located in Goa, in the Konkan region of India. The iconic church is a pilgrimage centre and recognised by UNESCO as ...

in Old Goa. The

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

composed of the Churches and Convents of Goa falls under its ecclesiastical jurisdiction. * The former Cathedral of Bom Jesus of the now-suppressed Diocese of Daman in Daman

Territory and statistics

The archdiocese consists of the State of Goa and the

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a union territory in India. The territory was constituted through the merger of the former territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Plans for the proposed merger were announced by th ...

in India. As of 2014, it pastorally served 641,231 Catholics (31.0% of 2,067,200 total) on 4,194 km² in 167 parishes and 124 missions with 715 priests (410 diocesan, 305 religious), 1,503 lay religious (538 brothers, 965

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

) and 80 seminarians.

Ecclesiastical province

The Metropolitan has a single

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

see: * Roman Catholic Diocese of Sindhudurg, which includes the districts of

Sindhudurg Sindhudurg Fort (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡ is a historical sea fort located in Arabian Sea near the Konkan region of Maharashtra in Western India. The fort, commissioned by Chhatrapati Shivaji, was constructed between 1664 ...

Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in southwestern Maharashtra, India. The district is part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for the Hapus or ...

and

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Kolhapur is one of the most significant cities in South Maharashtra and has been a hub of historical, religious, and cultural a ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

state, except the St. Francis Xavier parish in the city of Kolhapur. It was created on 5 July 2005, when its territory was split off from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Poona. It was a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Bombay until 25 November 2006, when

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

transferred it to the newly established metropolitan province of Goa and Damão. Between 1975 and 2006 the Archbishop of Goa and Damão, having no suffragan, was not entitled to wear the

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...

History

After the

Portuguese conquest of Goa The Portuguese conquest of Goa occurred when the governor Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city in 1510 from the Sultanate of Bijapur. Old Goa became the capital of Portuguese India, which included territories such as Fort Manuel of Cochin, ...

Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...

in 1510, King Manuel I built a chapel there in honour of St. Catherine, named patron of the city in 1518. Christians in the region were given into the charge of OP, the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

of Laodicea. He governed until 1527 when he was succeeded by Dom OFM, the

titular bishop of Aureopolis, from 1529 to 1535.Conselho Ultramarino, p.455 King

John III of Portugal John III ( ; 6 June 1502 – 11 June 1557), nicknamed The Pious ( Portuguese: ''o Piedoso''), was the King of Portugal and the Algarve from 1521 until he died in 1557. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the third daughter of ...

commissioned the construction of a

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

in Goa and

Pope Clement VII Pope Clement VII (; ; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate o ...

founded the Diocese of Goa on 31 January 1533, with the

papal bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...

titled ''Romani Pontificis Circumspectio''. The jurisdiction of the new diocese at the time stretched from the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. On 3 November 1534 the creation of the diocese was confirmed by the ' bull of

Pope Paul III Pope Paul III (; ; born Alessandro Farnese; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death, in November 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era follo ...

, since Clement VII's death had prevented the publication of its establishment. The diocese was originally a

of the diocese of Funchal. At the request of King Sebastian, on 4 February 1557

Pope Paul IV Pope Paul IV (; ; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559), born Gian Pietro Carafa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death, in August 1559. While serving as papal nuncio in Spain, he developed ...

separated the Goan diocese from the

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

and raised it to a metropolitan archdiocese, with the suffragan dioceses of

Cochin Kochi ( , ), formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernaku ...

and

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

. In the course of time other dioceses were included in the metropolitan area of Goa:

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

Funai is a Japanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Daitō, Osaka. Currently, it is in liquidation. Apart from producing its own branded electronic products, it was also an OEM providing assembled televisions and video players/recor ...

, Cranganore and Meliapor in India,

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

and

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

in Africa. Daman in India is still included in Goa. With the brief of 13 December 1572 Pope

Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII (, , born Ugo Boncompagni; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake ...

granted the archbishop of Goa the title of Primate of the East. This is because the diocese of Goa was the first diocese of the Padroado in Asia. By 1857, Goa had gained several suffragan dioceses in the Indian subcontinent but retained only

and

outside that geographical area. On 23 January 1886, Pope

Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the A ...

, through the bull ''Humanae Salutis Auctor'', invested the archbishop of Goa with the honorary title of Patriarch of the East Indies. With the same bull, the diocese of Daman was established, to which was attached the title of the Archdiocese of Cranganore, that had been suppressed by the 24 April 1838 ''Multa praeclare'' decree of

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI (; ; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon enteri ...

. These provisions had already been made in the concordat between the Holy See and Portugal on 23 June 1886. The honorary title of patriarch recognised the primacy of honour of the archbishop of Goa among all the bishops of the East and the historical vastness of his jurisdiction, at a time when his jurisdiction was reduced. He also enjoyed the privilege of presiding over all the synods of the East Indies When the diocese of Daman was dissolved on 1 May 1928 with ''Inter Apostolicam'', the title of Cranganore was attached to the Goa archdiocese. Thus, the archbishop of Goa came to be the titular archbishop of Cranganore. In 1940,

Dili Dili (Portuguese language, Portuguese and Tetum language, Tetum: ''Díli'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Timor-Leste. It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in by mountai ...

(in

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

) was elevated to a diocese and placed as suffragan under Goa; Mozambique was in the same year spun off from the metropolitan archdiocese. In 1953 the archdiocese of Goa lost the suffragan dioceses of Cochin, Meliampor and Canara following the ecclesiastical territorial reorganisation of the new Indian state. On 19 December 1961, the Indian Union annexed the territories of Goa, and Daman and Diu. The following year the Patriarch Archbishop José Vieira Alvernaz left the territory. In 1965, the religious jurisdiction of Diu was entrusted to the Missionary Society of St

Francis Xavier Francis Xavier, Jesuits, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; ; ; ; ; ; 7 April 15063 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Kingdom of Navarre, Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus ...

. The complexities of annexing Portuguese-ruled territories meant that the Vatican did not accept the resignation of the last patriarch until 1975. The dioceses of Dili and Macau were also de-linked from the ecclesiastical province and placed directly under the Holy See. With the ''Quoniam Archdioecesi'' bull of 30 January 1978, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Raul Nicolau Gonçalves as Archbishop of Goa and Daman, also titled ''

ad honorem ''Ad honorem'' is a Latin phrase that literally can be translated as "to the honor". When used today, it generally means "for the honor of"; that is, not seeking any material reward. It is commonly used in universities for certain unpaid teaching ...

'' Patriarch of the East Indies. By ''Inter Capital'' of 12 December 2003,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed Rev. Filipe Neri Ferrao Archbishop of Goa and Daman, also granting him the honorary patriarch title. The Archdiocese of Goa and Daman remained—until 25 November 2006—as just an archdiocese, since the archdiocese had had no suffragan dioceses since 1 January 1975, when Macao and Dili were separated from it. On 25 November 2006, Pope

Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, his resignation on 28 Februar ...

with ''Cum Christi Evangelii'' made the diocese of Sindhudurg a suffragan of Goa and Daman, together with which it formed a new ecclesiastical province. The civil district of North Kanara (Uttara Kannada) was part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman till 19 September 1953 when the New Roman Catholic Diocese of Belgaum was erected. Two civil districts, Belgaum and North Kanara, were separated from the Archdiocese of Goa and two other civil districts, Dharwad and Bijapur, were taken from the Diocese of Poona to form the Diocese of Belgaum. * 31 January 1533: Archdiocese of Goa established from the Diocese of Funchal * 4 February 1557: Diocese of Cochin established as a suffragan diocese * 4 February 1558: Established suffragan diocese – Diocese of Malacca * 4 February 1558: Promoted to Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa * 1 May 1928: Renamed Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa and Daman * 1 January 1976: Demoted to Archdiocese of Goa and Daman * 25 November 2006: Promoted to Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa and Daman

Episcopal ordinaries

Saints and causes for canonisation

* St. Bartholomew *

St. Francis Xavier Francis Xavier, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; ; ; ; ; ; 7 April 15063 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative o ...

evangelised in Goa and his body is in the state. * St. Joseph Vaz was a native of Benaulim. * The Martyrs of Cuncolim **Bl. Rodolfo Acquaviva **Bl. Alphonsus Pacheco **Bl. Peter Berno **Bl. Anthony Francis **Bl. Francis Aranha *Some of the 205 Martyrs of Japan **Bl. Miguel de Carvalho, ordained a priest in Goa **Bl. Francisco Pacheco, seminarian in Goa **Bl. John Baptist Zola, missionary in Goa **Bl. Balthasar de Torres, seminarian in Goa **Bl. Diogo Carvalho (Didacus Carvalho), seminarian in Goa **Bl. Pietro Paolo Navarra, ordained a priest in Goa **Bl. Joao Batisto Machado, seminarian in Goa * Bls. Denis of the Nativity (Pierre Berthelot) and Redemptus of the Cross (Tomás Rodrigues da Cunha) * Bl. Emmanuel d'Abreu, SJ * Ven. Agnelo de Souza * Fr. Jácome Gonsalves

References

Sources and external links

List of Indian Sees, from the Catholic Bishops Conference of India site

Data of the Archdiocese, from the UCAN site
* (for Chronology of Bishops) * (for Chronology of Bishops)
Official site of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman
; Bibliography * Conselho Ultramarino.
Annaes do Conselho Ultramarino
'. Lisboa Imprensa Nacional, 1867. Capítulo: Ásia. * Aleixo de Menezes.
id=UPEqJWspkDIC Synodo Diocesano da Igreia e Bispado de Angamale
dos antigos christaos de Sam Thome das Serras do Malauar das partes da India Oriental celebrado pello Reuerendissimo Senhor Dom Frey Aleixo de Menezes Arcebispo Metropolitano de Goa, Primaz da India et partes Orientaes'', Coimbra: Officina de Diogo Gomez Loureyro, ''impressor da Universidade'', 1606. * Associação Maritima e Colonial.
Annaes Maritimos e Coloniaes
'. * Manoel José Gabriel Saldanha
História de Goa: política e arqueológica
'. Asian Educational Services, 1990. * Alexandre Herculano.
A reacção ultramontana em Portugal
': ou, A Concordata de 21 de fevereiro. Lisboa: Typographia de José Baptista Morando, 1857. * Instituto Histórico, Geographico e Ethnographico do Brasil.
Revista trimensal do Instituto Historico, Geographico e Ethnographico do Brasil
' Rio de Janeiro: B. L. Garnier, 1866. vol.29. * Paiva, José Pedro.
Os bispos de Portugal e do Império: 1495-1777
' Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra, 2006. * Ángel Santos Hernández, S.J.
''Las misiones bajo el patronato portugués''
https://books.google.com/books?id=N7HGOTXyfOEC&pg=PA116], Madrid 1977, pp. 116–117 * Konrad Eubel
''Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi'' vol. 3
, p. 204
vol. 4
pp. 195–196
vol. 5
p. 211
vol. 6
p. 227 ; Pontifical documents
''Aequum reputamus'' bull in ''Bullarium patronatus Portugalliae regum'', v I, p148–152
(in Latin)
''Etsi Sancta'' bull in ''Bullarium patronatus Portugalliae regum'', v I, pp.191–192
(in Latin)

bull (in Italian)
''Ad nominum''
bull, AAS 68 (1976), p. 307 (in Italian)

(in Latin)
Ereção da nova Província Eclesiástica de Goa e Damão
(in Portuguese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Goa And Daman, Roman Catholic Archdiocese Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Daman and Diu Roman Catholic dioceses in India Religious organizations established in 1533 Christianity in Goa 1533 establishments in Portuguese India Roman Catholic dioceses established in the 16th century