καιρός remembered

St. Francis Xavier

Faith is big business. Not just for the Church; others are trying to cash in on it too. Churches and stalls selling religious trinkets undeniably hold a certain appeal for me. That’s surely down to my Catholic upbringing in the Catholic south of the Netherlands. For years I sang in the local church’s boys’ choir, served as an altar boy, and attended a primary school run by brothers and a secondary school run by priests. Catholic imagery takes me back to my childhood. It is so deeply rooted in my thoughts and memories that I can feel a sense of innocent nostalgia whenever I am exposed to this kind of imagery again.

What stands out in the stall in the photograph is the large number of statuettes of Saint Francis Xavier. We are in Goa, where most of the remains of this Jesuit missionary are preserved in the Basilica of Bom Jesus. The statuettes are copies of the large one in a niche in that same church, which always attracts many worshippers.

In case you would like to know more about the life of this saint and how his remains ended up in Goa, look here.

Photo of the week: religious stall in Old Goa, India 2014