Votive plaque Saint Francis Xavier Inscription: S. FRANCISCO XAVIER

This votive plaque depicts the saint with a crucifix in one hand and a staff in the other. The staff’s handle tip indicates that it might be the one placed in the saint’s hands by the Count of Alvor, the then Viceroy of India, asking him to intercede when the Maratha ruler Sambhaji prepared to enter Goa after besieging various localities, among them Rachol. In great affliction, the Count ordered the Saint’s tomb to be opened so that he could place the viceregal staff in his hands, a gesture that symbolically transferred the mandate and territory of Goa to the protection of St. Francis.
Besides the saint’s name “S. FRANCISCO XAVIER” that appears at the bottom, the plaque alluding to this event also bears an inscription at the top with the date and the name of either the donor or the silversmith who made it: “From P.S. Dastur, 1925”.