Synopsis of the book
In this book, the author has highlighted the humanitarian response of St. Joseph “Naik” Vaz, an Indian-Sri Lankan Saint who risked illness and possibly death during the highly infectious smallpox epidemic in the Buddhist capital and kingdom of Kandy in 1696. It is the story of how he and his nephew, Father Joseph Carvalho, personally nursed and cared for the abandoned victims. They are models of compassion like our First Responders today who have similarly risked deadly infection to save many lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The second part of the book is about St. Joseph Naik’s life and work in seventeenth century Goa, then in “Kanara” in the Indian State of Karnataka, and last of all in Ceylon which is today called Sri Lanka.
The Portuguese had conquered Goa in 1510, and later took over seaports in Kanara and parts of Ceylon, to gain control of the spice trade in that region. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch wrested control of Indian seaports in the south of India and in Ceylon and drove them out of Ceylon by 1658. The Dutch started a campaign to eradicate all Portuguese culture and the Catholic religion that they had established there. They banned the practice of the Catholic religion and all Catholic priests from the island under pain of imprisonment and death.
However, the Dutch didn’t reckon with the possibility that a native Indian priest (Father Joseph Vaz) from Goa, India, would enter Ceylon in 1687, disguised as a coolie, and stay and work underground to minister to the persecuted Catholics, make new converts, and re-found the Catholic Church on a foundation that was, amazingly for the period, not tied to colonialism. That he did it with the protection of a Buddhist King, Vimaladharma Surya II, and his son King Narendrasinha, for the twenty-three years of the remainder of his life in Ceylon is one of those unique inter-faith collaborations that inspires us today in our search for peace and understanding amid diversity.
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Berkeley, June 15, 2021
