Souvenir of the exposition of St. Francis Xavier : a description of the chapel and tomb of St. Francis Xavier reprinted from An historical and archæological sketch of the city of Goa / by José Nicolau da Fonseca.

  • Fonseca, José Nicolau da.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Souvenir of the exposition of St. Francis Xavier : a description of the chapel and tomb of St. Francis Xavier reprinted from An historical and archæological sketch of the city of Goa / by José Nicolau da Fonseca. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in length, and 1| in breadth, and is opened with three keys.* * * § It is lined with the richest tissue interwoven with flowers of various colours, which have not lost their original freshness. The body of the saint is still, after the lapse of upwards of three centuries, in a well-preserved state, f But it is somewhat shrunken, being only feet in length. In an official report made by the chief surgeons and physicians of Goa, who were commissioned to examine the body on the occasion of its last exposition in 1859, they say “ the cranium on the right side is covered with scalp still bearing hair, though scanty, and on the left side completely denuded of it. The whole of the face is covered with a dark dry integument, with an opening on the right side communicating with the maxillary fossa, and apparently corresponding to the place of the contusion referred to in the report drawn up on the 1st of January 1782. Of the front teeth only one of the lower incisors is wanting. Both the ears exist, but the right arm is wanting. £ The left hand, including the nails, is entire, just as it is described in the abovementioned report of 1782. The abdominal walls are covered with an integument dried up and somewhat dark in colour, the abdominal cavity not containing any intestines.§ The feet are covered with an integument equally dried up and dark in colour, the prominence of the tendons being distinctly marked. The fourth and fifth toes of the right foot are wanting.|| Some remnants of the integument and phalanges of one of these toes are in a very spongy condition.”li * These three keys had been lost, and could not be found on the occa- sion of the last exposition of the body of the saint in 1859. New ones were therefore made and given respectively in charge of the Governor, the Arch- bishop, and the Chief Secretary to Government. None of them was ever sent to Portugal, as is generally believed. t Our drawing represents the body of the saint as it is at present. t The right arm of the saint was cut off by order of the Pope on 3rd November 1614, and divided into four parts, the greater of which was sent to Rome. § According to Lucena (Historia da Vida do Padre Sao Francisco Xavier, Vol. IV., p. 401) and Vieira (Serniao, Xavier Acordado) the intestines of the saint were found in their natural state two months and a half after his death. See also Peregrinacao de Fernao Mendes Pinto, Lisboa, 1829, tom. III., p. 292. Dr. Cosme Saraiva, chief physician to the Viceroy, who examined the body of the saint in 1556, about four years after his death, certifies also that he found the intestines still in the abdomen, and that through a hole in it fresh blood could be taken out. || One of these toes was bitten off when being kissed, in 1554, by a Portuguese lady called Dona Isabel de Carom, who was anxious to possess a relic of the saint.
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