Altar of Time
A podcast funded by the India Foundation for the Arts with Anirudh Kanisetti in which he delves into the stories behind several of the artefacts housed at the Museum of Christian Art in Goa.
Nirmala Matha, in Konkani
The year is 1973, and a young first-year theology student from Goa is assigned room number 65 at the Papal Seminary in Pune. There he sees a mysterious object: a pearl-white statuette of an elegant lady, wearing an Indian crown, standing on a lotus, draped in a saree. She appeared to be a Hindu goddess, but for the halo behind her head, and under her feet a crescent moon. This stunning image was the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, with the rising sun behind her crowned head and crescent moon at her feet. This "Nirmala Mata", with her humble vernacular name, represents how Indian Christians were very much part of the transformation of Indian art in the twentieth century. Let's dive in, in Konkani.
Convent to Museum,
Nuns to Tourists
The silent walls of the Convent of Santa Monica in Old Goa whisper the stories of hundreds of lives. The first major convent for aristocratic Portuguese and Indian Catholic women established in the subcontinent, its history is the history of Goa itself. Join us as we explore the lives of its former inhabitants, century through century.
The Sorrowful Virgin in Global (and Goan) Catholic Art
Over the centuries, a large body of music, art and sculpture has explored the sorrow and pain borne by the Virgin Mary, whose son, Jesus Christ, was crucified in front of her eyes. From Flanders to Goa, we trace out the history of depictions of the Sorrowful Virgin in art, using three magnificent paintings in the collection of the Museum of Christian Art.
How Roman Catholic Saints Became Goan
Whether we’re talking about bodhisattvas in Buddhism, Alvars in Vaishnavism, Nayanars in Shaivism, or pirs in Islam, all South Asian religions have their own version of the ideal devotee, worshipped as saints. In densely Catholic places like Goa, the calendar is marked and built around the celebration of the feast days of saints.
In this episode of The Altar of Time, we'll look at the images of two saints, both believed to be blood relatives of Jesus Christ, from the collection of the Museum of Christian Art. We’ll see how the rituals and traditions surrounding their feast days shape Goan Catholic culture.