Storia do Mogor 281.24.7

281.24.7

My beloved reader! How alike are the ceremonies observed in this procession and those observed at the festival of the Blessed Virgin! This is so much the case that Hindus and Malabar Christians attend, without distinction and without scruple, both the one and the other, particularly as they [the Hindus] look on the Blessed Virgin as their Bangavaty (BhagavatI) and the Infant Jesus as their false god, Ram. These are the ceremonies that I have witnessed in the space of fifty years passed by me in this great empire. In it I have seen all these customs, which are not only evil, but hateful and abominable. For all those [sect] marks are meant only to distinguish one set of men from another, things that they connect with diabolical and sacrilegious invocations. Yet these are also employed by all the Christians of this region (? Pondicherry), who mark themselves with the said ashes and are under the guidance of the Jesuit fathers. As for the other Christians, those who live in the countries in submission to the King of Portugal, they have been absolutely forbidden by the Holy Inquisition to affix such marks. Nor have the Capuchin fathers, who for twenty-four years directed the congregation of Malabar Christians at Pondicherry, ever allowed the use of these abominable ashes or any equivalent marks; with which deprivation these Christians were quite content, because they saw themselves made equal to, and put on the same footing as, the ancient Christians.