GOA, ARCHBISHOPRIC OF: A metropolitan see in Portuguese India, founded in 1534 by Paul III. The first bishop was the Franciscan Jo(a-tidle)o Albuquerque, consecrated in 1537. After the extension of Christianity by the labors of St. Francis Xavier (q.v.), who landed at Goa in 1542, Paul III. raised the see to metropolitan rank in 1557, assigning to it as suffragan bishoprics Cochin, Malacca, and Macao, the last-named including the oversight of the Chinese and, from 1576, the Japanese missions. About 1570, three-fourths of the 200,000 inhabitants of the city were Christians. The increasing conquests of the Dutch diminished the importance of the city, and in 1753, in consequence of a plague, the residence of the Portuguese viceroy was removed to New Goa or Panjim (5 m. to the westward), which became the seat of government in 1845. The ancient city is now little but ruins, with few inhabitants; its most remarkable remaining monuments are the churches, of which that containing the body of St. Francis Xavier is a place of pilgrimage for the Roman Catholics of all India. The later history of the mission which was once so flourishing is an unhappy one. In the seventeenth century the Portuguese government, relying on the right of patronage originally conceded by the pope, made claims which could not be admitted, and on their rejection deliberately organized a schism which maintained its existence for over two hundred years, the consequences of which are not yet effaced.

Bibliography: J. A. E. de Silva, Catholic Church in India, Bombay, 1885; C. Dellon, Hist. of the Inquisition at Goa, London, 1748; Life of Bishop Hartmann, Calcutta, 1868; J. P. Kirsch and V. Lukach, Illustrierte Geschichte der katholischen Kirche, pp. 493, 547, 577, 601, Munich, 1905; KL, v. 775-780.