Mother Of God Church, Palghar, Maharashtra

According to Dr. Ragin D’Silva it is very difficult to know the exact date of the erection of the Mother of God Church Palle. According to him Fr. Paolo De Trindade who wrote a book in Portuguese in 1638 mentions about Palle church as the first church outside the Vasai Fort. There is a controversy about this as according to Fr. Conty there was a church in Sandor so called St. Thomas church already in 1566. Nirmal church seem to have built in 1556 and may be the first church outside the Fort. Today the church speaks of Mother of God is being established in 1585. But Fr. Achilles Meersman, a Franciscan dates the Palle church as 1595 as stated in Franciscans in Bombay.

The Church was situated at the Southern end of Bassein (Vasai) opposite the island of Panju. It is difficult to categorically state the exact date the Church was erected. Since it was mentioned in the Franciscan Chapter-lists of 1585, it can be presumed that it was built sometime between 1577 to 1585 (Meersman 1971-184) According to Paulo de Trindade, there was a very beautiful statute of Our Lady in the Church reiterated by the Franciscan Chronicler that states that the Church was dedicated to the Mother of God and possessed “an image of our Lady of great beauty” “pierced by a sword” for which the people of the area had great devotion. Dr. Regin D’Silva too speaks of the beautiful statue of Our Lady. He shares the story that Fr. Trindade had revealed. It seems there was a heavy storm in May 16,1618 and that night the statue of Our Lady had fallen and a veil was wrapped around her face. It seems there was a priest in residence here in 1635 by name Fr. Antonio. He had written a letter about this church to his superiors in Goa.