ARCHBISHOP’S HOUSE., BOMBAY 1.

17th April. 1955,

‘Message’ on the occasion of the fourth centenary celebrations of the Church of Our Lady of Remedies, Poinsur.
The celebration of the fourth centenary is indeed a rare and memorable event in the life of any institution. The parishioners of the Church of Our Lady of Remedies, Poinsur, have every reason, therefore, to be proud and glad that they are seeing the 400th year since the beginning of their Church.
This Church has been for you and your ancestors the channel of so many favours and graces over the years. Within it, generations of villagers have been regenerated in the waters of salvation; they have received the graces brought to them through the rivers of Christ’s Sacraments; and when their life’s course has been run they have been laid to rest till the day of the Last Judgement.
That this Church of yours should have catered to the spiritual needs of the people of Poinsur for 400 years is a matter of deep gratitude to God; and must be a source of encouragement and an incentive to all the parishioners of this Church to be strong in the faith of your fathers, who, being nurtured and fed in and through this Church, have handed that faith to you in all its beauty and glory.
May this Church continue for years to come to be what it has been to Poinsur—the rallying point of the spiritual life of the parish and a monument of the loyalty and faithfulness of the parishioners to Christ and His Church.

OUR LADY OF REMEDY CHURCH

Fr. Hull (I:10) fixes 1555 as; the year of the foundation of the church of OL of remedy at Poinsur, which is situated about three kilometers to the south of Mt. Poinsur along the Swami Vivekanand Road (the old Ghodbunder Road). But it appears that the Jesuit Report of 1669 is slightly more cautions when speaking of this church. In that report the Vicar of the time says.
“This parish has jurisdiction over two villages, one called Poinsur and the other Ancolualy…The church was built by the College (Jesuit) of Bassein and it continues to contribute well to its expenses when needed. I did not find among the old books any documents from which I could trace the beginnings of the church, because those before 1618 perished in the storm, which destroyed both residence and church’ on May 16 of that year”.
Fr. Conti, however, on the basis of documents not available to the then Vicar of Poinsur, arrives at a year of the church’s foundation which differs from that of Fr. Hull. It appears that a very rich widow named Dornna Isabel d’ Aguiar came to India from Ormuz before 1551, remarried in bassein, but was childless. She became a great benefactress of the Society Jesus to which she left “all the ornaments and the silver of the church of poinsur which were many and of great value.” As the lady died on January 24, 151, Fr.Conti concludes that the donation took effect either before her death or immediately after. “Hence the church of poinsur was in existence sometime before 1591 and was not built by the College of Bassein but only donated to it. We cannot go further than that.”
It would appear that the church of poinsur did not meet with the same fate at the hands of the Marathas as did the church of Mt.Poinsur. The first intimation we have of Vicar (Secular priest) at Poinsur is in the year 1760 (Humbert,I :189). From 1800 onwards the Vicar of Poinsur had under his jurisdiction the chapels at Mt.Poinsur, Magatana, Orlem (Orlem), Candolim (Kandivli) and elsewhere in the neighbourhood (Humbert II: 13, 38). Eventully Kandivli (and Orlem) separated from Poinsur in 1861 and Mt.Poinsur became independent in 1912.
Alternation and modifications of the Old Portuguese church were made in 1919, 1928 and again in 1930. All the alters were reconditioned and polished with gold decorations in April 1964