Filipe Nery Xavier

Filipe Nery Xavier

Filipe Nery Xavier (17 March 1801 - 26 May 1875), sometimes spelt Felipe, Felippe, Filippe or Neri, was a Portuguese administrator, littérateur and historian of Goan origin. He was descended from a "very distinguished" Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family that had converted to Christianity when the Portuguese arrived in India. Despite having no or very little European blood, the Xavier family flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, holding positions such as interim Secretary General of Portuguese India, secretary to the Governor General of Mozambique, president of the municipal council of Mozambique and commander of the artillery of Lisbon's National Guard.

Quotes

• Filipe Nery Xavier, in his periodical Gabinete Literatorio mentions an instance in which under the orders of the Inquisition an entire family of Bassein were burnt at stake and their home razed to the ground. He writes : “ In this same district (Bassein) we discovered in 1840, a part of a flat stone raised in 1786 on the site of » house which the Inquisition had ordered to be razed to the ground. This carried an inscription which read as follows : ‘“ They, being dogmatists of the said sect, practised rites and ceremonies with the participation of many other persons, and for this were condemned by the Holy Office and being delivered to secular justice burnt in the Auto de Fé celebrated on December 80, 1747, It was ordered that their houses should be demolished and ploughed with salt and this stone erected in detestation of the said crimes.” This action was according to the rule laid down in the code of the Inquisition.’ F. Nery Xavier states that in 1865 this stone was lying on the road broken in two parts.
  • Regimento de Santo Officio, da Inquisicam dos Reynos de Portugal, Liv. TH, Tit. 2, 8 4, Lishon 1640, f. 1356. in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.