and tearing up their religious habits and kimono for holy relics. The guards beat the relic-hunters away and order was reestablished. Guards were positioned around the hill to keep onlookers at a distance. Veneration In 1627 the twenty-six were declared venerable by Pope Urban VIII and permitted the Jesuits and the Franciscans to venerate them. In 1629 their veneration was permitted throughout the Universal Church. The matter was neglected for more than two centuries. It was once again taken up in 1862 and on 8 June 1862 Pope Pius IX canonized Gonsalo Garcia and his co-martyrs. Brother Gonsalo Garcia became St. Gonsalo Garcia, the first Catholic saint of India and the Indian sub-continent, and 8 June 2012 marked the 150th anniversary of his canonization. Legacy Garcia's memory is kept alive with a college named after him in Vasai. He is the patron saint of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vasai and his feast day is a joint one for the group of martyrs, on 6 February (as the actual day of his death, 5 February, is the feast of St. Agatha). Thomas Dabre, the Bishop of Vasai, says Garcia's relevance even today lies in the universalism of his charity and love. A small statue of Gonçalo Garcia was taken from Portugal to Recife in Brazil as early as 1745 by a local Brazilian because of his brown complexion (a further proof of his Indian ancestry), where his veneration soon took off. See also Cyril Bernard Papali List of topics on the Portuguese Empire in the East References Sources India's only canonized saint: St Gonsalo Garcia of Bassein. by Dr. Regin D’silva, St Gonsalo Garcia Publications, Bassein, pp95, 2003. External links Gonsalo Garcia at Patron Saints Index Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum Home Page St. Gonsalo (Gundisalvus, Gonzalo) Garcia, O. F. M. Biographies of the 26 Martyrs 1556 births 1597 deaths People from Thane Indian people of Portuguese descent Indian Friars Minor Franciscan missionaries Indian people executed abroad 26 Martyrs of Japan Indian Roman Catholic saints Portuguese Roman Catholic saints Canonized Roman Catholic religious brothers Canonizations by Pope Pius IX