GOA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - It is situated on the western coast of the Indian Peninsula. The diocese of G. and Daman, in addition to the Portuguese territory of the State of India (G., Daman and Diu), comprises the district of Ratnagiri; the States of Sawantwadi and Sangli, and the Collectorates of Belgaum and North Canara, belonging to the Indian Union, with a total area of over 3,400 sq. km. (Portuguese territory), and a population of 1,594,220 inhabitants, of whom 355,880 are Catholics according to the 1939 census.
The languages spoken are Konkani, Marathi, Hindustani, Kannada, Gujarati, as well as Portuguese and English, generally spoken by the educated classes.
Although traces of Christianity were not lacking in G. before the arrival of the Portuguese, its true Catholic history begins with their arrival in 1498. The viceroy Albuquerque chose G. in 1510 as the base of the new Eastern Empire, and the rich and cosmopolitan G. became its political and religious capital. Evangelization began immediately through the work of the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians. In the Consistory of 31 January 1533, Clement VII separated the Church of G. from the diocese of Funchal and erected the diocese of G. with jurisdiction over all the East, from the Cape of Good Hope to China and Japan. But the bull of erection, *Aequum reputamus*, was promulgated the following year by Paul III. With this bull the Holy See granted the Portuguese sovereigns the right of patronage over the bishopric of G. and all the benefices of the diocese, which in the course of history gave rise to no small number of conflicts between the Holy See and Portugal and also to the so-called Goan schism, that is, the opposition to papal decrees by some priests who, together with their ordinary, thought that the limitation of the patronage right without the consent of the King of Portugal was not valid.
In 1542 St. Francis Xavier arrived in G. with the Jesuits. The incorrupt body of the Saint is still preserved today in the basilica of Bom Jesus, in the old capital, the Old City (Velha Cidade). G. became a metropolitan see in 1557 (bull *Etsi sancta*). Its archbishop received from Leo XIII, in 1886 (bull *Humanae salutis auctor*), the title of Patriarch of the East Indies. After the agreement between the Holy See and Portugal, concluded in 1928, the diocese of Daman was united to that of G. Since 1 May 1928 it has also borne the title of Archbishop of Canganor.