San Salvador ChurchHonavar
A Brief History of the Church
The first Church in Honavar is supposed to have been built in 1592 by the Portuguese. Being an important commercial place and port town, the elite of the Portuguese outside of Goa made Honavar their headquarters. Not surprisingly, the Portuguese Ambassador to the Bednore Court, Fr. Spinola S.J. resided at Honavar. Catholicity flourished in those days. Pietro della Valle during his expedition in the district in 1623-1624 mentions that at that time there were two Churches in Honavar – one dedicated to St. Catherine and the other to St. Anthony of Egypt. As in the other places of the district, Honavar bore the brunt of the persecution during the Tipu Sultan era when the Churches were also destroyed.
The present San Salvador Church of Honavar was built in 1852. It has seen many renovations and alterations, the last one being the addition of the portico, which was done and inaugurated on 7.7.1962 when the V. Rev. Msgr. Miguel C. Menezes of happy memories was the Parish Priest. Like the other old Goan Clergy, he spent 34 years of his life as the Parish Priest of the Church. He died in Honavar on 19.7.1990 and lies buried in the Cemetery Chapel.
Msgr. Simon Tellis, the Second Vicar General of the Diocese succeeded Msgr. Menezes and led the flock as Parish Priest of Honavar and Dean of the Honavar deanery from 1983 to 1996. He supervised the building of the new Presbytery. For Some time the Presbytery housed the Holy Cross Orientation Centre where candidates to Priesthood for the Diocese are given a chance to discern their vocation as they follow the Neo catechumenal way of formation. Fr. Chrysostom Rodrigues, Fr. John Rodrigues, Fr. Richard Rodrigues, Fr. William D Souza, have served the Parish. Presently Fr. Salvadore Gonsalves is leading the flock.
The sub-stations of Motto, Sanamotto and Mattadkeri are the last segments of the vast territory that the Priests of the Honavar Parish at one time administered to. These sub-stations have their own Chapels where Masses are celebrated on Sundays. The village of Sanamotto was fortunate to have its Chapel dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle, inaugurated just a few days before the Diocese celebrated its Silver Jubilee on 18th April 2002.