The annual feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour will be celebrated on October 25, 2023 at St Christopher’s Church, Tivim, Bardez. This will be preceded by 9 days of novenas.
The schedule of masses on the feast and novena days is as follows:
NOVENA MASSES: October 16, 2023 – October 24, 2023
Morning: 6.45 am, 9 am
Evening: 4 pm
There will be recitation of the rosary before each novena mass.
The feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour will be celebrated on October 25, 2023.
FEAST DAY MASSES: Wednesday, October 25, 2023
On the feast day, the schedule of masses is as follows:
Morning: 6.30 am, 8 am, 9.30 am (high mass)
Evening: 4 pm
FEAST DAY PROGRAMMES
On the feast day, there will be a Walking Pilgrimage in which parishioners from all 18 wards of Tivim will walk to the church.
In the evening of the same day, Roseferns’ latest tiatr, Dev Tumkam Bhogsum, will be staged in the church compound.
SOME BACKGROUND
St Christopher’s Church, Tivim (Igreja de São Cristóvão in Portuguese), is popularly called ‘Tivim church’.
This year, 2023, marks 400 years since the church was built through contributions from the gaunkars of Tivim, Sirsaim and Assonora. Construction of the church was completed in 1623 and it was dedicated to St Christopher.
However, several years later, in 1685, the church had to be rebuilt after it was damaged by a fire.
In 1927, a large ornate altar, dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, was gifted to the church by Dr Angelo D’Souza from Siolim, in Bardez.
The Tivim church is most famous for the novenas to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour which are held every Wednesday. This devotion of Wednesday novenas to Our Lady began in July 1955 and continues to this day, drawing huge crowds from all over Goa.
