Agnelo de Souza

The Venerable Father Agnelo Gustavo Adolfo de Souza, S.F.X.
Orders
Ordination	24 September 1899 by Archbishop António Sebastião Valente
Personal details
Born	21 January 1869 Anjuna, North Goa, Portuguese India
Died	20 November 1927 (aged 58) Rachol, South Goa, Portuguese India
Buried	Our Lady of Pilar Monastery, Pilar, Goa, India

Agnelo Gustavo Adolfo de Souza, S.F.X. ( 21 January 1869 – 20 November 1927), was a Roman Catholic priest of the Society of the Missionaries of St. Francis Xavier, Pilar who performed missionary work in the province of Goa, then part of Portuguese India. The cause for his canonization has been accepted for investigation by the Holy See, and has progressed to the point that he has been declared Venerable.

Father Agnel, as he is known, was born in the village of Anjuna to Miguel Arcanjo de Souza and Maria Sinforosa Perpetua Magalhães. His parents had nine children, eight sons and a daughter, among whom Agnelo was the sixth child. Even as a small child, all were impressed by his behaviour. From a young age he would remember sermons heard at Mass and would teach doton'n, that is the catechism, to other children, some even older than him. When he was eleven, his parents died suddenly. As his mother was dying, she entrusted her children to the care of the Blessed Mother.

With the encouragement of an older brother who was already a priest, de Souza pursued a call to the priesthood. He studied philosophy and theology at the Patriarchal Seminary at Rachol. Always in very poor health, he was allowed to live in a private dwelling off the seminary grounds, where he was able to do his studies diligently. He secured the much coveted and singular honor of acessit in his final year of study.

Souza wanted to enter a religious institute, but they had been banned in the lands under the Portuguese Crown since 1835. After much prayer and reflection, de Souza joined the Diocesan Missionary Society of St. Francis Xavier of Pilar on 17 July 1897. He was ordained on 24 September 1898, by the Archbishop of Goa and Patriarch of the East Indies, Dom António Sebastião Valente.

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