Early Life
The third of six children, Joseph Vaz was born in 1651 at Benaulim, his mother's village. His parents, Cristóvão Vaz and Maria de Miranda, were devout Catholics. Cristóvão belonged to a prominent Goud Saraswat Brahmin Naik family of Sancoale. He was baptised on the eighth day of the parish church of St. John the Baptist, Benaulim by Fr. Jacinto Pereira. Joseph attended the elementary school in Sancoale. He learned Portuguese in Sancoale and Latin in Benaulim. Joseph was a bright pupil and respected by his teachers and fellow students. He made such rapid progress in his studies that his father decided to send him to the city of Goa for further studies; where he did a course in rhetoric and Humanities at the Jesuit college of St. Paul. He further studied philosophy and theology at the College of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Goa city.
In 1675, Joseph was ordained a deacon by Dom Custódio de Pinho, the Vicar Apostolic of Bijapur and Golconda. In 1676, he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Goa, Dom Frei António Brandão. Soon after his ordination, he started going barefoot in order to live like the poor and acquired a reputation as a popular preacher and confessor. He opened a Latin school in Sancoale for prospective seminarians. In 1677, he consecrated himself as a "slave of Mary", sealing it with a document known as the "Deed of Bondage".
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