The Goa Inquisition was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in Portuguese India. Its objective was to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and allegiance to the Apostolic See.
Seal of the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa
The auto-da-fé procession of the Inquisition at Goa. An annual event to publicly humiliate and punish the heretics, it shows the Chief Inquisitor, Dominican friars, Portuguese soldiers, as well as religious criminals condemned to be burnt in the procession.
An 18th century French sketch showing a man condemned to be burnt alive by the Goa Inquisition. The stake is behind him to his left, the punishment is sketched on his shirt. It was inspired by Charles Dellon's persecution.
Francis Xavier, venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative of the Portuguese Empire, led the first Christian
Goa Inquisition
…the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, as well as the subjugation of the Malankara Church to the Latin Church at the Synod of Diamper in 1599. In 1545, Francis Xavier wrote to King John III of Portugal requesting a Goan Inquisition. Between the Inquisition's beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774…
A painting of Saint Francis Xavier, held in the Kobe City Museum, Japan
The castle of the Xavier family was later acquired by the Society of Jesus.
Conversion of the Paravars by Francis Xavier in South India, in a 19th-century coloured lithograph
'Statue of Francisco Xavier, Yajiro & Bernardo in Kagoshima in Xavier Park, Kagoshima