Summary:
The parish priest added that Goan culture was still very much a part of the church and its faithful. From 1819 onwards, it began receiving a grant from the British government.Additional land was subsequently donated to build a larger church to cater to the booming Goan Catholic population in the Maharashtrian city. Panaji: Pune's first church, which was earlier under the purview of the Archdiocese of Goa, will mark the 225th anniversary of its inception on Friday.What will make the occasion even more special is the felicitation of two seventh generation descendants of the Peshwas. This, Pinto said, was its greatest achievement. Fr Joaquim Vicente Menezes, a Goan, was the first parish priest.In terms of financial aid, the church received 663 xerafin (coins, each of which were equal to 3/5th of a rupee) from the Peshwas as congrua (the lowest sum proper for the yearly income of a cleric)..