User:Lincons/sandbox

St. Pauls Church : Nanbhat

This parish came into being on June 1, 1975. Before that, Nanbhat belonged to Nandakhal. Fr. Raymond Mendes of Nandakhal, expressed in 1949, his desire to build a chapel there. A parishioner donated six gunthas of Land. Fr. Sebastian Vaz laid the foundations of the future chapel in 1953. In 1965 the new Vicar of Nandakhal, Fr. Joseph Misquita, built a chapel in which Sunday Mass began to be regularly offered.

The church was constructed in 1969. Soon after this a primary school was opened. Fr, Phillip Tavares was appointed Vicar of Nandakhal in 1974. He worked towards making Nanbhat an independent parish. On June 1, 1975 Fr. Michael D'souza, who was then an assistant at Nandakhal, and had been entrusted with looking after Nanbhat was appointed its first parish priest. By January 1980 an almost entirely new church was built on the old foundations. The new church was blessed by Archbishop Simon Pimenta on January 27, 1980. Plans are afoot to have a church extension on the ground floor and the parochial floor on the second floor, in view of the fact that the sisters have started an English medium school from 1989 and they need the premises presently occupied by the parish.