Lord God of compassion and mercy,
you opened a door in the East for St. Francis Xavier
when you sent him to preach your Gospel.
Send us in our day over the face of the earth,
so that the joy of our Mother, the Church,
may be made perfect. Amen

Prayer for St Francis Xavier

Siolim Sports Club

7 years ago I travelled to India…
Damn, it sounds like the over-romanticism of the Indian continent already.
As I drove a bike through a small town called Siolim in the North of Goa I noticed a crowd of people surrounding a small figure. I passed by and could see that the figure was clothed in a Nun’s habit and with outstretched arms was allowing the crowd to touch and hold her hands. Her hair was clear white and her skin almost translucent, she watched me as I passed with strained eyes. As I drove on and away from the town the visual clutter of the situation began to piece itself together slowly in my head; the lady was an Albino nun.
In hindsight what could I have done, an awkward forced encounter resulting in some sort of voyeuristic portrait of an Albino Nun? I guess thats why I didn’t do anything about it at the time, but I was a very different person back then. As the years passed I often thought about the fleeting moment and how things could have been different or if indeed they should have been. I’d tell friends stories of the Nun and occasionally trawl the internet for some kind of name or record or… Well, I don’t really know what I was looking for. I wanted to feel a connection that I hadn’t make at the time, I was trying to right a regret.

In January 2011, I traveled back to try and find her.
There are seven convents in Siolim, I went to them all… The Seven Sisters of Siolim