British national Carl Cox was surprised to know St. Joseph Vaz Canteen, where he had just had some snacks and tea in old Goa, was run by a Catholic diocesan priest. “The snacks are delicious, and I was taken aback to find that a Catholic priest was running it,” the 32-year-old scientist working at a private firm in the UK, told. “This is my third time visiting Old Goa and the crowds are getting bigger and bigger here, revealing their deep faith in St Francis Xavier,” Cox said. As he spoke, his wife, Danica Pereira, 30, nodded approvingly with a smile. “The food served here in the canteen is typically Goan, tasty and spicy,” she says, as she collected some packed food from the counter. Cox, his wife, and father, Jeff Cox, 68, were visiting the western Indian state as part of their pilgrimage to witness the once-in-a-ten-year Exposition of the relics of St. Francis Xavier in the former capital of Portuguese-ruled India. Jeff Cox was sipping a fresh lime soda, just served to him by the waiter. “It is very fresh and cool,” he said with a smile. The canteen is named after St. Joseph Vaz, a Goa-born Indian missionary priest hailed for pioneering evangelization in Sri Lanka in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.