The seventh Bishop of Goan origin was D. João Xavier de Souza Trindade. He was elected bishop of Malacca. He was born in Assagao in Bardez, Goa and a religious of the convent of S. Domingos de Goa, where he rose through the ranks until he became prior and was then sent to Macau as superior of the filial college of his order in that province and lived there for a few years defending in the press his administration of the convent of Goa and Macau in articles that he published.
When the dictatorships were abolished in the year 1815, he went from Macau to Goa and resided here until his election as a deputy to the courts (which took place on April 7, 1839); and, armed with the sovereign’s mandate, he left for Portugal. He arrived there on March 14, 1840, and on May 2 he took his seat in the courts together with his colleague, the lawyer António Caetano Pacheco, but on the ministerial side he would have sat in the opposition, while the other three deputies for India sat on the opposition benches. In the courts he presented some projects of renewed utility, such as: — That of six young men going to study in Portugal at the expense of the chambers and then returning to Goa to teach their compatriots. the sciences and knowledge acquired in Europe; a project that was implemented, but unfortunately almost none of the chosen and subsidized candidates who qualified fulfilled the return clause, and consequently this measure did not result in any benefit to taxpayers or the country.
He proposed another good measure, which would be welcome at any time, that of creating a specific code of laws for each overseas province, according to its peculiarities, without contradicting the general bases of the constitution of the Portuguese monarchy, so that the special organic laws would better contribute to the development of the public and moral forces of the country, a project that was not carried out.
By decree of the 15th on October 4, 1866, He was appointed minister of Mozambique, where he was given the right to go and remained in Portugal until his death, which, took place on October 4, 1864.
He was commander of Christ, during the maritime and colonial transfer of Lisbon,