Fr. Agnelo was born on the 21st January 1869, in Anjuna, one of the most beautiful and picturesque villages of Goa.

Fr. Agnelo joined the Society of Pilar as a candidate on 17th July, 1897, ordained deacon on 18th December, 1897 and was conferred ordination on 24th September 1899.

Fr. Agnelo was a man of strong faith and a zealous Priest and worked in several places in the Portuguese jurisdiction. When the Society was on the verge of extinction, he had the courage and faith to make that prophetic statement, "the Society will not die, the finger of God is here". Since then the Society of Pilar has grown from strength to strength.

Above all, Fr. Agnelo was a fiery preacher and much sought after for his ministry in the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman. Because of his deep spiritual life and insights he was appointed Spiritual Director of the Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol, Goa.

An ardent lover and preacher of the love of the Scared Heart of Jesus, Fr. Agnelo having preached all the novenas,, was making his final to the Seminarians towards the devotion to the Scared Heart, from a high pulpit, on 19th November 1927. The end came abruptly when he collapsed in the pulpit. He died the next morning. At his death people exclaimed, "Today a saint has died."

Fr. Agnelo is indeed a saint. Immediately after his death devotion abounded and spread for and wide. Today hundreds & thousands of people all over the world are blessed through his intercession. He was declared "Venerable" by Pope Paul II, and we await and pray eagerly that he may be declared "Blessed" soon.