Located at Giriz Parish, now in a place called Vasai Diocese, St. Francis Xavier's Church is a Roman Catholic Church and is one of the most famous churches of Maharashtra. The church is basically situated in Giriz village which belongs to the Vasai town, which is a city of Vasai Vihar in Maharashtra. Being built rather recently in comparison to most of the nearby churches, the walls and furniture present are new and have modern design and appearance.

The church was built for the Catholics of Giriz during the early years of 20th century. At that time, they were the parishioners of the vast parish of Sandor, St. Thomas and Our Lady of Mercy, Merces. The troubles faced by the dwellers of Giriz for attending services at Thomas, Sandor and Merces - especially during the times of monsoon - were then realized by Archbishop of Damaun.

Construction

The foundation of the church was laid on 14th February 1917 after it was commissioned. After that, the actual process of construction began which was taken over by the village people only. And there was no form of aid taken from foreign sources, let it be monetary or another other. The construction completed in 1918 and St. Francis Xavier (7th April 1506 – 3rd December 1552) was made its Patron Saint. After that, Fr. Augusto D’Souza, who was the chief supervisor all the time during the construction, was sought by Giriz to become an independent Parish, the first Parish priest of the church.

To commemorate the death anniversary of St. Francis Xavier, 3rd of December every year is celebrated by the Parishers. They call this day as the feast day and as the name suggests, it is greatly celebrated.

Golden Jubilee

St. Francis Xavier's Church and the Parish celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1968. It was then Fr. Francis Gratian Monteiro, the vicar, had the Marshal Pereira Community Hall and a porch constructed to house the ever growing populace of Catholics. Afterwards, in 1977, as per the request of Vicar Fr. Dominic Pereira, a sizeable extension of the Church was built along with a new parochial house. This house was built on the first floor with the help of diocesan and the German. The old spires of the Church were replaced in May 1981 by new ones.