This article seeks to address the social and religious changes brought about in Goa during the first century of Portuguese conquest. It studies how the ‘negative’ effects of the Christian presence were overcome and transformed into an acceptable situation by the people involved in the process of Christianisation, and relates it to the durability of the Portuguese imperial presence. I argue that a careful study of the local society of two villages where conversion processes took place allows us to avoid easy answers and stereotypes about conversion, providing altogether more complex images of the Portuguese colonisation of Goa.