St. Paul’s Church

January 29th, 2006

Pictures of St. Paul’s Church at Flickr

At the Porta de Santiago of A Famosa Fortress, looking up to the summit of the hill, you could easily spot the sights of ruins surrounded by thick bricks. The ruins, known as St. Paul’s Church situation at the summit of St. Paul’s Hill, is another valuable heritage structure found in Melaka. The St. Paul’s Church is easily accessible via a stairway on the gentle slope of St. Paul’s Hill.

The St. Paul’s Church of Melaka was originally a Portuguese chapel built by Duarte Coelho in 1521, in gratitude to Our Lady of Grace (Joao de Barros of the 16th century) for a miraculous escape from an attack on his ship by a fleet in the South China Sea. This chapel was known as Chapel of the Mother of God (Madre de Deus) or Our Lady of the Hill (Nossa Senhora do Oiteiro). In 1548 the Archbishop of Goa in India, Don Albuquerque, handed over the church to the Society of Jesus. St. Francis Xavier, the pioneering Catholic missionary of Southeast Asia, received the title deeds on behalf of the Society.

The body of St. Francis Xavier was laid to rest at open grave (now covered by wire mesh) of the church for a period of eight and a half months after his death at San Chian of China, from the 22nd of March 1553 to the 11th of December of the same year. The body of St. Francis Xavier is still on display at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India, open to the public once every 10 years. Don’t be surprised, that the body is still preserved in fairly good condition, even though it has been resisted for nearly 500 years. Some call it a miracle, which is hard to be reasoned with scientific theories.

Canonization of St. Francis Xavier was done in 1614. The Pope requested Francis’ right arm to be brought to Rome, in order to be canonized. Again, legendary miracle happened - the wound was said to have dripped blood!

In 1641, the Dutch took over Melaka from the Portuguese, renamed the chapel to St. Paul’s Church, and used it as their praying place until they completed the construction of their own church - Christ Church. When the Christ Church was established, St. Paul’s Church became a Dutch graveyard with monumental tombstones scattered around.

In 1952, a statue of St. Francis Xavier was built to commemorate the passing of the saint. Originally, the statue was completely constructed with the right arm in place. However, on the morning after the consecration ceremony, a large casuarina tree fell on it and broke off the right arm, resulted in a statue with missing arm until today.

GPS Coordinate: N2.19261 E102.24941

Related Previous Posts

• St. Francis Xavier’s Church Melaka
• Christ Church
• Map@Melaka - Chinatown
• Dutch Square (The Stadthuys)
• Melaka and George Town Listed as UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Sites

Entry Filed under: Historical Site

Digg it   Add to del.icio.us   Furl it   Spurl it   Blink it