Saint Joseph's Church is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

in Singapore. It is located along Victoria Street in the

Rochor Rochor is a Planning Areas of Singapore, planning area located within the Central Area, Singapore, Central Area of the Central Region, Singapore, Central Region of Singapore. Rochor shares boundaries with the following planning areas – Kallan ...

Planning Area, within the Central Area of Singapore's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

. The church was constructed from 1906 to 1912 with its

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

laid in 1904. The building was built in the Manuelino Portuguese late-

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style by the Portuguese

Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

. Saint Joseph's Church is noted for its Portuguese-inspired religious traditions, such as the annual

Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...

celebrations.St Joseph's Church (Portuguese Mission)
Singapore Infopedia, National Library Board, Singapore. It is also well known for its weekly

Traditional Latin Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated alm ...

. The church is a Rectoral church of devotion and not a Parish Church, hence, the church does not have specific territorial boundaries.

History

The history of Saint Joseph's Church and that of its predecessor, the Church of São José, both built on the same site, is linked with the Portuguese Mission. When Father Francisco da Silva Pinto e Maia of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, head of the Portuguese Mission died in 1850, he left his money and some land for the building of a small church. Part of that money came from the Portuguese Missions in China, whose procuration house was St Joseph's Seminary in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. Under the system of

padroado The ''Padroado'' (, "patronage") was an arrangement between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Portugal and later the Portuguese Republic, through a series of concordats by which the Holy See delegated the administration of the local churches and gr ...

, his funds were augmented by a gift from the

King of Portugal This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution. Through the n ...

. The church, which was called São José (in English: Saint Joseph), was built by the

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

who succeeded him, the Rev. Vincente de Santa Catarina, from 1851 to 1853, to mainly serve the Portuguese and

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Ja ...

Catholics in Singapore. Situated in the church compound and attached to the Mission was Saint Anthony's Boys' and Girls' School. It was first opened by Father José Pedro Santa Ana da Cunha in 1879 as Saint Anna's School in a small house along Middle Road. The school moved into the church compound in 1886 and changed its name. In 1893, separate boys' and girls' schools were formed. In 1886, the Portuguese

Archbishop of Goa The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa and Daman ( la, Archidioecesis Goanae et Damanensis, gom, Gõy ani Damanv Mha-Dhormprant, pt, Arquidiocese de Goa e Damão) encompasses the Goa state and the Damaon territory in the Konkan r ...

transferred the jurisdiction over the Portuguese Missions in Singapore and

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

to the Portuguese Bishop of Macau. Because of the steady growth of the congregation, the Church of São José was demolished in 1906 and a new church was built on the same site, by the notable firm

Swan & MacLaren Swan & Maclaren Architects is a Singaporean architectural and industrial design firm. One of the oldest architectural firms in the country, it was formerly known as Swan & Maclaren and Swan & Lermit, and was one of the most prominent architectur ...

. The new and larger church, i.e. the present Saint Joseph's Church, was completed in 1912 and blessed by the then Bishop of Macau, João Paulino de Azevedo e Castro, who was the impetus behind this project. New buildings were added to the Church in 1938, 1954 and 1956. In March 1947, the church published its first parish magazine, ''Rally'', in English that sought to rally parishioners to the Catholic Young Men's Association, promote the

Catholic faith The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and provide information on pastoral activities, recreation and sports. In 1948, ''Rally'' became a mission publication and served as an official organ of the Portuguese Mission in Malacca and Singapore until it ceased publication in 1990. On 1 July 1981, an agreement signed between

Gregory Yong Gregory Yong Sooi Ngean Doctor of Divinity, D.D., Doctor of Canon Law, J.C.D. (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Yòng Sui-ngèn'') (20 May 1925 – 28 June 2008) was the second, and the first local, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese ...

, the

Archbishop of Singapore The Archdiocese of Singapore (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Singaporensis'') is an exempt archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. Its territory includes all that is under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Singapore. Its current ...

, and Arquimínio Rodrigues da Costa, the Bishop of Macau, for the transfer of the Parish of St Joseph to the ordinary jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Singapore became effective. With this, the dual ecclesiastical jurisdiction ceased to exist in Singapore and the whole island of Singapore was brought under the single jurisdiction of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore The Archdiocese of Singapore (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Singaporensis'') is an exempt archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. Its territory includes all that is under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Singapore. Its current ...

. Saint Joseph's church ceased to be a parish church and became a church of devotion. The entire congregation of parishioners was incorporated into the Archdiocese of Singapore. To maintain the Portuguese character of the church, the Bishop of Macau continued to post priests to the church until 31 December 1999, when the rector of the church, Father Benito de Sousa, ended his term. The Bishop of Macau decided to stop sending missionaries to the church, making Father Benito de Sousa the last link between the church and the Portuguese Mission. Saint Joseph's Church was

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

d a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

on 14 January 2005. From 4 September to 12 November 2006, the church was one of the exhibition venues for the

Singapore Biennale The Singapore Biennale is a large-scale biennial contemporary art exhibition in Singapore, serving as the country’s major platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. It seeks to present and reflect the vigour of artistic practices in ...

, Singapore's inaugural international biennale of contemporary art. In 2007, during repainting of the church, painters discovered the original ornamental plasterwork from the 1900s underneath the paint. By August 2017, the church raised $25 million, inclusive $1.953 million from the National Heritage Board's National Monuments Fund to restore the church's main building and Parochial House, a conserved building, and started restoration work. On 30 June 2022, the 110th anniversary of the church's consecration, the church was reopened.

Architecture and interior design

Saint Joseph's Church was built to accommodate 1,500 worshippers,St Joseph’s Church
in History of the Catholic Church in Singapore - The Virtual Exhibition in a

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

with a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

supported by four

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s and decorated by large marble statues of

Saint Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...

, Saint John of God and Saint John de Brito. There are also an outdoor shrine to

Our Lady of Fatima Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulat ...

and

azulejo ''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, resta ...

s (Portuguese decorated tiles) on the walls of the church depicting the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. It had a low square

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

. The plan of the church was laid in the form of a

Latin cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...

. The interior is a single large space roofed by a wooden barrel-vault instead of a gothic-style ceiling. Neither the nave nor the transepts have aisles. It is currently painted in white, with blue details, like the exterior. The west front has three towers: a central

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al tower capped by a

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

flanked by two smaller towers. The main

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

of the church is dedicated to Saint Joseph and the other altars are dedicated to

Our Lady of Lourdes Our Lady of Lourdes (french: Notre-Dame de Lourdes) is a title of the Virgin Mary. She is venerated under this title by the Roman Catholic church due to her apparitions that occurred in Lourdes, France. The first apparition of 11 February 1858, o ...

, Our Lady of Fatima, the sacred Heart of Jesus and

Saint Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua ( it, Antonio di Padova) or Anthony of Lisbon ( pt, António/Antônio de Lisboa; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was bor ...

. There is a host of saints in the form of statues standing in canopied niches and stained glass windows in the church. The church was once home to a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

, built in 1888 by

Forster and Andrews Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924. The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...

, but it has since been dismantled. It now houses two Allen digital pipe organs - a three-manual in the nave and a four-manual in the organ gallery. The four-manual organ is currently Singapore’s largest digital pipe organ.

Clergy

*Rector: Fr. Joe Lopez *Vice Rector: Fr. Derrick Ting Barria

Portuguese religious traditions

Saint Joseph's Church and its congregation continues to practice many Portuguese-inspired religious traditions, such as the

Holy Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...

commemoration with the re-enactment of the passion and death of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

. Traditional Portuguese devotions, such as the devotions to

(on the 13th day of each month), to Saint Joseph, to Saint Jude Thaddeus, to the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This dev ...

and to

(the patron saint of Portugal) are also practiced and maintained alive. A traditional Latin Mass is also celebrated on Sundays.

Gallery

File:St. Joseph's Church Singapore 2008-03-21 stretched.jpg, Saint Joseph's Church as seen with many parishioners attending a

procession (photo stretched) File:Church of Saint Joseph 4, Singapore, Jan 06.JPG, The Church's central

d tower which is flanked by two smaller towers File:Church of Saint Joseph 5, Singapore, Jan 06.JPG, The main entrance to the Church File:Church of Saint Joseph 11, Singapore, Jan 06.JPG, Detail of a

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

File:Altar and nave of St. Joseph's Church Singapore.JPG, Altar and nave of St. Joseph's Catholic Church Singapore File:St. Josephs Church Singapore Interior.JPG, Interior facing the entrance

References

*National Heritage Board (2002), ''Singapore's 100 Historic Places'', Archipelago Press, *Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), ''Singapore - A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places'', Times Books International, *Preservation of Monuments Board, ''Know Our Monuments''

External links

Singapore Catholic Church Directory

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Josephs Church, Singapore Singapore Joseph Joseph RomanCatholic National monuments of Singapore Joseph RomanCatholic Portuguese diaspora in Asia 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Singapore