Church of Saint Alphonsus | |
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1°19′19″N103°50′34″E / 1.321812°N 103.842786°E | |
Location | 300 Thomson Road, Novena, Singapore |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Religious institute | Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer |
Website | http://www.novenachurch.com |
History | |
Consecrated | 25 October 2017 [1] |
Architecture | |
Style | new Gothic |
Completed | 1950 |
Construction cost | S$ 54 million |
Administration | |
Archdiocese | Archdiocese of Singapore |
Deanery | City District |
Clergy | |
Rector | Eugene Lee, CSsR [2] |
Vicar(s) | Glenn de Cruz, CSsR Simon Pereira, CSsR [2] |
Priest(s) | Peter Wee, CSsR Francis Vijayan, CSsR Vincent Low, CSsR Paul Pang, CSsR Clement Lee, CSsR Terence Wee, CSsR Jacob Ong, CSsR Gerard Louis, CSsR Paul Lim, CSsR |
Laity | |
RCIA coordinator | Simon Tan, CSsR |
Youth ministry coordinator | Sikstus Bapa Atawolo, CSsR [3] [4] |
The Church of Saint Alphonsus, or Novena Church as it is more popularly known, is a Catholic church in Singapore located at 300 Thomson Road. It is not a parish church and is under the care of the Redemptorists. [5] The name Novena Church refers to the novena prayer devotion, [6] [7] for which this church is famous. At the Church of Saint Alphonsus the Saturday novena services usually attract more people than the Sunday Mass services (Catholics generally go to their own parishes to attend Sunday Mass). [8] Having popularised the novena devotion sessions in Singapore, it draws people from the entire country and beyond. The devotions gave name to the surrounding area, Novena. [9]
The Church of Saint Alphonsus was founded in 1935.
The current church was built in 1950 and was designed by the architectural firm Swan and Maclaren. Porticoes were added in the late 1950s to cater to the large and growing number of devotees coming for the Saturday novena devotions. The side walls that existed earlier in the main church hall were removed and grilles added. [10] After being closed for three years for further renovations, the church reopened on 29 September 2017. [11]
The novena devotions to Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a popular novena devotion held each Saturday and which regularly draws thousands of devotees from all faiths to the Church. They were started by the Redemptorists in 1949 in a small chapel and initially saw only a handful of people attending the sessions. However, news of the devotion and reports of many answered petitions soon led to the rapid rise in the number of devotees attending. News of the devotion were mostly spread by word of mouth, but there were the few car stickers distributed by the Church with the caption "Have You Been To The Novena?". [12] [13] The increase in the number of devotees required the church building to be expanded and the porticoes at the sides of the main Church building were added as a result. Currently, there are 10 half-hourly sessions held each Saturday with each session drawing on average 3,000 devotees, with it not being uncommon to find a sizeable number of non-Catholics among the many devotees. [14]
The annual procession was started on 21 June 1953 and it has been held every year since on the 1st Sunday of September in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. [15] It is so popular that it regularly draws devotees from all faiths and backgrounds in the tens of thousands, with there being 30,000 devotees at one point in 1970. [16] The church celebrated its 61st Annual Procession at the present site before the church closed for redevelopment.
In 2011 it was announced that the existing Church building would undergo major renovations, with the Church being expanded in order to be able to cope with the numerous faithful that turn up for the novena devotions every Saturday. [17] The total cost for building the New Church, the Pastoral Centre, the New Admin Block and the underground carparks was $55.4 Million (SGD). The church closed on 1 October 2014, and reopened on 29 September 2017. The Blessing and Opening of Novena Church was Celebrated by Archbishop William Goh on 25 October 2017. [18]
The Rosary, also known as the Dominican Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or beads used to count the component prayers. When referring to the prayer, the word is usually capitalized ; when referring to the prayer beads as an object, it is written with a lower-case initial letter.
The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, abbreviated CSsR, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men. It was founded by Alphonsus Liguori at Scala, Italy, for the purpose of labouring among the neglected country people around Naples. It is dedicated to missionary work and they minister in more than 100 countries. Members of the congregation are Catholic priests and consecrated religious brothers.
Alphonsus Liguori, CSsR, sometimes called Alphonsus Maria de Liguori or Saint Alphonsus Liguori, was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in November 1732.
Our Mother of Perpetual Help (1325—1480) is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a 15th-century Byzantine icon with an alleged Marian apparition. The icon is believed to have originated from the Keras Kardiotissas Monastery and has been in Rome since 1499. Today it is permanently enshrined in the Church of Saint Alphonse of Liguori, where the official Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help text is prayed weekly.
A novena is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks. The nine days between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, when the disciples gathered in the upper room and devoted themselves to prayer, is often considered to be the first novena.
Novena is a planning area located within the Central Region of Singapore. Novena is bounded by Toa Payoh to the north, Bukit Timah to the west, Tanglin to the south and Kallang to the east. While Novena is not classified as a "new town" by the Housing and Development Board (HDB), the estate of Whampoa within the subzone of Balestier constitutes part of the Kallang/Whampoa New Town.
Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of God, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, but generally rejected in other Christian denominations.
Saint Joseph's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Singapore. It is located along Victoria Street in the Rochor Planning Area, within the Central Area of Singapore's central business district. The church was constructed from 1906 to 1912 with its foundation stone laid in 1904. The building was built in the Manuelino Portuguese late-Gothic style by the Portuguese Mission. Saint Joseph's Church is noted for its Portuguese-inspired religious traditions, such as the annual Good Friday celebrations. It is also well known for its weekly Traditional Latin Mass.
The Catholic Church in Singapore is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. In 2016, the Catholic Foundation of Singapore reported the Catholic population in Singapore to be over 373,000.
The Church of the Risen Christ is a Roman Catholic church in Singapore. It is located at Toa Payoh Central in the Toa Payoh Housing Estate and was founded in 1971.
Catholic devotions are particular customs, rituals, and practices of worship of God or honour of the saints which are in addition to the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops describes devotions as "expressions of love and fidelity that arise from the intersection of one's own faith, culture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ". Devotions are not considered part of liturgical worship, even if they are performed in a church or led by a priest, but rather they are paraliturgical. The Congregation for Divine Worship at the Vatican publishes a Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy.
The National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, also known as the Redemptorist Church and colloquially as Baclaran Church, is a prominent national shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help along Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran, Parañaque city of Metro Manila, Philippines.
The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Roman Catholic church in Singapore. It is located in Hougang, the North-East Region of Singapore, and is within the Serangoon District. It is well known as the oldest Catholic church for the Teochew community in Serangoon.
Popular piety in Christianity is an expression of faith which avails of certain cultural elements proper to a specific environment which is capable of interpreting and questioning in a lively and effective manner the sensibilities of those who live in that same environment. Its forms in the Roman Catholic Church are explained in the Directory on Popular piety and the liturgy issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. In the Lutheran Churches, popular piety is expressed through the reception of the sacraments, the displaying of sacred art, the signing of hymnody, prayer, Bible study and devotions.
The Solemn Novena to St. Gerard Majella is held over 9 days in St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church, Dundalk, Ireland. It runs from 8 to 16 October.
The Roman Catholic tradition includes a number of devotions to Jesus Christ. Like all Catholic devotions, these prayer forms are not part of the official public liturgy of the Church but are based on the popular spiritual practices of Roman Catholics. Many are officially approved by the Holy See as suitable for spiritual growth but not necessary for salvation.
St Michael's Church is one of the oldest Christian (Catholic) churches in the Mahim suburb of Mumbai (Bombay), situated at the junction of LJ Road and Mahim Causeway. Initially known as San Miguel in Portuguese, the original structure was built by Franciscan missionaries of the Indo-Portuguese era, some time around 1534 AD, in what was then Portuguese Bombay. It was rebuilt a number of times; the present structure dates to 1973. From 1739 to 1761, St Michael's also served as a refuge to the popular icon of the Virgin Mary; the icon is now placed at the present-day Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount of Bandra.
The Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is a booklet containing a set of prayers including the Roman Catholic novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, that was originally published in Jaén, Spain in 1899. It was then widely republished by American Redemptorist priests in 1927, then ultimately revised by Irish and Australian Redemptorist priests on 23 June 1948.
The National Shrine and Parish of Saint Padre Pio, commonly known as Padre Pio Shrine, is a parish church and pilgrimage site situated along Governor Antonio Carpio Avenue in Barangay San Pedro, Santo Tomas, Batangas, Philippines. It is consecrated to the Italian Saint Pio of Pietrelcina.
Alkaff Gardens was a Japanese-style park once located east of the Bidadari Cemetery from 1930 to 1964, on the present site of Cedar Girls' Secondary School at Bidadari, Singapore. In the 1930s, the park was a popular leisure destination for dating couples and families. It featured as its centrepiece an artificial lake, which was drained in 1964.