St. Michael's Church | |
Mahim Church | |
सेंट मायकल चर्च | |
19°02′33″N72°50′26″E / 19.0425°N 72.8405°E | |
Location | Mahim, Bombay (Mumbai) |
---|---|
Country | India |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Tradition | Novena |
Website | www |
History | |
Status | Parish Church |
Founded | 1534 |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Active |
Administration | |
Archdiocese | Archdiocese of Bombay |
Deanery | North Mumbai Deanery |
Clergy | |
Archbishop | Oswald Gracias |
Priest in charge | Fr. Richard Crasto |
Priest(s) | Fr. Conrad Pereira [1] |
St. Michael's Church is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the Mahim suburb of Mumbai (Bombay), India.
The church is situated at the junction of LJ Road and Mahim Causeway and is colloquially referred to as Mahim Church due to its location. [2] St Michael's is known for its novenas addressed to our Lady of Perpetual Succour on Wednesdays, which has been frequented by thousands of devotees seeking mannats (blessings). [3]
In 2023, the Parish priest is Fr Bernard Lancy Pinto. [4]
This article needs editing to comply with Wikipedia's Manual of Style.(June 2022) |
Initially known as San Miguel, the original structure at St Michael's is said to have been built as a convent in 1534 by António do Porto, a church builder of the Franciscan Order. [3] [5] [6] [7] With the Mahratta Invasion of Bassein in 1739, Our Lady of Mount Bandra's chapel was destroyed by the Portuguese at the instigation of the British. A picture of the Blessed Virgin was rescued from the church and was taken to St Michael’s. [8] From 1739 to 1761, St Michael's served as a refuge to the popular icon of the Virgin Mary which is now placed at the present-day Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount of Bandra.
In 1853, St Michael's Church witnessed a struggle of ownership between Bishop Anastasius Hartmann and the Portuguese padroado order. St Michael's was in control of the vicars apostolic for nearly 60 years. In 1853, a discontented group decided that the control be handed back to the Padroado system. To prevent this, Hartmann - as the vicars' leader - went to the church and declared that "he would rather die a martyr than surrender the church to the schismatics". Hartmann and his followers stayed in the church with enough food and water for 15 days. His opponents laid "siege" to the church during this period, blocking all entrances. On the 15th day, civil authorities intervened and insisted that the church be reopened. Following this, Hartmann lost control of the church, passing it to the padroado order. [9]
In his 1917 book, Sheppard remarks that St Michael's was situated on the Portuguese church street and is one of the four "only known Portuguese buildings; and of these no distinguishing original feature survives, as they were much rebuilt". [10] The present structure of St. Michaels was rebuilt in 1973. [11]
St. Michael's sees a large number of people on Wednesdays every week, when novena prayers to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour are held throughout the day. These services are attended by people of all faiths. [12] Devotees believe that visiting the Church on nine consecutive Wednesdays (Novena) will grant their wishes. [2] Some of them offer wax figures of what they desire; for example, a wax house. According to Father Hugh Fonseca, around 40-50,000 devotees visit the church every week. [13]
The weekly Novena services were started in 1948, when Father Edward Placidus Fernandes from Bombay noticed a similar ritual celebrating Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at Belfast, Northern Ireland, during his visit to Europe. [14] Fr. Fernandes brought with him a picture touched to the original icon at Rome. On 8 September 1948, the Birthday of Mary (concurrent with a Wednesday that year), Fr. Fernandes, as a vicar, held the first Novena services. Initially, only two services were held every Wednesday. But now, from 8:30AM to 10:30PM, thirteen services are held and in various languages: English, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil and Hindi. [15] In 2014, A painting of the Our Lady of Perpetual Succor was gifted to St. Michaels by the Vatican. The painting is an authentic, hand-painted version of the original icon in Rome. [16]
Part of a series on the |
History of Mumbai |
---|
Pre-historic period |
Kolis East Indians |
Pre-modern period |
Islamic period |
Portuguese period |
British period |
Independent India |
On 27 June 2008, thousands of devotees visited St. Michael's to see the picture of Jesus called "the Divine Mercy". The picture showed some red spots which were believed to be blood near the heart of Jesus. The spots were noticed on the day at 08:30PM, on the occasion of the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and were termed a "miracle" by devotees. Not only Christians, but also Hindus and Muslims from Maharashtra and the neighboring states of Goa, Karnataka, and Gujarat, visited the Church to catch a glimpse of the picture. The queue to entering St. Michael's extended more than a kilometer. [17] [18]
Parish Priest Father Raphael and Father Doneth D'Souza from the St. Michael's church as well as Archbishop cardinal Oswald Gracias declined the miracle claim. Fr. D'Souza explained: "It's not a blood stain and it's also not a miracle. Every image of Divine Mercy has a red halo around the heart and in this case, the red colour has run because of the moisture in the air. It will look like a blood stain, but it's not." [17] [18]
The image was removed and sent to a scientific analysis on the orders of Oswald Gracias. The result of that study was released in the September archdiocesan weekly and it said that the tests "established that there are no traces of blood in the red rays emanating from the Heart of Jesus in this image of Divine Mercy". Monsoon humidity and changes in the air quality were the suspected causes. Oswald Gracias did not explain the exact reasons. [19]
St Michael’s is a ‘go-green’ environmentally friendly parish. [20] The church also started St.Michael's School for the education of the children in the greater Mahim area. The church heavily subsidizes the tuition of attending this school for the locals.
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The Mahim Junction railway station on the Western Railway and Harbour Railway of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network is the last station of the city, as neighboring Bandra comes in Mumbai Suburb. Mahim is an ethnically and religiously diverse town and has a Hindu temple, church, mosque and Parsi fire-temple existing within a few meters of each other. The town has a large Rich and Upper Middle class Marathi population.
Officially, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount, colloquially known as Mount Bandra and Mount St Mary Church; is a basilica (shrine) of the Roman Catholic Church, located at the Bandra neighbourhood of Bombay (Mumbai), India.
Our Mother of Perpetual Succour, colloquially known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help), is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a 15th-century Byzantine icon and a purported Marian apparition. The image was enshrined in the Church of San Matteo in Via Merulana from 1499 to 1798 and is today permanently enshrined in the Church of Saint Alphonsus of Liguori in Rome, where the novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help 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.
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, Borivali (West) has been a Roman Catholic Parish from 1547 to 1739 and again from 1912 onwards. Its present clergy are Fr Gerald Fernandes (PP), Fr Joseph David, Fr Victor Noronha and Fr Sean Sequeira. It is situated in I.C. Colony which is a large colony situated in the suburbs of Borivali, in the North Western face of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
The Mahim Causeway is a vital link road connecting Mumbai City district/South Mumbai with its Northern and Western Suburbs. The causeway links the neighbourhoods of Mahim to the south with Bandra to the north.
Clonard Monastery is a Catholic church located off the Falls Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and home to a community of the Redemptorists religious order.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay is a particular church celebrating the Latin Rite of worship, centred in the Bombay (Mumbai) city of the northern Konkan division of Maharashtra, India. The archdiocese has been a Metropolitan see since its elevation, by Pope Leo XIII on 1 September 1886.
Simon Ignatius Pimenta was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop Emeritus of Bombay.
Oswald Gracias is an Indian Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Bombay since 2006. He was made a cardinal in 2007. In 2008, he became vice-president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India. In 2010, he was elected president.
The Bandra Fair is a week-long fair held annually in the Bandra suburb of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It starts on the Sunday following the 8th of September at Mount St Mary Church; the festival of the Nativity of Our Lady, the virgin-mother of Jesus Christ.
Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel & Shrine of St. Anthony former Our Lady of Good Counsel Church initially known by its name in Portuguese, Nossa Senhora de Bom Concelho, is one of the oldest churches in, Bombay built by the Portuguese Franciscans. It was built at Sion and was initially affiliated to the St. Michael's Church at Mahim in 1596. The artistically done stained glass windows of the Church portray the martyrdom of Blessed Thomas of Tolentino, Fr. James of Padua, Fr. Peter of Siena, a Cleric and Br. Demetrius of Tiflis at Thane, in April 1321.
The Basilica of the Holy Redeemer, Tiruchirappalli is one of five Roman Catholic minor basilicas in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India.
Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, Villianur, Puducherry is a Catholic Marian shrine and a parish church in Villianur, Puducherry, India. The shrine is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Lourdes.
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. The name Novena Church refers to the novena prayer devotion, 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. 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.
Our Lady of Arabia is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding a Rosary and the Child Jesus, as venerated in Kuwait and Bahrain by its faithful devotees. Under this venerated Marian title, she is designated as the patroness of the Apostolic Vicariates of Northern and Southern Arabia.
The Weeping crucifix in Mumbai is a statue of the crucified Jesus in Mumbai (Bombay) which attracted widespread attention in 2012; when a constant stream of water began to seep from its feet. Some of the local Catholic Christians believed the incident to be a miracle; a skeptic-rationalist and atheist author Sanal Edamaruku, provided evidence that the water stemmed from a faulty sewage system, which seeped due to capillary action. However, Edamaruku also accused Latin Christian priests of regularly scamming devotees and defrauding miracles to make money in order to build bigger and newer churches or convents, and mocked the Pope as "anti-science". A church representative admitted Edamaruku had the "right to doubt" and Christian activists said that the backlash was not for debunking the alleged "miracle", but for the defamatory statements made on live television. After which he became subsequently subject to multiple first information reports (FIR) under blasphemy laws. A Catholic lawyer and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay called for him to apologise for the comments. He migrated to Finland to avoid being arrested under the blasphemy law.
John Rodrigues is an Indian prelate of the Catholic Church who was named coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bombay on 30 November 2024. He was Bishop of Poona from March 2023 until that date and previously served as an auxiliary bishop of Bombay for ten years.