Saint Joseph’s Church in Singapore has centuries-old links with Portuguese missions and the Diocese of Macau

Saint Joseph’s Church on Victoria Street, Singapore, designed in the Neo-Manueline Portuguese late-Gothic style by Swan and Maclaren (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Among the many churches and places of worship I visited recently in Singapore, Saint Joseph’s Church is unique as a Roman Catholic church without a parish, because of its Portuguese liturgical and ritual traditions, and because it was once part of the Diocese of Macau for many years, standing apart from the Diocese of Singapore.

Saint Joseph’s Church is on Victoria Street in the Rochor area and the Central Area of Singapore’s central business district. Saint Joseph’s and its predecessor, the Church of São José, were built on the same site and both were linked with the Portuguese Mission.

The church is still known for its Portuguese-inspired traditions, such as its Holy Week and Good Friday commemorations each year. But today it is a rectoral church of devotion and not a parish church, and so it has no have specific ecclesiastical or parochial boundaries.

Saint Joseph’s Church, Singapore, dates from the Portuguese missions from Goa and Macau (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The present church was designed in the Neo-Manueline Portuguese late-Gothic style by the Singapore architectural practice of Swan and Maclaren. The foundation stone was laid in 1904 and it was built in 1906-1912. But the history of Catholicism in the region is traced back to Saint Francis Xavier, who was sent by Saint Ignatius Loyola and the King of Portugal to the Far East and who is said to have spent several days in Singapore on his way to Japan in 1552.

Father Jacob Joaquim Freire Brumber, assistant to the Vicar of Saint Peter’s Church in Malacca, visited the Catholics of Singapore in 1821, when Singapore was part of the District of Malacca and within the Diocese of Goa. Dr Azevedo allowed Mass to be celebrated in his house.

Father Francisco da Silva Pinto e Maia from Porto of the Congregation of Mission, arrived in Singapore from Macau in 1825 to look after the 12 or 13 Catholics in Singapore. He founded the Portuguese Mission in Singapore, and began to plan the first church.

There were 200 Catholics in Singapore by 1829, under the care of Father Francisco. As he had no church or chapel, he said Mass in the home of his friend, Dr José d’Almeida, at Beach Road, where Raffles Hotel now stands.

Dr José d’Almeida was a surgeon in the Portuguese Navy who had settled in Singapore on 25 December 1825. He started the firm of José d’Almeida & Sons, which began as shipping agents for Portuguese and Spanish cargo, and later became one of the biggest and most important in Singapore.

The coats-of-arms of Portugal (left) and the Diocese of Macau (right) recall the origins of the church (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The head of the Portuguese Mission, Father Francisco da Silva Pinto e Maia, initiated plans to build the first chapel, a 60 ft by 30 ft building on Bras Basah Road, the former site of Saint Joseph’s Institution and now the Singapore Art Museum.

When the foundation stone was laid on 9 December 1832, there were about 300 Catholics in Singapore. The church was completed on 5 May 1833 and was blessed and opened on 9 June 1833.

The foundation stone for a new church to serve the Portuguese and Eurasian Catholics in Singapore and called São José (Saint Joseph) was laid by his successor, Father Vicente de Santa Catarina, on 14 December 1851. The new church was blessed and opened in 1853.

The new church was built on 12 lots of land between Victoria Street and Queen Street. Six of the lots had been given to Father Francisco by Sir Samuel George Bonham, then Governor of the Straits Settlement, and six were bought by Father Francisco in 1833.

The church grounds included Saint Anthony’s Boys’ and Girls’ School, first opened by Father José Pedro Santa Ana da Cunha in 1879 as Saint Anna’s School in a small house on Middle Road. The school changed its name when it moved into the church compound in 1886.

Pope Leo XIII and King Louis I of Portugal signed a concordat on 23 June 1886, transferring the Portuguese Missions in Singapore and Malacca from the Portuguese Archdiocese of Goa to the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Macau.

Inside Saint Joseph’s Church, built in 1906-1912, facing the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

With a steady growth in the congregation, a new church was planned from 1891 by the Vicar General of the Portuguese Mission, Father José Joaquim Baptista. Bishop João Paulino de Azevedo e Castro of Macau laid the foundation stone in 1904, the earlier Church of São José was pulled down in 1906, and a new church was built on the same site.

The new and larger church, the present Saint Joseph’s Church, took little more than five years to build, and was opened by the Bishop of Macau on 30 June 1912.

Saint Joseph’s was designed by the noted architectural practice of Swan and MacLaren in the Neo-Manueline Portuguese late-Gothic style and to hold 1,500 people The church was laid out in the shape of a Latin cross, measuring 66.25 metres in length, with a transept of 45 metres and a nave that is 18.75 metres wide. It is built on a north-west/south-east axis, rather than the traditional east/west liturgical axis.

The liturgical west front has three towers: a central octagonal tower capped by a dome flanked by two smaller towers. The portico is supported by four columns and has large marble statues of Saint Joseph, Saint John of God and Saint John de Brito.

The portico has large marble statues of Saint Joseph, Saint John of God and Saint John de Brito (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Inside, the church is a single large space with a wooden barrel-vault roof instead of a gothic-style ceiling. Neither the nave nor the transepts have aisles. It is painted in beige, with grey details, like the exterior.

The main altar is dedicated to Saint Joseph and the side altars are dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, the Sacred Heart and Saint Anthony of Padua, with saints also depicted in statues in niches throughout the church and in the stained glass windows.

The church once had a pipe organ, built in 1888 by Forster and Andrews. But that has since been dismantled, and the church now has two Allen digital pipe organs – a three-manual in the nave and a four-manual in the organ gallery which is Singapore’s largest digital pipe organ.

From 1947 to 1990, the church published Rally, a monthly English-language magazine that became the official magazine of the Portuguese Mission in Malacca and Singapore.

A significant segment of the Eurasian community in Singapore in the early days were baptised and married in the church. It was known as the ‘Eurasian Church’ and successive generations of families such as the de Costas, the d’Cottas, the de Souzas, the de Mellos, the Deskers, the Fernandezes, the Gomeses, the Josephs, the Pereiras, the Pintos, the Tessensohns and many others were among its parishioners.

The sanctuary and High Altar in Saint Joseph’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Archbishop Gregory Yong of Singapore and Bishop Arquiminio Rodrigues da Costa of Macau signed an agreement in 1977 ending the dual ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Singapore and transferring Saint Joseph’s to the Archdiocese of Singapore in 1981.

With this agreement Saint Joseph’s ceased being a parish church and became a church of devotion, and the whole island came within the Archdiocese of Singapore.

To maintain the Portuguese character of the church, the Bishop of Macau continued to appoint priests to the church until the end 1999. When Father Benito de Sousa’s term of office came to an end, the Bishop of Macau stopped sending missionaries to the church, ending the link with the Portuguese Mission that had lasted 175 years.

Inside Saint Joseph’s Church, facing the liturgical west end, the gallery and the main door (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Joseph’s Church was designated a National Monument in 2005, recognising its rich history and its social and cultural importance, especially within the Eurasian community in Singapore.

When the church was being repainted in 2007, painters uncovered the original ornamental plasterwork from the 1900s underneath the paint.

Saint Joseph’s celebrated its centenary on 30 June 2012. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, celebrated Mass in Saint Joseph’s in 2015 to mark the Golden Jubilee of the modern Singapore.

The porch of Saint Joseph’s Church, facing onto Victoria Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church began a long period of restoration in 2017. The difficulties encountered included architectural complications, National Heritage requirements, and financial difficulties aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. After five years of restoration work, Saint Joseph’s Church reopened on 30 June 2022, the 110th anniversary of its consecration.

Saint Joseph’s continues to practice many Portuguese-inspired traditions, including the patterns of the Holy Week and Good Friday commemoration, and traditional Portuguese devotions to Our Lady of Fatima, Saint Joseph, Saint Jude, the Sacred Heart and Saint Anthony of Padua. The floor has decorative Portuguese terracotta tiles and an outdoor shrine to Our Lady of Fatima has azulejos or Portuguese decorative tiles depicting the apparitions at Fatima.

The Rector of Saint Joseph’s is Father Joe Lopez, and the Vice Rector is Father Damien Lim. A traditional Latin Mass is also celebrated on Sundays.

The liturgical east end of Saint Joseph’s Church, seen from Queen Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 12, Sunday 5 January 2025

‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … drummers in a religious parade in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and lasts not until Epiphany tomorrow (6 January), but until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today is the Second Sunday of Christmas (Christmas II), although many parishes and churches may transfer their celebrations of Epiphany to today. I hope to be singing with the choir at rhe Epiphany Eucharist in Saint Mary and Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this morning. The celebrations include the traditional Epiphany ‘chalking’ of the church doors.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January, and our celebrations of Christmas traditionally end tonight, on the Twelfth Night, which is then followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. The Twelve Days of Christmas are a festive period linking together these two Great Feasts of the Nativity and Theophany, so that one celebration leads into another.

Nowadays, the Twelfth Day is the last day for decorations to be taken down. Some folklore holds that it is bad luck to take decorations down after this date. But in Elizabethan England, the decorations were left up until Candelmas, and this remains the tradition in Germany and many other European countries.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Twelve drummers drumming’ … drummers waiting for a religious procession to begin in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1: [1-9,] 10-18 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me”.’) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … folk dancers and drummers on the streets of Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the twelve drummers drumming as figurative representations of the twelve points of the Apostles’ Creed.

The Gospel reading this morning (John 1: [1-9,] 10-18) should be familiar reading for most of us during these weeks: the third and principal option for the Eucharist on Christmas morning was John 1: 1-14; and on New Year’s Eve (31 December 2024), the Gospel reading was John 1: 1-18.

The first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel can be divided in two parts: the Prologue (verses 1-18) and a second part (verses 19-50) that shows that John the Baptist was preparing for the coming of the Messiah.

The Prologue is an introduction to the Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Logos is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh’, sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.

The Prologue is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …’, first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.

The opening phrase, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος (En arche en ho logos, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, is one of the most dramatic opening lines in any great work of literature. And for many, the Fourth Gospel, Saint John’s Gospel, is one of the great works of literature, as well as being my favourite book in the Bible.

The author of this Gospel was identified by Saint Irenaeus as Saint John the beloved, Saint John the Divine, or Saint John the Theologian, who lived in Ephesus until the imperial reign of Trajan (ca 98 CE).

As a boy, Irenaeus had known Saint Polycarp, who was Bishop of Smyrna, near Ephesus, and who is said to have been a disciple of John. Ever since then, the tradition of the Church has identified this John as the author of the Fourth Gospel.

The narrative translations with which we are so familiar often miss the poetic and dramatic presentations of this Gospel. We are all familiar with the dramatic presentation of the Prologue to this Gospel as the Gospel reading on Christmas Day. But the Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.

Raymond Brown has presented a translation from the Greek of the Prologue in poetic format:

1 In the beginning was the Word;
the Word was in God’s presence,
and the Word was God.
2 He was present with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came into being,
and apart from him not a thing came to be.
4 That which came to be found life in him,
and this life was the light of the human race.
5 The light shines on in the darkness,
for the darkness did not overcome it.

(6 Now there was a man sent by God, named John 7 who came as a witness to testify to the light, so that through him all might believe – 8 but only to testify to the light, for he himself was not the light.)

9 He was the real light
that gives light to everyone;
he was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world,
and the world was made by him;
yet the world did not recognise him.
11 To his own he came;
yet his own people did not accept him.
12 But all those who did accept him,
he empowered to become God’s children –
those who believe in his name,
13 those who were begotten,
not by blood,
nor the flesh,
nor human desire,
but by God.
14 And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.
And we have seen his glory,
the glory as of an only Son coming from the Father,
rich in kindness and fidelity.

The Prologue lays the foundation for the development of the ‘realised eschatology’ of the Fourth Gospel. When Saint John speaks later of life in the sense of ‘eternal’ life, the Prologue has already established that from the beginning in Christ the eternal God and source of life is present and is among men and women for that purpose. In Christ, God enters into all the ambiguities, difficulties, and trials of human life. He comes to live among his people as one of them, revealing God at first hand, and offering new life as the source of life from the beginning.

The writer relates the Logos in turn to God (verses 1, 2); creation (verses 3-5); the world and its response (verses 6-9); his own people (verses 10, 11); his children (verses 12-13); a specific circle of disciples and witnesses (verse 14); and later in the Prologue to a particular historical person, Jesus Christ (verse 17). Finally, in verse 18, the intimacy of the relationship of the Logos to the Father is re-emphasised in language similar to that used in John 13: 23-25 to describe the intimacy between ‘the beloved disciple’ and Christ himself.

The Prologue is a model and a summons to us to think carefully and deeply about the implications of the Incarnation and to apply this concept in all its comprehensiveness to our life and our world. For all its broad, cosmic scope, the Prologue presents a direct and personal question to readers of all times: will the one who reads believe, and share in the fullness of grace given by the One who has come from the Father to dwell among us?

Pages from The Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete hand-written and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in the Holy Writ exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Melanesian Brotherhood Centenary’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania, USPG:

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Melanesian Brotherhood by Ini Kopuria, an Indigenous Solomon Islander and former police officer. His vision was for an order of Indigenous brothers who would share the gospel in Melanesia.

The Melanesian Brotherhood is now the largest Anglican religious order in the world, with brothers living in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and across the Pacific Islands. They are known for their work in evangelism, choir singing, and peace-making.

We remember particularly the seven martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood. During the conflict in the Solomon Islands in the early 2000s, the brotherhood followed God’s call to peace-making, helping mediate between opposing groups, negotiating the release of hostages, and coordinating a weapons amnesty. In 2003, seven brothers were murdered whilst working for peace: Brother Patteson Gatu, Brother Alfred Hill, Brother Robin Lindsay, Brother Ini Paratabatu, Brother Nathaniel Sado, Brother Tony Sirhi, and Brother Francis Tofi. They are commemorated as martyrs and Christian peacemakers.

In this, their centenary year, we give thanks for Ini Kopuria and his vision, for the life and sacrifice of the martyrs of the brotherhood, and for the one hundred years of faithful witness and service offered by the Melanesian Brotherhood to people across the region.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II) invites us to reflect on these words as pray:

‘For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God’ (II Corinthians 1:20).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
in the birth of your Son
you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate Word,
and shown us the fullness of your love:
help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love
that we may know the fullness of his joy;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

All praise to you,
almighty God and heavenly king,
who sent your Son into the world
to take our nature upon him
and to be born of a pure virgin:
grant that, as we are born again in him,
so he may continually dwell in us
and reign on earth as he reigns in heaven,
now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God our Father,
in love you sent your Son
that the world may have life:
lead us to seek him among the outcast
and to find him in those in need,
for Jesus Christ’s sake.

Collect on the Eve of the Epiphany:

O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5) … sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org