CHINA MACAO - CHURCHES ( PART 1)

When the Portuguese established Europe’s first settlement on the China coast in 1557, it was expected to be a bastion of Christianity as well a trading post and they called it “City of the Name of God, Macau”. The first settlers included priests and some of the first buildings were churches, initially constructed of wood and matting, later of Taipa (rammed clay) and from the mid-17^th century of stone and plaster.

The churches, dedicated to the “Mother of God” and named after popular saints, were built by Jesuits and monastic orders with funds provided by the city and Portuguese Crown. The style was predominantly European baroque, but Oriental and tropical features were incorporated and can still be seen in roofs of Chinese tiles, panels of terra –cotta and Eastern motifs carved on some facades.

Over the centuries fires and storms have devastated Macau’s churches, but almost all have been restored or rebuilt. 

The Catholic Church itself has weathered different kinds of storms. In the early 18^th century the Vatican ruled against the Jesuits who permitted Chinese converts to continue their custom of “ancestor worship”. The Church split over this Rites Controversy, the missionary effort in China suffered and the Augustinian fathers were expelled from Macau in 1712. In 1767, under a decree of the Marquis of Pombal in Portugal, the Jesuits were in turn expelled, to return in the 19^th century.

Today, the Catholic Church plays an important role in the life of Macau, maintaining hospitals, school, old people’s homes , refugee centre and other charitable institutions. There are approximately 28000 Catholics in Macau served by 87 Portuguese and Chinese priests. Masses are said every day in most churches and schedules are posted on the doors.

1.     ST PAUL’S (SAO PAULO) RUA DE S. PAULO   

All that remains of the greatest of Macau’s churches is its magnificent stone façade and grand staircase. The church was built in 1602 adjoining the Jesuit College of St Paul’s, the first Western college in the Far East where missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall studied Chinese before serving at the Ming Court in Peking as astronomers and mathematicians. The church, made of Taipa and wood, was brilliantly decorated and furnished, according to early travellers. The façade of carved stone was built 1620- 1627 by Japanese Christian exiles and local craftsman under the direction of Italian Jesuit Carlo Spinola. 

After the expulsion of the Jesuits, the college was used as an army barracks and in 1835 a fire started in the kitchens and destroyed the college and the body of the church. The surviving façade rised in 4 colonnaded tiers and is covered with carvings and statues which eloquently illustrate early days of the Church in Asia. 

There are statues of the Virgin and saints, symbols of the Garden of Eden and the Crucifixion, angles and the devil, a Chinese dragon and a Japanese chrysanthemum, a Portuguese sailing ship and pious warning inscribed in Chinese.

After restoration work, lasting from 1990 to 1995, the back side of the Ruins of St Paul’s was turned into a museum. The ruins are regarded as the symbol of Macau and now offer visitors a new site where they can view the remains of the former church of the Mother of God, visit a Crypt where the relics of the Martyrs of Japan and Vietnam rest, and a museum of Sacred Art where there are exhibits of paintings, sculptures and liturgical objects from churches and monasteries in the city.

2.    CHAPEL OF OUR LADY GUIA (GUIA HILL)

This chapel was first built in the 17^th century as part of Guia Fortress. During the Dutch invasion of 1622, legend has it that the image of the Virgin left the chapel and held out her robe to deflect the enemies’ bullets. The present chapel dates from 1637 and contains the image and a fine old painting of St John Baptist , Macau’s patron saint.

3.    CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF PENHA( PENHA HILL)

The first chapel was founded in 1622 by the crew and passengers of a ship which had narrowly escaped capture by the Dutch. The Chapel served as a point of pilgrimage for sailors embarking on a hazardous voyage.

4.    CHAPEL OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER

Built in 1928, this chapel follows the baroque style of Macau’s major churches. It has a cream and white façade with oval windows and a bell tower. It stands behind the monument commemorating the local victory over pirates in 1910.

The chapel contains some of the most sacred relics of Christians Asia. In a silver reliquary is a bone from the arm of St Francise Xavier, who followed his missionary successes in Japan by coming to the China Coast, where he died in 1552 on Sanchuan Island, 50 miles from Macau. The relic was destined for Japan but religious persecution there persuaded the church to keep it in Macau’s St Paul’s. It was moved first to St Joseph’s and in 1978 to the chapel.

Persecution of Christian in Japan led to 26 foreign and Japanese Catholic priests being crucified in Nagasaki in 1597 and many hundreds of Christian Japanese being killed during the 1637 Shimabara Rebelliaon. The bones of the Martyrs and some of the rebels were brought to Macau and kept in St Paul’s. 

After fire destroyed the church, the bones were gathered and taken to the Cathedral. They were moved to St Francis Xavier Chapel in 1974. Other bones stored in the chapel are relics of martyrs from 17^th century Vietnam.

A few years ago, the relic was taken to St Joseph’s Seminary and the Sacred Art Museum, but many people still come to this Chapel, especially Japanese Christians.