St. Michael's Church, Mumbai

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St. Michael's Church
Mahim Church
St. Michael's Church Facade.jpg
Picture of the St. Michael's Church in Mumbai
St. Michael's Church, Mumbai is located in Mumbai
St. Michael's Church, Mumbai
Location of St. Michael's Church in Mumbai
Basic information
Location Mahim, Mumbai, India
Geographic coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Affiliation Roman Catholic
Rite Novena
Year consecrated 1534
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Active
Architectural description
Specifications

St. Michael's Church is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Mumbai. The church is situated in Mahim, located at the intersection of L.J. Road and Mahim Causeway. The church was originally built by the Portuguese in 1534. Initially known as San Miguel, it is the oldest Portuguese Franciscan church in Mumbai.[1] It was rebuilt a number of times; the present structure dating to 1973. The church also served as a refuge to the popular icon of the Virgin Mary from Our Lady of the Mount chapel, Bandra from 1739 to 1761.

Due to its location, it is also informally known as Mahim Church.[2] The church is famous for its Novenas on Wednesdays, which is visited by thousands.[3]

History

Interior of St. Michael's Church, Mahim (Mumbai, India)

The original St. Michael's Church is believed to have been built in 1534 by António do Porto, a church builder of the Franciscan Order.[3] When the Marathas conquered Salsette in 1739, Our Lady of the Mount chapel in Bandra was destroyed by the Portuguese at the instance of the British so that its location remained secret to the Marathas. In this time, St. Michael's Church was the refuge place for the image of the Blessed Virgin from the chapel. The image remained in St. Michael's till 1761, when it was moved to its present structure in Bandra.[3]

In 1853, St. Michael's Church witnessed a struggle between Bishop Anastasius Hartmann and the 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 over to the padroado party. To prevent this, Hartmann as the vicars's 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. Hartmann's opponents had laid "siege" to the church in 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 padroado order.[4]

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".[5] The present structure of St. Michaels was rebuilt in 1973.[6]

Novena

The original Our Lady of Perpetual Succour picture from Rome

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.[7] 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.[8]

The weekly Novena services were started in 1948, when a 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. Fr. Fernandes brought with him a picture touched to the original icon at Rome. On the 8th of September, 1948 - the Birthday of Mary, concurrent with a Wednesday that year, Fr. Fernandes as the vicar held the first Novena services. Initially, only two services were held every Wednesday, but today from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm, the thirteen services are held in various languages: English, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil and Hindi.[9] 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.[10]

Reported "Bleeding" Christ picture

Part of a series on the
History of Mumbai
Gateway of India.jpg
Pre-historic period

Kolis

Ancient period

Silhara dynasty
King Bhimdev

Islamic period

Gujarat Sultanate
Haji Ali Mosque
Treaty of Bassein

Portuguese period
St. Michael's Church

Garcia de Orta
Bombay Castle
Battle of Swally

British period
Hornby Vellard

Treaty of Salbai
Plague epidemic of 1890s
Rowlatt Satyagraha
SS Fort Stikine and the
Bombay Explosion
Royal Indian Navy Mutiny

Independent India
Samyukta Maharashtra movement

Bombay Riots
1993 bombings
2005 Floods
2006 train bombings
2008 terrorist attacks

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 8.30 pm on the occasion of the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and were termed as a "miracle" by devotees. Not only Chiristians, but also Hindus and Muslims from Maharashtra and the neighbouring states of Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat, visited the Church to catch a glimpse of the picture. The queue to St. Michael's extended more than a kilometre.[11][12][13]

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." [11][12][13]

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.[14]

See also

References

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  14. No blood in bleeding Jesus’ picture: Study September 3, 2008 Indian Catholic

External links