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Joseph The Protector
By peace | April 30, 2010
Patron Saint St Joseph, Feast Day May 1st
As protector of the holy family, Joseph plays a vital part in the Christian story, and is especially revered in the Catholic church. Joseph is celebrated as the patron saint of fathers, carpenters, the dying, social justice, and the universal church.
Entrance to St Joseph Church, Bukit Timah, just beside Assumption English School
St Joseph Church in the early years of 1930s
Short History of St Joseph Church
Year Built 1846 — I never realized that this church was so old! This is as old as Cathedral of the Good Shepherd!
In 1846, Fr Anatole Mauduit, of the MEP who had arrived in Singapore two years earlier built a chapel dedicated to St. Joseph’s. By the 1850s, the Church has grown in numbers sufficient to irritate the secret society chiefs who launched a series of attacks on the Christians in the interior, spilling the soil of Singapore with the blood of its first martyrs. Worst still, tigers roamed freely in the interior possibly devouring a coolie a day in the 1850s. When the authorities did not let the body of a poor coolie carried of by a tiger be buried, wanting to use the human corpse as bait to lure the tiger back so that it could be shot. Fr Augustine Perie protested, retrieved the coolie’s body and prepared it for a decent burial, demonstrating that a poor person should never be treated without dignity, in life and also in death.
Yet through all these, our forefathers persisted and clung to their faith. It’s been already 160 years since the founding of St. Joseph Church. As we look to the future, let us always remember where we have come from, never to take our faith for granted and let what has been hard won be drowned in a flood of materialism, indifferentism and ingratitude. St Joseph, guardian of the Holy Church of God, pray for us!
Empty grassland just beside the church of St Joseph
This is such a nice church. I especially like the stations of the cross. This open space here is so nice too… I was in a hurry the last time I went to the church (2008)… If only I can have more time to linger in this place….
More Information about St Joseph Church
Topics: Environment, Faith, Personal, Places, Religion, View All Post | 2 Comments »
May 26th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
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June 14th, 2010 at 7:18 am
[...] Altar of the church of St Joseph [...]