Ruins with interesting tales

By PERCY D’CRUZ
Photos by A.Malex Yahaya

MALACCA: It is so dilapidated that few people driving along Jalan Bunga Raya will even notice the former church sited adjacent to the former Federal Cinema and at the rear end of a food court.

Retired civil servant Bonnie Sequerah, 65, of Ujong Pasir worries that if nothing is done to preserve the site, the ruins, clustered along the Malacca River cruise route, would deteriorate further.

With the state re-applying for World Heritage listing, failure to maintain a site steeped so much in local history could well spell a stumbling block, commented Sequerah.

It is learnt that following the crumbling of a couple of the old church's columns late last year, the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry stepped into the picture by allocating a budget for local authorities to undertake restoration works and deem the area as an official heritage site.

But so far, nothing seems to have been carried out. There is no fencing around the property and no notice declaring the ruins have been designated as a historic site. Cars are now being parked in the vicinity and the grounds have also become a rubbish dump of late.

The history of the church is indeed colourful and chequered.

During the Portuguese era (1511-1641) there stood at the site parallel to the Malacca River the Church of St Lawrence.

Historical documents found by the late Father M.J. Pintado - a noted author of books and guides of old Malacca as well as former parish priest of St Peter's - showed that the present ruins known widely as that of St Lawrence Church was a misnomer.

Fr Pintado in his chapter "Memorial Structures of the Period" in the book ‘Illustrated Historical Guide to Malacca" published in the early 1970s, said the ruins in fact were that of ‘Ermida do Rosario' (the Rosary Chapel in Portuguese), built during the last stage (1790-1810) of the Dutch Occupation of Malacca.

His notes, which were based on Portuguese historian Manuel Godinho de Eredia's writings, showed that a "Church of St Lawrence" was built in the early 1600s and by 1613 it was serving some 1,700 followers of the Roman Catholic faith.

However, this church was either destroyed by the Dutch or allowed to become dilapidated.

By the end of the 1700's, the Rosary Chapel was built on the same site of the St Lawrence Church ruins.

The notes added in 1954 two sisters Maria Thomasios and Philomena De Souza had testified that they had lived next door to the Rosary Chapel in their youth.

The Rosary Chapel fell into ruins in the second decade of the 19th century and for some time the grounds served as a cemetery.

Though the chapel is now in ruins, it continues to serve as a monument of the spread of the Christian faith where Fr Pintado in his book Survival Through Human Values described Malacca as a Christian Town between 1511 up to 1641 with a church or chapel on every street and hill.

Another interesting tale that is told of the ruins of the Rosary Chapel is that the Dominican missionaries had established the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary in 1549.

Presently known as the ‘Irmaoes de Igeja' (Brothers of the Church in Portuguese), the body is described as the oldest functioning church organisation in South-East Asia.

The group is famed for being the custodians and organisers of religious rituals, ceremonies and processions witnessed during Holy Week at the St Peter's Church, which draws thousands of pilgrims and devotees both Catholics and non Christians from all over Malaysia and Singapore as well as overseas tourists.