Saint Joseph's Church ( zh, 聖若瑟堂) is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in Singapore. It is located along Victoria Street in the

Rochor Rochor ( or ) is a Planning Areas of Singapore, planning area located within the Central Area, Singapore, Central Area of the Central Region, Singapore, Central Region of Singapore. Rochor shares boundaries with the following planning areas � ...

Planning Area, within the Central Area of Singapore's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

. The church was constructed from 1906 to 1912 with its

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

laid in 1904. The building was built in the

Neo-Manueline Neo-Manueline is a revival style of architecture which drew from the 16th century Manueline Late Gothic architecture of Portugal. Neo-Manueline constructions have been built across Portugal, Brazil, and the Lusophone, Lusophone world (the former P ...

Portuguese late- Gothic style by the Portuguese

Mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

. Saint Joseph's Church is noted for its Portuguese-inspired religious traditions, such as the annual

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

celebrations. The church is a rectoral church of devotion and not a parish church, hence, the church does not have specific territorial boundaries. Mass in the Latin

Extraordinary Form In the Catholic Church, preconciliar Latin liturgical rites ("preconciliar": before the Second Vatican Council, which began in 1962) coexist with postconciliar rites. In the years following the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI initiated sig ...

is celebrated here every Sunday at 2 pm.

History

The history of Saint Joseph's Church and that of its predecessor, the Church of São José, both built on the same site, is linked with the Portuguese Mission. When Father Francisco da Silva Pinto e Maia of

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, head of the Portuguese Mission died in 1850, he left his money and some land for the building of a small church. Part of that money came from the Portuguese Missions in China, whose procuration house was St Joseph's Seminary in

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. Under the system of

padroado The ''Padroado'' (, "patronage") was an arrangement between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Portugal and later the Portuguese Republic, through a series of concordats by which the Holy See delegated the administration of the local churches and g ...

, his funds were augmented by a gift from the

King of Portugal This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portugal, Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution. Thro ...

. The church, which was called São José (in English: Saint Joseph), was built by the

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

who succeeded him, the Rev. Vincente de Santa Catarina, from 1851 to 1853, to mainly serve the Portuguese and

Eurasian Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents dates back to antiq ...

Catholics in Singapore. Situated in the church compound and attached to the mission was Saint Anthony's Boys' and Girls' School. It was first opened by Father José Pedro Santa Ana da Cunha in 1879 as Saint Anna's School in a small house along Middle Road. The school moved into the church compound in 1886 and changed its name. In 1893, separate boys' and girls' schools were formed. In 1886, the Portuguese

Archbishop of Goa The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa and Daman (, , ) encompasses the Goa state and the Damaon territory in the Konkan region, by the west coast of India. The ecclesiastical province of Goa and Damaon includes a suffragan dio ...

transferred the jurisdiction over the Portuguese Missions in Singapore and

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

to the Portuguese

Bishop of Macau Portuguese Jesuit priest Melchior Miguel Carniero Leitão was appointed Titular Bishop of Nicaea Pope Gregory XIII issued an edict for the establishment of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau, where Leitão served—he was appointed the firs ...

. Because of the steady growth of the congregation, the Church of São José was demolished in 1906 and a new church was built on the same site, by the notable firm

Swan & MacLaren Swan & Maclaren Group is an architecture and urban design firm. One of the oldest architectural firms in the country, it was formerly known as Swan & Maclaren and Swan & Lermit, and was one of the most prominent architectural firms in Singapore ...

. The new and larger church, i.e. the present Saint Joseph's Church, was completed in 1912 and blessed by the then Bishop of Macau, João Paulino de Azevedo e Castro, who was the impetus behind this project. New buildings were added to the church in 1938, 1954 and 1956. In March 1947, the church published its first parish magazine, ''Rally'', in English that sought to rally parishioners to the Catholic Young Men's Association, promote the Catholic faith and provide information on pastoral activities, recreation and sports. In 1948, ''Rally'' became a mission publication and served as an official organ of the Portuguese Mission in Malacca and Singapore until it ceased publication in 1990. On 1 July 1981, an agreement signed between

Gregory Yong Gregory Yong Sooi Ngean (20 May 1925 – 28 June 2008) was a Singaporean Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Singapore from 1977 to 2000. Early life Yong was born into a Malaysian Chinese family of Hakka descent in Taiping, a ...

, the Archbishop of Singapore, and Arquimínio Rodrigues da Costa, the Bishop of Macau, for the transfer of the Parish of St Joseph to the ordinary jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Singapore became effective. With this, the dual ecclesiastical jurisdiction ceased to exist in Singapore and the whole island of Singapore was brought under the single jurisdiction of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore The Archdiocese of Singapore (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Singaporensis'') is an exempt archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. Its territory includes all that is under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Singapore. Its current ar ...

. Saint Joseph's church ceased to be a parish church and became a church of devotion. The entire congregation of parishioners was incorporated into the Archdiocese of Singapore. To maintain the Portuguese character of the church, the Bishop of Macau continued to post priests to the church until 31 December 1999, when the rector of the church, Father Benito de Sousa, ended his term. The Bishop of Macau decided to stop sending missionaries to the church, making Father Benito de Sousa the last link between the church and the Portuguese Mission. Saint Joseph's Church was

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

d a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

on 14 January 2005. From 4 September to 12 November 2006, the church was one of the exhibition venues for the

Singapore Biennale The Singapore Biennale is a large-scale biennial contemporary art exhibition in Singapore, serving as the country’s major platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. It seeks to present and reflect the vigour of artistic practices in ...

, Singapore's inaugural international biennale of contemporary art. In 2007, during the repainting of the church, painters discovered the original ornamental plasterwork from the 1900s underneath the paint. By August 2017, the church raised $25 million, inclusive $1.953 million from the National Heritage Board's National Monuments Fund to restore the church's main building and

Parochial House A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, par ...

, a conserved building, and started restoration work. On 30 June 2022, the 110th anniversary of the church's consecration, the church was reopened.

Architecture and interior design

Saint Joseph's Church was built to accommodate 1,500 worshippers, in a

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

with a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

supported by four

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s and decorated by large marble statues of

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

, Saint John of God and Saint John de Brito. There are also an outdoor shrine to

Our Lady of Fatima Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" Places * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France Other uses * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a governm ...

and

azulejo (, ; from the Arabic ) is a form of Portuguese and Spanish painted Tin-glazing, tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of church (building), churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, r ...

s (Portuguese decorated tiles) on the walls of the church depicting the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. The tiles were added in 1950 to commemorate the visit of the ''International Pilgrim of Fátima.'' It had a low square

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

. The plan of the church was laid in the form of a Latin cross. The interior is a single large space roofed by a wooden barrel-vault instead of a gothic-style ceiling. Neither the nave nor the transepts have aisles. It is currently painted in beige, with grey details, like the exterior. The west front has three towers: a central

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al tower capped by a

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

flanked by two smaller towers. The main

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

of the church is dedicated to Saint Joseph and the other altars are dedicated to

Our Lady of Lourdes Our Lady of Lourdes (; ) is one the Marian devotions, devotional names or titles under which the Catholic Church venerates the Mary, mother of Jesus, Virgin Mary. The name commemorates a series of Lourdes apparitions, 18 apparitions reported by ...

, Our Lady of Fatima, the sacred Heart of Jesus and

Saint Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua, OFM, (; ; ) or Anthony of Lisbon (; ; ; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and member of the Order of Friars Minor. Anthony was born and raised by a wealth ...

. There is a host of saints in the form of statues standing in canopied niches and stained glass windows in the church. The church was once home to a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

, built in 1888 by

Forster and Andrews Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924. The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...

, but it has since been dismantled. It now houses two Allen digital pipe organs – a three-manual in the nave and a four-manual in the organ gallery. The four-manual organ is currently Singapore's largest digital pipe organ.

Clergy

*Rector: Fr. Joe Lopez *Vice Rector: Fr. Damien Lim

Portuguese religious traditions

Saint Joseph's Church and its congregation continues to practice many Portuguese-inspired religious traditions, such as the

Holy Week Holy Week () commemorates the seven days leading up to Easter. It begins with the commemoration of Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednes ...

commemoration with the re-enactment of the passion and death of

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

. Traditional Portuguese devotions, such as the devotions to

(on the 13th day of each month), to Saint Joseph, to Saint Jude Thaddeus, to the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

and to

(the patron saint of Portugal) are also practiced and maintained alive. A traditional Latin Mass is also celebrated on Sundays.

Gallery

File:St. Joseph's Church Singapore 2008-03-21 stretched.jpg, Saint Joseph's Church as seen with many parishioners attending a

procession (photo stretched) File:Church of Saint Joseph 4, Singapore, Jan 06.JPG, The church's central

d tower which is flanked by two smaller towers File:Church of Saint Joseph 5, Singapore, Jan 06.JPG, The main entrance to the church File:Church of Saint Joseph 11, Singapore, Jan 06.JPG, Detail of a

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

File:Altar and nave of St. Joseph's Church Singapore.JPG, Altar and nave of St. Joseph's Catholic Church Singapore File:St. Josephs Church Singapore Interior.JPG, Interior facing the entrance File:Saint Joseph Church, Singapore (Aug 2022).jpg, Saint Joseph's Church in August 2022 File:Portal of Saint Joseph’s Church, Victoria Street, at night (2023)-L1003741.jpg, Portal of the church illuminated at night

References

*National Heritage Board (2002), ''Singapore's 100 Historic Places'', Archipelago Press, *Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), ''Singapore – A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places'', Times Books International, *Preservation of Monuments Board, ''Know Our Monuments''

External links

Singapore Catholic Church Directory

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Josephs Church, Singapore Roman Catholic churches completed in 1912 Landmarks in Singapore National monuments of Singapore Rochor Portuguese diaspora in Asia 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Singapore