Little pearls from the Pearl Island -Part-4

Glory to the Triune God!

Our Lady of Good Death church/Bouna Morte Church.

The Hulftsdorf region in Colombo was once the the administrative center for the successive Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial governments. The region now is a business district; while driving through busier congested lanes one reaches the church compound adjoining a school whose name you are bound to look at twice- St Sebastian Muslim Mahavidyalayam. This church is 'Our Lady of Good Death church/Bouna Morte church' that had a splendid past of being the cathedral church of the Independent Catholic mission in Ceylon spearheaded by Alvares Thirumeni.

The origin of this church goes back to 21 February 1845 when a piece of land in Belmont Street, Hulsdorf, was granted by the British authorities to a group of Burghers, self-identified as “Independent Catholics”, to build on it a Cathedral entitled to Our Lady of Good Death, often known as Buona Morte Church. The leader of this group, the Catholic surgeon Dr. John Bonifacio Misso (1797-1864), was Consul General of Portugal and an adamant supporter of Padroado, the royal patronage of the Portuguese crown over the Catholic missions in Asia.¹

For centuries, following the principle of Padroado/Royal Patronage, the King of Portugal had nominated the bishops of the Latin rite in India and the diocese of the other former Portuguese colonies. The Padroado Real had provided Goans an opportunity to serve in Ceylon. With the signing of the signing of the Concordat between the Holy See and Portugal in 1886- Portugal renounced its claims in Ceylon and Goa’s religious jurisdiction in that territory ceased. This abolishment of Padroado caused an unrest amongst several Goan and Ceylonese Catholics who still had strong sentimental links to Portugal.

In 1887, a Goan priest, Padre Alvares, journeyed to Ceylon to rally the Goan clergy posted there in their fight against the Concordat of 1886 (Padre Alvares in later times visited Ceylon in the capacity as the Metropolitan of Goa, India excluding Kerala and Ceylon to perform his episcopal duties). It was in Colombo that Padre Alvares met Malankara Metropolitan Pulikkottil  Joseph Mar Dionysius II and it was probably then when the journey of Padre Alvares to the Orthodox church initiated. Independent Catholic Mission was the name of the group/parishes (of Goa, Ceylon) which along with Padre Alvares, broke from Roman catholic church and joined the Malankara Orthodox church. Alvares Thirumeni’s consecration as a bishop was held on July 29^th, 1889 at Old Seminary, Kottayam.

In its initial years the mission had around 5000 members- however as the time progressed, because of the lack of qualified priests by 1903 the situation had worsened. After the departure of Alvares Thirumeni, the mission had begun to weaken and disintegrate.

Vijaya Vidyasagara, noted Sri Lankan socialist and St Paul’s Kynsey road parish member provides the below information about this church in year around 1937-38 when a Russian Orthodox delegation led by Archbishop Nestor had visited Ceylon:

Archbishop Nestor wanted to have a church that could be used fully by the Orthodox community then in Colombo. He was able to secure a church that was formerly Roman Catholic, which had been taken over by the Independent Catholic mission with the current vicar as Fr Joseph Alvares (believed to be a nephew of Alvares Thirumeni). Fr Alvares’s parish comprised of seventy people representing the remnants of the Independent catholic mission. It had at one time had outstanding laymen like Dr Lisboa Pinto and Armand Dsouza among its members. Fr Alvares wanted to leave for India and therefore was ready to have the Archbishop take over his church. The author was able to join the Anglican and the Orthodox clergy when they visited that church.

The church had several altars with life size statues but were removed as the Orthodox people preferred not to have them and had plans to cover them with altar frontals. The author’s aunt (mother’s sister) helped much in some of the sewing and adaptation of the high altar to suit Orthodox norms. 

Fr Alvares left for India and Fr Basil Jeyawardene, the Anglican priest of St Paul’s Church Kynsey Road, (who had very cordial and friendly relationship with the Malankara and the Russian Orthodox church) secured the services of a Syrian Orthodox priest to look after the Independent Catholic congregation and the Russian Orthodox community.

The Syrian Orthodox priest sought to minister to the congregation and when it came to the Mass, the author notes that the priest would have had difficulty for he used his Syrian rite in place of Latin then being used by the church. The author also feels that it might have been easier for an Anglican priest to say the Mass according to the Latin rite but perhaps these matters were not thought properly.

So, the result was that influential persons in the congregation created dissension and sought to engineer a return back to Rome. Once day some muscle men were deployed to chase the Syrian priest and take over the church and the Papal flag was hoisted that day the church. Archbishop Mason of the Roman Catholic Church was present to bless the hoodlums and the Roman Catholic faithful who thereafter took over the church. So, came to an end what might have been an interesting and unique experiment in inter-church relation.*

Vijaya Vidyasagara was a member of the Lanka Sama Samaj Party. One of the founding members of this party was Ms Susan DeSilva whose grandfather Stephen DeSilva was the secretary of the Independent Catholic mission in Colombo. While the mission faced various challenges -most importantly that of the lack of priests, he had sent letters to another independent catholic movement based in Philippines and requested two priests intelligent and of good moral conduct as they were not getting sufficient priests to work independent of Rome.

As John Achen, I and baby Alvares were about to leave the church, the caretaker lady who stays in nearby convent asked baby (in Tamil) if he came to visit the church. To which baby Alvares (who usually doesn’t respond to strangers) said promptly in Malayalam- Alvares Thirumeni is here. Perhaps infants because of their pure heart can see angelic beings and departed holy fathers and mothers. We went back with immense thanksgiving to the Lord in our hearts knowing very well that our departed holy fathers and mothers are pleading for the Church unceasingly.

To be continued…

In Christ,

Rincy John

References:

1) First para of the Invitation letter for the workshop on- A Global and Local History of the Buona Morte Church oraganised by The St. Sebastian Parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Colombo, the Madras Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, and the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft of Universität Bonn on 22-23 November 2018.

2) Azevedo Carmo; ‘On Joining the Syrian Orthodox Church (1887-1894); Patriot and Saint- The Life Story of Bishop Mar Julius –I Page 25-26, Panjim 1988

3) Kamat, P.P., (2014). The Goa-Ceylon religious connection: a review of the ‘The Indian Cry’ of Alvares Mar Julius, Archbishop of Ceylon, Goa and India. Sabaragamuwa University Journal.

4) Peter-Ben-Smit, Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History, Brill’s Series in Church History, Volume 52, Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands, Pg 196.

5) HERMANN, A. (2014). The Early Periodicals of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (1903–1904) and the Emergence of a Transregional and Transcontinental Indigenous-Christian Public Sphere. Philippine Studies: Historical & Ethnographic Viewpoints, 62(3/4), 549-565. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24672324

6) * Vijaya Vidyasagara, Memoirs of a Christian and a Socialist, The Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue, Colombo, © 2016, Pgs 11,12 with minor edits. Also included are minor updates from Perpetual Embers: A Chronicle of ROCOR’s Missionary Efforts in India, Rassophore Monk Angelos, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, Pg-31