Bishopric of Malacca

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The Roman Catholic diocese of Malacca ( Latin: Dioecesis Malacensis ), established in 1558, was the first diocese in Southeast Asia and, during the Portuguese colonial period, it was the center of Christianity in rear India and the East Indian archipelago . The episcopal seat was the city of the same name Malacca on the Malay Peninsula . After the Dutch conquered the city in 1641, the bishops resided in exile. During the British rule in Malaya , the diocese was downgraded to the Apostolic Vicariate , placed under the direction of the Paris Mission and moved to Singapore . With the end of the colonial period, the Archdiocese of Malacca-Singapore emerged , which in 1972 was split up into the dioceses of Singapore and Melaka-Johor .

history

Origin and heyday

The former cathedral of Malacca Nossa Senhora da Anunciada , later St. Paul .

The emergence of the diocese is closely linked to the Portuguese expansion : Since the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese began to establish bases in South and Southeast Asia. In 1510, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa , India , and the Sultanate of Malacca the following year . The religious affairs in the Portuguese overseas possessions were still under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Order of Christ . Since his traditional “ crusader mentality ” was neither helpful for the administration of trade centers nor for the mission , the Portuguese crown tried to get the Pope to administer the overseas territories through bishops. The result was the Portuguese patronage ( "Padroado" ) announced by the Pope in 1514 , which endowed the King of Portugal with far-reaching ecclesiastical rights, in particular he was now allowed to nominate bishops overseas himself.

Malacca became the seat of a vicar that same year ; the first vicar Afonso Martin arrived on site in 1515. At around the same time, the construction of a church on the Stadtberg began; In 1521 the church of Nossa Senhora da Anunciada (later St. Paul ) was consecrated. In 1532 a hospital and a lay brotherhood ( Confraria da Misericórdia ) were established.

In 1533, the diocese of Goa was established as the first colonial re-establishment in Asia as part of the Padroado . Its diocesan area initially formally extended from the East African coast to the still unknown, distant East Asia. The vicar in Malacca was subordinate to the bishop in Goa.

Between 1545 and 1552 the Jesuit Francisco Xavier visited Malacca a total of five times on his way to the Moluccas, Japan and China. He stayed on site for a few weeks and, among other things, built the first school. Malacca developed into an important center of the Jesuit order in the following years. The Dominicans also founded a convent in 1554 .

Since the vicar in Malacca was almost permanently in conflict with the secular military commander of the city, the clergy demanded that Malacca be elevated to the status of a diocese in order to increase the powers of the local church. This then happened in February 1558, when Goa was elevated to an archbishopric by Pope Paul IV and at the same time two new dioceses, the diocese of Cochin and the diocese of Malacca, were split off as suffragans (the wrong year 1557 is often given for this event because the papal Documents at that time were dated in the annunciating style ; that is, the New Year's date was only March 25th ). The first bishop in Malacca was the Dominican Jorge de Santa Luzia , who did not arrive until 1561, as he had previously had to administer the vacant diocese of Goa until the arrival of the first archbishop. The Church of Nossa Senhora da Annunciada became a cathedral.

Portuguese map of the city of Malacca in 1568. It shows an unsuccessful attack by the Sultan of Aceh.

The diocese of Malacca formally comprised all countries and islands south and east of the Indian subcontinent, with responsibility for East Asia being assigned to the new diocese of Macau in 1576 . On the Philippines , conquered by the Spanish in 1565, the diocese of Manila was also created in 1579 . The area of ​​responsibility of the bishops of Malacca thus included the Malay Peninsula, the East Indian islands (today's Indonesia) as well as Siam , Cambodia and Cochinchina (southern Vietnam). Missionary work could be expanded significantly under the leadership of the bishop. Christian communities emerged in particular on the Moluccas, Flores , Solor , Timor and in Makassar on Celebes , whose Portuguese-friendly Muslim rulers pursued a policy of religious tolerance. Portuguese missionaries also gained great influence in Cambodia. In Malacca the importance of the orders grew. Spanish Franciscans settled in the city in 1581, Portuguese three years later. The first Augustinian hermits arrived in 1587.

Exile and decline

Until the end of the 16th century, the most powerful opponents of the Portuguese Malacca were the sultanates of Johor and Aceh . The Protestant Dutch, who invaded Southeast Asia from the beginning of the 17th century, posed a much greater danger. At that time Portugal was ruled by the Spanish king in personal union and thereby drawn into the Eighty Years' War , which led to the outbreak of the Dutch-Portuguese colonial war . In 1619 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) founded the base Batavia (Jakarta) on the island of Java . In early 1640, Galle on Ceylon was conquered by the Dutch. In August of the same year Malacca came under siege, in January 1641 the Portuguese had to surrender.

The Portuguese clergy, including Bishop Luís de Melo , were expelled and sailed first to India , then to Makassar, which had been selected as the new bishopric. In the following years there was an exodus of the Catholic population of Malacca into the Sultanate of Makassar. The number of Portuguese in Makassar rose from around 500 to 3000. The place became the Catholic center of Southeast Asia and was known by the nickname "Second Malacca".

This development was obviously a thorn in the side of the Dutch East India Company, which is why they took military action against the Portuguese-friendly sultanate. After years of war, the Sultan of Makassar finally had to commit himself in the Treaty of Bongaja in 1660 and finally in 1667 to expel the Portuguese from his territory.

The spiritual as well as secular leader of the Portuguese in the region at that time was in fact Paulo da Costa , formerly deputy of the bishop. After his death in 1648 no successor was appointed because the Restoration War had broken out in Portugal and the Vatican did not recognize the new, independent Portuguese government. Costa therefore proclaimed himself governor, vicar general and administrator of the diocese of Malacca and took control. He finally settled in Cambodia in 1661 with a few faithful. The majority of the Portuguese, however, went to Larantuca on Flores and the neighboring Solor after being forced to leave Makassar .

Not until 1671, after Costa's death, was a bishop of Malacca again appointed. However, he does not seem to have taken office. It was the same with a number of successors, little more than the name of which is known and who probably never made it to Southeast Asia. In 1701, the Dominican missionary Manuel de Santo António , who worked in Timor, was called to be the new bishop of Malacca. He and his successors António de Castro and Geraldo de São José chose the city of Lifau on the north coast of Timor as the bishopric.

The assertiveness of the Portuguese state increasingly eroded in the remaining colonies during these decades. The rulers of the Topasse (the descendants of Portuguese and native women) established their own empires on Flores and Timor, which they ruled virtually independently of Lisbon and Goa.

France became the new dominant Catholic colonial power, which was also reflected in the ecclesiastical administration: after the Paris Mission (MEP) had been founded in 1658 , the first Paris mission bishop was sent to the newly founded Apostolic Vicariate of Cochinchina the following year . Three years later, in 1662, a Vicariate Apostolic Siam was also created under French leadership. In 1712, responsibility for all the islands in the Indian Ocean, which had previously been located near Malacca, was transferred to the bishop of Bourbon (Réunion).

The Church of St. Peter ( São Pedro ) in Malacca.

During the War of the Spanish Succession , Portugal joined the anti-French coalition in 1703 ( Methuen Treaty ), turning the Dutch from archenemy into allies. As a sign of détente, the Dutch rulers allowed the establishment of a Catholic church in Malacca, which was consecrated as St. Peter ( São Pedro ) in 1710 . The epoch of the Christian wars of faith came to an end in Asia too. Despite all the repression of the past six decades, the Catholics continued to represent the largest Christian group in the city. However, the bishop's seat in Malacca remained vacant after the death of the last bishop residing in Timor in 1760. Two bishops were still appointed, but both remained in the motherland.

Reorganization by Paris missionaries

During the Napoleonic Wars , the British occupied Malacca in 1795, but returned it to the Netherlands in 1818. Through the exchange of territory ( British-Dutch Treaty of 1824 ), the city became finally British a little later. However, the port silted up more and more, and Malacca lost its importance as a trading center to the British foundations of George Town ( Penang ) and Singapore .

At that time, the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia only consisted of three notable bases, namely Goa, East Timor and Macau. This was disproportionate to the large number of Portuguese-run dioceses, which were based on the patronage right ( padroado ) that was still exercised . After the liberal party prevailed in the Miguelistenkrieg in 1834, the religious orders were expelled from Portugal. Pope Gregory XVI took this as an opportunity to abolish the Padroado with the Breve Multa praeclare in 1838 and transfer its powers to Propaganda Fide . At the same time he dissolved four dioceses - three in India and Malacca - by formal transfer back to the metropolitan diocese of Goa. The Catholic Church of Portugal and the Archdiocese of Goa refused to recognize this, which led to the so-called Goanese Schism .

The area previously administered by the diocese of Malacca was initially assigned to the Italian-led Vicariate of Burma . However, since the missionaries there felt overwhelmed by the task, the territory of Malacca was transferred to the French Apostolic Vicariate of Siam in 1840. Paris missionaries served in Penang since 1786 and in Singapore since 1832. The seminary of the Paris Mission Society was also located in Penang. In September 1841, the independent Vicariate Apostolic West Siam was established, the misleading name of which was soon changed to Malacca-Singapore .

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Singapore.

During the years of the schism, competing French and Portuguese parishes coexisted in Malaya. The British colonial power stayed out of this intra-Catholic dispute over competence - from which the Protestant London Missionary Society in particular benefited. In 1886 the schism was finally resolved by Pope Leo XIII. be terminated. Part of the Portuguese-Indian dioceses was restored, and the Archbishop of Goa was given the title of " Patriarch of East India". The French Vicariate Malacca-Singapore was elevated to the diocese of Malacca in 1888 and subordinated to the Archdiocese of Pondicherry in French India as a suffragan. The remaining Portuguese parishes on the Malay Peninsula - St. Peter in Malacca and St. Joseph in Singapore - were assigned to the diocese of Macau, as was Portuguese Timor. The now French diocese owned the church of St. Francis Xavier in Malacca and the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Singapore, where the bishop also resided. While the believers in the Portuguese congregations were mainly of Portuguese-Indian and Portuguese-Malay descent, the much larger French congregations comprised primarily ethnic Chinese .

The structures of the Catholic Church on the Malay Peninsula only changed again after the Second World War in the course of decolonization : In September 1953 the diocese of Malacca was elevated to the status of the Archdiocese of Malacca . Eighteen months later, in February 1955, it became the Metropolitan - Archdiocese of Malacca and Singapore , as the newly founded dioceses him Kuala Lumpur and Penang were as suffragan dioceses.

In 1957 the Malaya Federation became independent; In 1963 Malaysia emerged from this. Singapore was initially a part of Malaysia, but declared its independence in 1965. In December 1972, the diocesan structure was finally brought into line with the national borders when the Archdiocese of Malacca-Singapore was given by Pope Paul VI. was divided into a Malaysian part (the Diocese of Malacca-Johor ) and a Singaporean part (the Archdiocese of Singapore ). The French clergy including Archbishop Michel Olçomendy stayed in Singapore, which is why the Archdiocese of Singapore can be regarded as the direct successor and the Diocese of Malacca-Johor as a new establishment. The diocese of Malacca-Johor was placed under the new Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. In 1985 the name “Malacca” was finally changed to the Malay form “Melaka”.

List of the bishops of Malacca

Portuguese bishops in Malacca:

  • Jorge de Santa Luzia OP , 1558-1576
  • João Ribeiro Gaio, 1579–1601
  • Cristóvão de Sá e Lisboa OSH , 1604-1612
  • Gonçalvo da Silva, 1613–1632, then Bishop of Ceuta
  • António do Rosario OP, 1637-1638
  • Luís de Melo OSA , 1638–1641, had to leave Malacca

Portuguese bishops in exile:

Vicars Apostolic of Malacca-Singapore:

  • Jean-Paul-Hilaire-Michel Courvezy MEP , 1841-1844
  • Jean-Baptiste Boucho MEP, 1845-1871
  • Michel-Esther Le Turdu MEP, 1871–1877
  • Edouard Gasnier MEP, 1878–1888, then Bishop of Malacca

Bishops of Malacca based in Singapore:

  • Edouard Gasnier MEP, 1888-1896
  • René-Michel-Marie Fée MEP, 1896–1904
  • Marie-Luc-Alphonse-Emile Barillon MEP, 1904-1933
  • Adrien Pierre Devals MEP, 1933-1945
  • Michel Olçomendy MEP, 1947–1953 Bishop of Malacca, then 1953–1955 Archbishop of Malacca, then 1955–1972 Archbishop of Malacca-Singapore, then 1972–1976 Archbishop of Singapore

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Geraldo Affonso Muzzi: The Portuguese in Malay Land , Ediçoes Vercial, 2014, pp. 30–32
  2. ^ Alfons Väth : The German Jesuits in India , Kösel & Pustet, Regensburg 1920, p. 25
  3. ↑ Tara Alberts: Conflict and Conversion: Catholicism in Southeast Asia, 1500–1700 , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, Chapter 1 (pp. 17–33)
  4. ↑ Stefan Halikowski Smith: Creolization and Diaspora in the Portuguese Indies , Brill, Leiden 2011, pp. 39–64
  5. ↑ Geraldo Affonso Muzzi: The Portuguese in Malay Land , Ediçoes Vercial, 2014, pp. 35–38
  6. ↑ Ernest Hull:  Archdiocese of Goa . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 6, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1909.
  7. ↑ Ernest Hull:  Malacca . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 9, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1910.
  8. ↑ John Roxborogh: Early nineteenth-century foundations of Christianity in Malaya: Churches and missions in Penang, Melaka and Singapore from 1786–1842 , 1990. In: Asia Journal of Theology , Volume 6, No. 1, 1992, pp. 54– 72.
  9. ↑ Entry on the Archdiocese of Singapore on catholic-hierarchy.org ;
    Entry on the Melaka-Johor diocese on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on April 22, 2020.