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Church of St Joseph is a Roman Catholic church in Batu Gajah. It is located in a cul-de-sac at the end of Jalan Changkat, immediately after the Batu Gajah Hospital. The church is a historic building that traces its history to the arrival of French missionary Father J.F. Allard.
Father J.F. Allard was from the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris, or M.E.P), a Roman Catholic missionary organization. He was sent to Perak in 1874 by Bishop Le Turdu. Father Allard began his mission work in Taiping. He was instrumental in constructing the first church building of the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, in 1875.
The mission work must have affected his health, for in 1880 he was forced to take a leave of convalescence in Penang. But even as he was recuperating, Father Allard was already planning his subsequent apostolic activities. He had his sight on Batu Gajah, as it was a recently established tin-fueled boom town. However, getting the British authorities to approve his application for land was a tedious process, requiring him to persevere despite countless rejections.
To establish his church building fund, Father Allard even turned to poultry farming and vegetable growing. Eventually he was able to set up the first church building in 1885. It included a school and doctrine house for the small Catholic community of Batu Gajah, then numbering around 250 people.
A new church building was erected in 1891 to replace the original structure built by Father Allard. The present building of the Church of St Joseph dates back to 1928, when the parish was under the leadership of Father Noël Maury. Funding came from the local parishioners, former pastors and even corporate bodies such as the French Tekka Mines.
The Church of St Joseph is today still the main place of worship for the Catholics in Batu Gajah. The church has produced two archbishops, among them Emeritus Gregory Yong of the Archdiocese of Singapore and Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. It has two outstation chapels namely the St Jude's Chapel in Gopeng and the Chapel of the Holy Family in the Kinta Valley.
Side view of the Church of St Joseph (18 June 2011)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
I paid a visit to the Church of St Joseph in the company of the President of the Perak Heritage Society, during a heritage tour of Kinta Valley with the Penang Heritage Trust, on 18-19 June, 2011.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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