Catholic Church Spotted!
Address: 300 Thomson Road
Opening Hours:
Weekdays (6.30am, 12.15pm, 6.30pm)
Saturday (7am, 9am, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm)
Sunday (7am, 8.30am, 5.30pm)
Public Holidays (8am, 6.30pm)
Days of Obligation (7pm)
Tagalog (10.15am)
Full View of Church (taken 13 Jan 2011)
This church was founded by a religious congregation, the Redemptorists. These missionaries, founded by St. Alphonsus from Naples, formed an apostolic community in Singapore and decided to build a church to spread God's love. Hence, they purchased land from a Chinese businessman and built Novena Church in 1950.
The church is led by a religious congregation, with a rector as the one with the highest authority. However, the priests work together with the rector to run the church. For Novena Church, Father Simon Tan is the present rector.
The priests live in the church, preach, hear people’s confessions, counsel others and attend to the sick. The church has grown since it was first founded. It had only one session then, but now, there are already ten. The number of churchgoers here increased from less than 100 then to 20,000 now. On Saturdays, people write thanksgiving letters to Mother Mary, even non-Catholics do so.
The design of Novena Church has not changed much, having three arches, a design used by all Redemptorists churches across the globe. Catholic means “universal”, so Catholic churches around the world are very similar.
The church has a very tranquil environment, despite being beside a busy road.
Titbit Corner...
The area surrounding Novena Church used to be a Jewish cemetery. In 1900, this piece of land was bought over by the Jewish synagogue when the original Jewish cemetery behind Fort Canning was closed for development in order to replace the old cemetery. A wealthy and prominent Jew at that time, Sir Manasseh Meyer who built both the synagogues in Singapore, also contributed by buying another piece of adjoining land for the new cemetery.
The area surrounding Novena Church used to be a Jewish cemetery. In 1900, this piece of land was bought over by the Jewish synagogue when the original Jewish cemetery behind Fort Canning was closed for development in order to replace the old cemetery. A wealthy and prominent Jew at that time, Sir Manasseh Meyer who built both the synagogues in Singapore, also contributed by buying another piece of adjoining land for the new cemetery.
