The Church of St. Paul, Malacca
Father Schurhammer, S.J., published this concise historical note in 1934 to trace the architectural and institutional history of the Church of St. Paul in Malacca from its origins as Albuquerque’s chapel in 1511 through its reconstruction by the Jesuits and its eventual appropriation by the Dutch after 1641. The article argues that the church’s site was deliberately chosen on the hill of the former Mahometan royal palace, and that the underground caves visible in the surviving structure may be remnants of that palace.
Summary
Schurhammer’s central task is to resolve the uncertainty surrounding the date of construction of the church that came to be known as St. Paul’s. He establishes that the original chapel, dedicated to Nossa Senhora do Monte (Our Lady of the Annunciation), was built by Albuquerque in 1511 alongside the fortress, serving both as a place of worship and a navigational landmark. The chapel was transferred to the Jesuits by the Bishop of Goa between 1548 and 1549, and by 1566 it was described as “very ancient” and “falling into ruins,” prompting a full reconstruction under Rector Fr. Christovao da Costa. The new church was roofed by 1568, its tower completed by 1590, and it served as a waystation for Jesuits travelling to the Moluccas, Japan, and China.
The article then follows the Jesuit college that grew around the church through the 1570s, when Visitor Valignano oversaw a major rebuilding programme that produced what contemporaries called “one of the best Colleges in the whole of India.” After the Dutch conquest of 1641, the church was converted for Protestant use and the college site became a Dutch fortress. By 1730, a Jesuit correspondent in Lisbon reported that “hardly anything left but the pillars” remained of the original complex.
Schurhammer grounds his narrative in a dense series of primary-source letters—Jesuit correspondence to the General, annual letters of the Goa province, and Portuguese chronicles—many drawn from the Jesuit archives in Goa. He also incorporates the testimony of Fernão Lopes de Castanheda and Gaspar Correia to establish the topographical relationship between the church, the old royal palace, and the great Mosque.
Key Findings
- The original chapel was built by Albuquerque in 1511; a retable was requested from the King as early as that year (Cartas de Albuquerque, I, 53).
- The Jesuit reconstruction began c. 1565 under Fr. Christovao da Costa; the new church measured 110 palmos long, 46 broad, and 39.5 high (approximately 24.2 m × 10.1 m × 8.7 m) (p. 41).
- The church was roofed in 1568 and its tower completed by 1590, when Bishop Martinez reported “the Church and tower have been finished” (p. 42).
- Valignano’s 1578 rebuilding produced a college of 8 rooms with a verandah commanding a view of sea and land, described as “one of the best in India” (p. 41).
- By 1598, the tropical climate required 50 slaves and a Brother solely for continual repairs, as “the wood here does not last longer than ten years” (p. 42).
- The church occupied the site of the Mahometan King’s palace on the hill; the underground caves of the surviving structure may be ruins of that palace, consistent with Gaspar Correia’s description of Malaccan houses built “half buried in the ground” (p. 43).
Conclusion
Schurhammer’s definitive takeaway is that the Church of St. Paul is not merely a Jesuit monument but a palimpsest of Malacca’s layered history: Portuguese conquest, Jesuit missionary enterprise, and Dutch colonial appropriation are all physically inscribed in the site, with the very foundations of the church potentially resting on the ruins of the pre-conquest royal palace.
Context
- The article draws primarily on Jesuit archival correspondence held in Goa (the Goa series of letters to the General) and on published Portuguese sources including Castanheda’s História and Correia’s Lendas da Índia.
- As a Jesuit writing in 1934, Schurhammer had direct access to the Society’s internal archives, giving him a source base unavailable to secular historians of the period.