Traditional Holy Week in St Peter’s Church Melaka
It is that time of the year during Holy Week when thousands of Catholics and non-Catholic pilgrims converge at St Peter’s Church, the oldest in Malaysia, to celebrate the traditional Palm Sunday (April 13), and Good Friday (April 18) ceremonies.
Apr 10, 2014
By Percy D’Cruz
It is that time of the year during Holy Week when thousands of Catholics and non-Catholic pilgrims converge at St Peter’s Church, the oldest in Malaysia, to celebrate the traditional Palm Sunday (April 13), and Good Friday (April 18) ceremonies.
Unique and solemn customs introduced by Augustinian missionaries in Melaka during the Portugese occupation of the state between 1511 and 1641, are still faithfully observed today.
The Irmaos de Igreja (Brothers of the Church, in the old Portuguese language of Papia Cristang), the region’s oldest surviving church fraternity, carefully supervise the display and procession of life-like wooden statues which are draped in fine vestments.
This fraternity, made up of male Portuguese- Eurasian descendants can trace its roots to its founding in 1549 by a Dominican missionary priest Fr Gaspar da Cruz. Initiation ceremonies take place at the ruins of the Chapels of St. Lawrence and the Holy Rosary along upper Jalan Bunga Raya, a stone’s throw away from St. Peter’s Church.
According to the book Survival Through Human Values written by Fr Manuel Pintado, a former parish priest of St Peter’s, the Augustinian missionaries who introduced the practices and ceremonies evolving around the Passion of Christ, actually had their monastery at the Convent of Our Lady of Grace. This monastery stood close to the Chapel of St Anthony, the ruins of which today are next to the Dutch cemetery along Jalan Kota.
The Palm Sunday ceremonies and procession commence in the late evening led by two Irmaos de Igreja senior members, bearing the banners of the Holy Eucharist and Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows). Wooden statues depicting Christ Shouldering the Cross and Mournful Mary are borne around the Church compound followed by devotees holding lighted candles and palm fronds.
Halfway through the procession, a young girl also of Portuguese-Eurasian descent, acting as Veronica, unfolds a veil with the facial imprint of Christ.
On Good Friday, the statue of the Dead Lord on a wooden bier, is carried in a candle- light procession followed by three boys playing the role of Tres Marias (Three Marys) rendering a mournful Latin dirge.
According to fraternity head Oliver D’Souza, most of the traditional ceremonies were passed down by the ancestors of the community. They were the ones, under the patronage of the Irmaos de Igreja who safeguarded the Catholic faith against persecution when Malacca was under Dutch rule between 1641 and 1825.
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