The Church of Saint Alphonsus and Novena

In the centre of a bustling street in Singapore, surrounded by a complex shopping centre and modern housing units, an under construction footpath and busy freeway, stands a piece of catholic architecture that looks as if it had been picked up from Spain or Italy and placed in it’s environment. This is the Church of Saint Alphonsus, or the Novena church for short, a catholic chapel built in 1950 and attended by hundreds or worshippers each Sunday for English and Mandarin services. 

The church is North of Singapore’s city centre, about a twenty five minute bus ride from the Merlion, Marina Bay and other famous Singapore icons. So why is this building on the blog? There are many churches and places of worship across Singapore that have a far more striking and immediate presence within the history of the nation of Singapore, some of which I will cover eventually. Why is the Novena church going first? 

Well, in addition to being an admirable piece of architecture and bustling location for locals, the Church of Sant Alphonsus holds an important place within the history of it’s area as well as the Catholic faith in Singapore. In it’s history, the church tells a story of a community and how it came to be through the impact of Catholic practises, specifically the unique manner of prayer and devotion present in the church’s services. 


Before talking about the church itself, we have to discuss an important word; Novena. Novena is a devotional prayer practise observed by sects within the Catholic Church in which repetitive prayer is undertaken in lots of nine. This could be for nine days or weeks, and is generally done in preparation for important holidays and feasts or in petition for something. Another key word to understand in talking about the Novena Church is Redemptorist. This refers to a follower of the Catholic pontifical brotherhood known as the ‘Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer’, who follow the teachings of Saint Alphonsus Liguori. 

The first group of Redemptorists to arrive in Singapore landed in 1935 as missionaries, availing to reach out to locals who spoke Mandarin, Tamil or Malay, as these people were less likely to have a connection with any branch of Christianity. These missionaries would found the first Church of Saint Alphonsus at a different location, holding routine Sunday services and preaching to those interested. This practise however would come to halt during the Second World War when Imperial Japan occupied Singapore. The Redemptorists were held in Changi gaol alongside British, Australian and Dutch POWs, a trying time during which the missionaries maintained regular Sunday services and the overall faith as best they could. 

Following the conclusion of the war, the Redemptorists were released and began over again. A symbol of this was the commencement of Novena services in 1949. Held in a small chapel, the services had ten half an hour slots available on Saturdays with followers being encouraged to petition Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows (a title given to the Virgin Mary) through prayer for nine continual weeks. The practise would spread through word of mouth as followers of the church began to feel as though their lives were improved and invocations answered through the practise. The Novena would gain steady popularity and transcended the barriers of Christianity, with Anglican and Orthodox followers attending the Catholic site in addition to their regular weekly congregations. Eventually, the crowd of about 3000 people for each Saturday slot required the construction of a more thorough church building. 

The current Church of Saint Alphonsus was built in 1950 from a design created by the architectural firm Swan and Maclaren. The site contains a large chapel, as well as private prayer spaces for those wishing to undertake a Novena in solitary, reflection gardens and a grotto. In 1953, an annual Novena procession dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows was commenced, with the practise continuing into the modern day each year in September. The procession is known to draw sizeable crowds, with a notable turnout of 30,000 in 1970. 

The impact of the church and the practise of Novena can be observed primarily through the title of the township which the site is located, named Novena in 1995. The area is synonymous with the practises of the church and as such the Housing and Development Board found it appropriate to name the new twonship after the ritual that draws a significant amount of Singaporeans into it’s confines. 


The Church is still in operation and draws consistently large crowds each weekend, as well as followers throughout the week to undertake nine day long Novenas and worshippers on Saturday for weekly instalments of the practise. 

The most striking thing about the Novena church is it’s local significance. As a place of worship it holds a unique identity for it’s specific prayer practises and has also been a bridge between different ethnicities and denominations within Singapore, creating a tight-nit community that now bears the name of the factor that united it in the first place, Novena. 

Sources: 

https://novenachurch.com/

https://goodmigrations.com/city-guides/singapore/novena

https://history.catholic.sg/congregation-of-the-most-holy-redeemer-cssr/

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