The earliest known presence of Catholics in Singapore can be traced to 1821, when a Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) priest, Rev Fr Laurent Marie Joseph Imbert, arrived on a visit to our shores and found a dozen abandoned Catholics who asked for a priest to mister to the spiritual needs.
He first came into contact with an Indian family, and later, an individual Indian Catholic, both of whom graciously extended their hospitality to the priest to lodge at their home. His early encounters with these Indian Catholics present in Singapore.
With to arrival of Fr Jean Marie Beurel, funds were raised to build the Church of the Good Shepherd at Queen Street and was completed in 1847. It replaced a small chapel located along Bras Basah Road, which later became the site of St Joseph’s Institution. In 1888 the previously defunct Diocese of Malacca was restored, thus raising the Vicariate of Malacca to a Diocese, and therefore elevating Vicar Apostolic Edouard Gasnier to Titular Roman Catholic Bishop of Malacca, with his official residence in Singapore. As the seat of the Bishop, the Church of the Good Shepherd was thus raised to the status of Cathedral.
The earliest known presence of Catholics in Singapore can be traced to 1821, when a Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) priest, Rev Fr Laurent Marie Joseph Imbert, arrived on a visit to our shores and found a dozen abandoned Catholics who asked for a priest to mister to the spiritual needs.
He first came into contact with an Indian family, and later, an individual Indian Catholic, both of whom graciously extended their hospitality to the priest to lodge at their home. His early encounters with these Indian Catholics present in Singapore.
With to arrival of Fr Jean Marie Beurel, funds were raised to build the Church of the Good Shepherd at Queen Street and was completed in 1847. It replaced a small chapel located along Bras Basah Road, which later became the site of St Joseph’s Institution.
In 1888 the previously defunct Diocese of Malacca was restored, thus raising the Vicariate of Malacca to a Diocese, and therefore elevating Vicar Apostolic Edouard Gasnier to Titular Roman Catholic Bishop of Malacca, with his official residence in Singapore. As the seat of the Bishop, the Church of the Good Shepherd was thus raised to the status of Cathedral.
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