Church of Our Lady of Lourdes
Know About Church of Our Lady of Lourdes
The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes can get found at 50 Ophir Road, not far from Serangoon Road. The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes at Lourdes, France, inspired Father Joachim Alexander Marie Meneuvrier to construct it between 1886 and 1888. The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes today offers services to everyone regardless of ethnicity or language after being first built to serve Indian Catholics and Tamil speakers. On January 14, 2005, the church received national monument status.
History
In 1888, the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was blessed and formally inaugurated. The first Tamil Catholic church in Singapore is here. The building site gets acquired in 1885, and on August 1, 1886, Sir Frederick A. Weld, G. C. M. G., and Bishop Gasnier, D.D., placed the cornerstone in a formal ceremony before a large gathering of clergy and laypeople. It is similar to the French Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. There is a Grotto inside the actual church that features life-size statues depicting the appearance of Our Lady to Saint Bernadette.
Many architecture historians give this structure the name Swan & Maclaren, and Father Nain, who created many other Catholic buildings in Singapore during the period, is more likely the architect.
Architecture
The church, a well-proportioned and exquisitely detailed neo-Gothic structure, is supposed to have been modeled after its eponymous Edifice in the French town of Lourdes.
The church was another refurbishment in 1986 after being painted in reds, greys, and yellows in 1982. This time the walls were painted white, and the doors get given a blue and white makeover. A S$1.75 million repair project gets carried out on the church building in 2009 to make it look like the original structure. The work gets finished in October 2010.
Sunday Mass and Schedule Times
The church serves as their primary place of worship for the neighborhood Tamil Catholics. But in recent years, the church has also provided services for Catholics of various racial backgrounds. Throughout the weekend, workweek, and public holidays masses in English and Tamil. Several sacraments are available, including Holy Communion, adult and child baptism, confirmation, Holy Matrimony, reconciliation, communion for the homebound, and anointing of the ill.
The ministries include those for St. Vincent de Paul, the Legion of Mary, migrant assistance, hospitality, communion, teaching, music, altar services, and altar adoration. All Catholics and Christians are welcome to visit the sacred space for the dead at Lourdes Hall of Repose.
All Catholics and Christians are welcome to visit the sacred space for the dead at Lourdes Hall of Repose. Its design, influenced by a structure of the same name in Lourdes, France, uses neo-Gothic architecture and is referred to as the Tamil Church or the Indian Church. The doors with lancet shapes, the spires, the crockets, the magnificent cornices, and the lovely rose window with an image of Our Lady of Lourdes are just a few of its distinguishing features.
Stained-glass windows that depict the 15 Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, life-size sculptures of Saint Bernadette and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and an angel blowing a trumpet above the porch are some of the other standout elements.
