Novena Church
| Church of Saint Alphonsus | |
|---|---|
Novena Church
|
|
| Basic information | |
| Location | 300 Thomson Road, Novena, Singapore |
| Geographic coordinates | 1°19′19″N 103°50′34″E / 1.321812°N 103.842786°E |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Rite | Latin |
| District | Archdiocese of Singapore |
| Country | Singapore |
| Leadership | Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer |
| Patron | Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori |
| Website | [2] |
| Completed | 1950 (Current Building) |
The Church of Saint Alphonsus, or Novena Church as it is more popularly known, is a Catholic church in Singapore located at 300 Thomson Road. It is not a parish church and is under the care of the Redemptorists. The name Novena Church refers to the novena prayer devotion, for which this church is famous. At the Church of Saint Alphonsus the Saturday novena services usually attract more people than the Sunday Mass services (Catholics generally go to their own parishes to attend Sunday Mass). Having popularised the novena devotion sessions in Singapore, it draws people from the entire country and beyond. The devotions gave name to the surrounding area, Novena.
The Church of Saint Alphonsus was founded in 1935.
The current church was built in 1950 and was designed by the architectural firm Swan and Maclaren. Porticoes were added in the late 1950s to cater to the large and growing number of devotees coming for the popular Saturday novena devotions. The side walls that existed earlier in the main church hall were removed and grilles added. The church is currently undergoing renovations and is expected to be completed by October 2017. After 33 months of renovation and spending SGD 54 millions, Novena Church's redevelopment is finally completed. The church had reopened on 29 September 2017 with striking new Gothic-style.
The novena devotions to Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a popular novena devotion held each Saturday and which regularly draws thousands of devotees from all faiths to the Church. They were started by the Redemptorists in 1949 in a small chapel and initially saw only a handful of people attending the sessions. However, news of the devotion and that of many answered petitions soon led to the rapid rise in the number of devotees attending. News of the devotion were mostly spread by word of mouth, but there were the few car stickers distributed by the Church with the caption "Have You Been To The Novena?". As such, the increase in the number of devotees meant that the church building had to be expanded and the porticoes at the sides of the main Church building were added as a result. Currently, there are 10 half-hourly sessions held each Saturday with each session drawing on average 3,000 devotees, with it not being uncommon to find a sizeable number of non-Catholics among the many devotees.
...
Wikipedia