Thursday, November 09, 2006

The College General Major Seminary Chapel of the Sacred Heart


Here's some pics from the Major Seminary for West Malaysia, covering the Dioceses of Penang and Malacca-Johore and the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur.
The current seminary is actually the old retreat house of the French MEP Fathers and is formally known as Mariophile. The Seminary Chapel and the old Fathers' House are part of the original buildings. The House now houses the Seminary Museum containing relics of a bygone era such as birettas, candle sticks and a Monstrance Throne. =)
There are many many altar stones from the post V2 years as well, when the High Altars, built with the pennies earned by the sweat of the simple faithful were stripped and smashed.

The former seminary, located on prime land, was sold by the Bishop and converted into a multi billion ringgit mall/residential complex with a hotel coming up soon.

The former St. Joseph's Teacher's Training College, for the Christian School Brothers, with its Chapel was also sold recently and is due to be demolished for a planned commercial development project.

The College General Major Seminary is about a 10 min walk from my house.
Most of the daily Masses are early in the morning. However, the Monday Masses are in the evening so I make it a point to try to rush home from the office(about 20KM away) to join the Fathers and seminarians for Mass as well as the chanting of Vespers.

The pic above shows the chapel from the field. Its the building on the top left corner. The residential block for the Fathers and students can seen on the right. This is one of 3 similar blocks but the other 2 are empty of course, due to the drop in vocations.





The interior, from the main door, can be seen next. The seminarians were setting up the Chapel for Mass.

Above the door, is the stained glass rose window depicting the Blessed Virgin, Crowned and with the Christ Child being adored by the saints and angels in Heaven.

Part of the vaulted ceiling can be seen as well.



A close-up.



We see the main altar next. The Tabernacle, is now veiled. Need to get a pic of that.
Above the Tabernacle, the statue of the Sacred Heart.



A close-up.



Note the hanging Tabernacle lamp.

Here's an example of the Stations of the Cross, showing Station 12, the Crucifixion.



Next, we can see the South Side Altar. Above is the image of St. Phillip Minh, a student of the college who was martyred in Vietnam. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988.



The old High Altar can be seen below.
The relics of many saints and martyrs are placed here for veneration.


On the step before the altar is the memorial to another former student, Fr. Paul Chau, a martyr.


The plaque commemorating the College Saints can be seen below:



Saint Jacques Chastan was a former priest in my parish.
Cool eh?

The North Side Chapel contains another altar with the relics of the martyrs and saints.



The statue of Mary, with a baldaquin.



More pics from the Seminary to come.

3 comments:

Mark Tan said...

hmm... nice to see you putting up some stuff about the chapel.. hehe.. why didn't you talk about the cannons near by and where they are faced?
=>

Andrew said...

You mean the one facing you know where and aimed at you know who, ready blow them up? =)

John said...

Can we still visit the museum and is the chapel open for public?