Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )
The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Chinese: 圣母圣诞堂) is a Catholic church in Singapore. It is located at Upper Serangoon Road in the Hougang Planning Area, within Singapore's North-East Region.
The church was constructed in 1901, and is the oldest Catholic church for the Teochew community in Serangoon.
History
The origins of this Catholic church can be traced to an attap (thatched roof) chapel that was built in 1853 on Upper Serangoon Road, its congregation comprising mainly Teochew farmers living in Serangoon and Punggol. Subsequently, a brick chapel was built in the area and named St Mary's Church. Father Jean Casimir Saleilles, parish priest from 1881 to 1911, was responsible for building the present church in 1901.
Father Saleilles also helped to spread the Catholic faith to Johore. He founded the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (Johor), later renamed the Church of the Immaculate Conception and subsequently designated a cathedral. His good relationship with Sultan Ibrahim of Johor let the Sultan to present the Church in Johor, as well as the Church of the Nativity in Singapore, each a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church of the Nativity's statue still stands in front of the church building.
The Church of the Nativity founded many educational institutions in the region, including the Holy Innocents' High School, Hai Seng Girls' High School (now Hai Sing Catholic School), Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Punggol (now CHIJ Our Lady of the Nativity), and Montfort School (now Montfort Junior School and Montfort Secondary School).
The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was gazetted as a national monument on 14 January 2005.
Posts
Good day to you. I am an interested parent whose daughter wil be starting P1 next year. I am sourcing around for a good school for her. She is my 3rd child and my first two are now in JC2 and the Poly. They were both from Punggol Primary doing Chinese even though we are Indian Muslims. My girl is currently pursuing Tamil as her 2nd Lang and wd want to cont with the subject. My concern is whether she will find her fit in the school if given a vacancy and what is the support we could get fr the school. Obviously, we wd not want her to be influenced based on religion. Your professional comments will be greatly appreciated. I am a Senior Lecturer by profession who trains early childhood teachers from the certificate to the Degree level. I am willing to help conduct in-house training, seminars and wkshops for the teachers and parents if my gal is given a vacancy. I am now in the midst of completing my PhD at NIE. I could furnish my ed certificates for ur reference. I can be contacted at zaharafarouk@hotmail.com Thank-you very much.
ReplyDeleteHi Zahara,
ReplyDeleteGood day to you too! Thanks for dropping by the blog.
From what I can gather, you are sourcing for a Primary school for your daughter ( P1 next year).
Are you referring to Punggol Primary or CHIJ Primary?
Do let me know and I'll see how we can assist.