Dharavi Deanery

History of Dharavi Churches

BHAYANDER / KASHIMIRA / DONGRI / UTTAN / UTTAN-PALI / GORAI / CULVEM / MANORI

BHAYANDER
OUR LADY OF NAZARETH
(Between 1575-1578)

Fr. Hull dates the origin of the church of OL of Nazareth Bhayander to the year 1600 (1:10), but Fr. Meersman, following the information provided by the chronicler of the Franciscan order, Fr. Paulo da Trindade, prefers to advance the year of its foundation to the years between 1575-78. The Franciscan chronicler tells us that Fr. Antao de Nazareth, a Franciscan, was for many years the Rector of this church,the founder of which had been his own father whose name was Balthasar Gomes. It was he who at his own expense erected the church, as also the Rectory and endowed it with an income of 200 pardaos per year for the support of the Rector, who would function from there. (He had founded it) on land which he had chosen in the same village of Bhayander, which belonged to him and the Residence was built at the time Fr. Simao de Nazareth was Custos, who also laid the first stone" (Meersman, 1957:149).

Since Simao de Nazareth was Custos in the years 1575-78, Fr. Meersman concludes that the church was founded during these years (1971:201). In 1595 Fr. Antao de Nazareth was still the Vicar of this parish (Humbert, 1:5). In 1630, the parish of Bhayander consisted, as it seems to have from the very beginning, of the village of Bhayander only. There were then 855 adults and 224 children.

We do not know the extent to which the church at Bhayander suffered during the Portuguese-Maratha encounter. The Franciscans left, and the secular priests took over. Fr. Humbert finds a secular priest as Vicar of Bhayander and as having been there before 1768 (1:196); and there have been secular priests there ever since. The church was re-built in 1866, extended in 1890 and finally remodelled in 1910.

KASHIMIRA
ST. JEROME
(Parish first from 1595-1602 to 1739; again from 1975)

About two kilometres from the Checkpost between Greater Bombay and Thane District at the northern point of Salsette bland stands the church of St. Jerome on a little hill by the side of the Bombay-Ahmedabad highway. St. Jerome's is really the story of three churches.

The first church was built by the Portuguese Franciscans on this same site, which is practically on the boundary between the two villages of Kashi and Mira, sometime between 1595 and 1602 (Meersman, 1971:206). It was a wooden structure. In 1618, the island of Salsette was struck by a ferocious hurricane which sucked up the church and deposited its debris on all sides. We are told that the Rector of the church was at that time at Mt. Poinsur, and when he returned he found that his church had vanished!

The second church, Whose ruins are still visible today, appears to have been build soon afterwards by the Franciscans—before 1630, for it is spoken of by Fr. Paulo da Trindade. In 1630, he tells us, the parish consisted of the following villages: Cassi (Kashi), Mirem (Mira), Sanbojapal, Chene, Bandouli, Baroli and Tautoli. It then counted 1056 adults and 400 children.

Then came the Maratha invasion of the island in 1739, and the church of St. Jerome was not only lost to the Franciscans, but was also badly destroyed and left to decay. We have no indication to the effect that any Vicar of the neighbouring parishes was appointed to attend to it.

The present and third church of St. Jerome was built in the early part of this century. It stands at right angles to the ruined 1630 Franciscan church, facing west. Whatever survived of the rear portion of the old church was remodelled in such wise that the rear arch of the old church became the sanctuary of the new, and the sanctuary of the old church became the sacristy of the new. The statue of St. Jerome was preserved and placed on the main altar of the new building. This church was blessed and opened for public worship on December 26, 1926. This may be the reason why the feast of St. Jerome, which falls in September, is kept each year on this day in December. Then, St. Jerome church was filial to the Church of OL of Nazareth, Bhayander, and was served by the priests of that parish. There are two crosses in the compound: one 350 years old, in front of the ruined church; the other, erected in 1926, in front of the present church.

In June 1968, Fr. Martin de Souza was appointed Priest-in-charge of St. Jerome. He attended to this unit first from St. Thomas, Goregaon, and then from St. Pius College, Goregaon. He built the priest's residence in 1972-73 while in the Seminary, and moved into it in May 1977. In the meanwhile, St Jerome's was erected into an independent parish on June 10, 1975, with Fr. Martin de Souza as its first Parish Priest. Each year, on December 26, the feast of St. Jerome (and the one day Fair) is attended by more than 15,000 people of all communities and creeds.

DONGRI
OUR LADY OF BETHLEHEM
(About 1613)

As one travels from Bhayander to Utan today, one notices to the left soon after crossing a little creek, the hill of Imitri or Ermitri —the hill of the Hermitage. For on it stands the 80-foot ruin of the Jesuit Hermitage of Our Lady of Nazareth. Below in the valley, towards the Daugi hill, lies the parish church of OL of Bethlehem, once reputedly the largest on the island of Dharavi.

Fr. Conti asks the question: What led the Jesuits to buy the village of Dongri about the year 1613 and what led them to erect a Hermitage there? He then proceeds to offer a number of conjectures. It could be that Fr. Francisco Azavedo, the founder of Dongri church, was implementing Jesuit policy, for a dozen years before that, Fr. Acquaviva, the General of the Jesuits, had ordered all Jesuit houses to provide a couple of rooms, isolated from the community, for the use of Retreatants. Was the Hermitage a Retreat House? Or was it St. Francis Xavier's own personal tradition of withdrawing from time to time into solitude, still living after sixty years? Or did the lush valleys and hillsides of northern Dharavi promise the Jesuit Mission Bursar a variety of crops other than those to be found in the flatlands of Bassein? Or were the twin establishments in the valley and on the hilltop, a refuge and a watch-tower against pirates and other marauders?

Above the village of Tarouri was built the great church of OL of Beth-lehem that was able to hold a congregation of 900 persons. The three "pakharias" of Dongri, Tarouri and Palli, then had a population of 605 Christians and 3 non-Christians (a shop-keeper and his family).

After the Maratha conquest of Salsette, the parish was looked after by the secular clergy. The church appears to have been spared the ravages of the war, for Dongri had a Vicar of its own from 1760 on (Humbert I:196). Around 1950 a statue of OL of Fatima was donated by one of the parishioners and placed in the ruined Hermitage on the hill. This initiated a devotion towards

The image among the people of the area, and led to a partial renovation of the Hermitage so that today on October 18, the feast of OL of Fatima, Mass is celebrated on the hill, attended largely by the people of Dharavi. Leading up to the old Hermitage are crosses marking the 12 Stations of the Cross that once stood on Pali Hill, Bandra together with the chapel of OL of Mt. Calvary. Donated by Fonseca family of Bandra, these crosses were transplanted here by Fr. Rudolph D'Souza, Vicar of Dongri around 1965.

UTTAN
OUR LADY OF THE SEA
(Between 1634-1642)

Together with OL of Health, Versova and OL of Perpetual Succour, Manori, the Church of OL of the Sea at Utan, is one of the last Churches to be founded by the Franciscans in the 17th century. Relying on the same evidence that he used in the case of the previous two Churches, Fr. Meersman holds (1971:208) that this Church too was founded between 1634-5 and 1642: in 1630, Utan was still one of the villages within the parish of the Holy Magi, Gorai; Paulo da Trindade completed his chronicle between 1634-5; and the Church of Utan is first mentioned in the 1642 list of Franciscan Residences.

The Marathas did not completely destroy this church. From work carried out in this church in 1958. It seems that in 1787the church was repaired and raised. It appears that Dongri and Utan were looked after by the same Vicar (Humbert, 1:196, 11:15) until 1834 when each parish began having a Vicar of its own (Humbert, 11:40). Today the parish of Utan, consisting mainly of fisher-folk and agriculturalists, has the largest Catholic population (8,775) on the former island of Dharavi.

UTTAN-PALI
OUR LADY OF LOURDES
(1951)

When the Jesuits bought the village of Dongri about the year 1613 and set up their Hermitage there, Dongri comprised the three smaller village units of Dongri proper, Tarouri and Palli. The Catholics of Palli remained part of the parish of Dongri until the middle of this century.

In the 1898 Edition of The Catholic Directory of India, Palli is not mentioned in the list of Bombay parishes, but it appears as a Chapel in the 1901 Edition. This chapel was extended twice, the first time in 1925 and then again in 1974; in the latter year, the chapel was also renovated during the Vicarship of Fr. Servulus Vaz.

The Catholics of Palli were served by the Vicar of Dongri until 1951 when OL of Lourdes Church was raised to the status of an independent parish, comprising of the villages of Palli proper and Chowk. Fr. T. A. Gonsalves was its first Parish Priest. His successor. Fr. Macario Pereira in 1952 built the edifice called "Donum Dei" which serves as a parish house as well as an Oratory; in front of the church he erected the stature of Christ the King with a base designed in the shape of five altars.

GORAI
HOLY MAGI
(Between 1595-1602)

The brief history of the church of the Holy Magi at Gorai, a developing sea-side resort on the former island of Dharavi, is the story of two churches, one now in ruins, the other fully functioning.

The first church of Gorai, whose ruins lie concealed by trees by the side of the Vairala tank, is located about three-quarters of a mile north of the present church. It was built by the Franciscans sometime between 1595 and 1602 (Meersman, 1971:204), was badly damaged during the Maratha invasion, and has since fallen into deeper decay. In 1630, however, Fr. Paulo doTrindade reports, the parish comprised the three villages of Gorai, Utan and Manori and counted a Catholic population of 720 adults and 120 children. The new parish church of Gorai was build in 1810. (Hull, I:10).

While the villages of Utan and Manori were separated from Gorai and became independent parishes in the course of the 17th century itself, the Sacred Heart chapel built in 1859 at Culvem and situated less than half a kilometer from the present Gorai church, still functions as its sub-centre.

CULVEM
SACRED HEART
(1859)

The village of Culvem lies very close to Gorai on the northwest coast of the island of Salsette. In the previous section, we have seen that the church and parish of the Holy Magi at Gorai came to be founded sometime between 1595-1602 and was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Goa (Padroado). Sometime just after the middle of the 19th century, there began a movement in Gorai to pass over to the jurisdiction of Propaganda. The precise origins of this movement are obscure (cf. Hull, II: 344-346), but it is somehow connected with the name of a certain Fr. Mariano Bauttista Mascarenhas (Humbert, II:119).

Fr. Mascarenhas, a Goan priest, had been Vicar of Gorai from 1837 to 1853, when he refused at first to surrender the parish to his newly-appointed successor. The new Vicar was able to finally take possession of the parish of Gorai in December 1853. The frustrated priest then threatened to pass over to Propaganda with the neighbouring village of Culvem, where he had some landed property. He seems to have given his allegiance to the Vicar-Apostolic early in 1856, but it was only on December 5th of the same year that he received faculties from Bombay. By that time he had managed to get some 300 parishioners on his side. In 1859 he built a chapel, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, on a piece of land of his own in Culvem. Fr. Mascarenhas was appointed Vicar of this new parish "on the understanding that I (Fr. Mascarenhas) engage myself to give the whole property and church to the Vicar-Apostolic for the time being of Bombay." Thus were established two jurisdictions in this corner of the island of Salsette

The church, house and land passed into the possession of the Vicar-Apostolic before 1870. In 1871 it was enlarged or re-built. According to the Concordat of 1887, Culvem remained under Propaganda as an exempted church. But when the Double Jurisdiction came to an end in 1928, Culvem ceased to be a parish, and the church became filial to the older Church of Gorai and has remained so to this day. The Chapel was renovated seven or eight years ago.

MANORI
OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR
(Between 1634-1642)

Situated at the southern end of the former island of Dharavi, the present church at Manori has a marble slab inserted in its left wall, with an inscription in Portuguese, which, when translated reads:

"This church was constructed by the Portuguese in 1559. Later it was destroyed by the Marathas. It was repaired in 1815..."

According to Fr. Meersman, the author of this inscription erred as far as the church's year of foundation is concerned.

Manori does not occur in the Chapter list of 1595 nor is it Mentioned as a separate Rectorate (parish) by Fr. Paulo da Trindade. In 1630, Manori was one of the villages within the parish of the Holy Magi, Gorai. "Its name occurs for the first time in a list of Residences which the Franciscans founded in these regions before 1642" (1971:207-8). Hence he concludes that the church was founded between 1634-5, when Paulo da Trindade completed his chronicle and 1642.

Was the church at Manori completely destroyed by the Marathas in l739? It does not appear so, for according to the information provided by Fr. Humbert (I:142, 188) Vicars seem to have functioned Manori and at Gorai for a good part of a century, until the church was re-built in 1815 (At Gorai, a new church was built in 1810).