St Pauls Church
St Paul’s Church is an Anglican Church located in an area called Milagiriya in Colombo 04, Sri Lanka. It has its origins in the Portuguese era of the 16th century. Today it is one of the oldest and most historic churches within Colombo and is also well known due to the attached girls’ school. Here’s the story of how it came to be:
The Early Portuguese Church
Over four centuries ago, when the Portuguese invaded Sri Lanka – they caused mass destruction to the local religions and built Roman Catholic Churches to spread their discipline of Christianity. It is unknown why they chose to build a church at that specific location, but perhaps there may have been some sort of locally popular shrine there that they destroyed and built over – as was their habit.
The newly built church, at the time, was known as ‘Nossa Senhora dos Milagres’ or ‘Our Lady of Miracles’. The locals, due to their lack of knowledge and understanding about the Portuguese language, took to calling the church ‘Milagres’, which is actuality meant ‘Miracles’. With time the name evolved, and the entire area surrounding the church came to be known as ‘Milagiriya’.
The British Takeover
However, the ‘Church of Miracles’ did not last. Approximately a century later, Ceylon was invaded by the Dutch who suppressed the Portuguese and wrested control of the valuable trade route island from them. To consolidate their rule, the Dutch thoroughly destroyed all Portuguese monuments and churches that they could find. Nossa Senhora dos Milagres was one of these churches that fell under their hands. The consecrated land remained bare for over a century, until the British decided to invade and took control of Sri Lanka from the Dutch.
The Building of St Paul’s
In the 1840s, a large number of Anglican churches started to get constructed. The premise behind them was mainly to give places of worship for British countrymen, but also to persuade the native population to change their religion and follow the Anglican discipline.
St Paul’s Anglican Church, which was built over the ruins of the old Portuguese church in Milagiriya, was one such church built by the British. The construction of the church began in 1948 under the initiation of the British cleric, Reverend Joseph Thurston, who dedicated it to St Paul. It was completed in 1953 and consecrated by the Bishop of Colombo at the time. An attached industrial school was also built at the same time to give a place of learning for Anglican youth. However, the main attraction was the font within the church grounds, hailing from the time of the previous Portuguese church. Its water was said to have miraculous healing properties, and sick people from all over the country visited the church to experience this healing.
Between the 1890s to the early 1900s, the church flourished and many locals joined the congregation as well. This was also partly due to the efforts of the first two vicars, Rev. John Ford and Rev. Harry Marsh ,who worked within the neighborhood to help the natives at their times of need.
