St. Michael's Church, Mumbai, Mumbai (Bombay)

History

The original St. Michael's Church is believed to have been built in 1534 by António do Porto, a church builder of the Franciscan Order. When the Marathas conquered Salsette in 1739, Our Lady of the Mount chapel in Bandra was destroyed by the Portuguese at the instance of the British so that its location remained secret to the Marathas. In this time, St. Michael's Church was the refuge place for the image of the Blessed Virgin from the chapel. The image remained in St. Michael's till 1761, when it was moved to its present structure in Bandra.In 1853, St. Michael's Church witnessed a struggle between Bishop Anastasius Hartmann and the padroado order. St. Michael's was in control of the vicars apostolic for nearly 60 years. In 1853, a discontented group decided that the control be handed over to the padroado party. To prevent this, Hartmann as the vicars's leader, went to the church and declared that "he would rather die a martyr than surrender the church to the schismatics". Hartmann and his followers stayed in the church with enough food and water for 15 days. Hartmann's opponents had laid "siege" to the church in this period, blocking all entrances. On the 15th day, civil authorities intervened and insisted that the church be reopened. Following this, Hartmann lost control of the church, passing it to padroado order.In his 1917 book, Sheppard remarks that St. Michael's was situated on the Portuguese Church Street and is one of the four "only known Portuguese buildings; and of these no distinguishing original feature survives, as they were much rebuilt". The present structure of St. Michaels was rebuilt in 1973.