St Paul’s church in Melaka, Malaysia, was built at the top of a hill in 1521 by the Portuguese nobleman Duarte Coelho after surviving an attack on his vessel and subsequent storm at sea. The original chapel, named Our Lady of the Hill, was presented in 1548 to St. Francis Xavier on behalf of the Society of Jesus. The priest spent much time here, praying and leading Sunday Mass.
The city of Melaka is rich in history, having been controlled at different times by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British Empires. When the Dutch took control of the city in 1641 they renamed the church to St. Paul’s Church, turning it into a Dutch Reformed Church. For the next 112 years it was the main place of worship, until the Dutch completed construction on the new Christ Church at the bottom of the hill.
In 1824 the British Empire gained control of the church and turned it into a warehouse for gun powder.
There is a statue of St. Francis in front of the church that was built in 1952 to celebrate the 400 year anniversary of the saint, who used the church as a base for missionary trips to the Far East from 1545-1552. St. Francis’s body was temporarily buried in the church for nine months after his death in 1553, before being moved to Goa, India. The open grave in the church still exists to mark the spot of the burial and the metal grating covering the open tomb can be seen slightly in the panorama. The right forearm of the statue is now missing. Supposedly the day after the statue was consecrated a tree fell on it, severing the right arm. Coincidentally, St. Francis’s right forearm was removed after his death by the Catholic Church in 1641 as a relic and is still displayed in the Jesuit Church of the Gesu in Rome, Italy.
The tombstones adorning the inner walls of the church belong mainly to Dutch and Portuguese nationals.