Dejections

St Francis Xavier Church is old Catholic church in Soi
Mitrakam Bangkok, dedicated to the Jesuit who spent his life
spreading the gospel in Asia, although he never set foot in
Thailand.

Soi Mitrakam, Samsen is an area known for its Vietnamese
immigrants fleeing religious persecution from Vietnam. Two
wars with Vietnam in the reign of King Rama III brought more
Vietnamese to the area.

With the growing Catholic population there was a need for
another church besides the Immaculate Conception Church in
Soi Mitrakham. In 1834 King Rama III donated the land and
funds for another Catholic church in the area.

The church was named St Francis Xavier, after the Spanish-
born, French-educated Jesuit who came to the Far East to
spread the gospel. He traveled extensively to India, Malacca,
Moluccas or Spice Islands (presently the Maluku island group
in Indonesia) and Japan.

While trying to enter China, he died on Sanchian Island off the
coast on 3 December 1522, a day commemorated by the feast of
St Francis Xavier.

The original St Francis Xavier Church, a bamboo structure,
collapsed in a storm in 1837 and was replaced by new church,
this time made from timber.

Earlier in 1824, when King Rama III ascended the throne, his
younger brother Prince Mongkut was ordained as a monk and
remained so for the entire 27 years of the Third Reign. As a
monk, Prince Mongkut befriended Monsignor Pallegoix, a
French missionary, who was at the Immaculate Conception
Church in Soi Mitrakham.

The Monsignor taught the Prince Latin who in turn taught the
Monsignor Pali, the language of the Buddhist scriptures. This
association was to have far-reaching consequences for the
Catholic Church in Bangkok.

In 1851 when Prince Mongkut ascended the throne as King
Rama IV, he donated land for Bishop Pallegoix to build a new
St Francis Xavier Church.

A donation drive was made in 1853 to raise funds for a more
permanent church with European architecture. This new St
Francis Xavier Church took 10 years to complete.

Before he died, St Francis Xavier remarked that if he couldn’t
enter China directly, he would go to Siam (Thailand) and enter
China through Siam.

Though he never made it to Thailand, the St Francis Xavier
Church in Bangkok stands in his memory, a fitting honor to
the Apostle of the Indies.

The St Francis Xavier
Church is one of the old Bangkok Churches
covered in Tour Bangkok Legacies a
historical travel site on people, places and events that left their
mark in the landscape of Bangkok. The author Eric Lim, a
free-lance writer, lives in Bangkok Thailand.