JourneyFix Travels & MakeMyVisit® are sole Proprietorship Firm & Have No Affiliation with Other Travel
Mahim Church stands as one of the oldest Catholic churches as well time-honored and still existing Portuguese buildings in the city of Mumbai. The church has been stationed at Mahim, on the crossroads of L.J. Road and Mahim Causeway. Due to its location, St. Michaels Church is also informally known as Mahim Church. The church is popular for Novenas, held on Wednesdays, which is visited by thousands.
The church was initially built in 1534 by Antonin do Porto and with time has been rebuilt quite a number of times, the present structure dates back to 1973. The church has also served as a safe haven to popular icon of the Virgin Mary from Our Lady of the Mount chapel, Bandra from 1739 to 1761. In 1853, the Church witnessed a face-off between vicars Apostolic and the Portuguese padroado to have a control over the Church.
In recent history, dating to 27 June 2008, thousands of devotees visited the Church to witness a reported “bleeding” Jesus Christs portrait, which was termed as a “miracle” by devotees. Though on further examination, there picture showed no traces of blood.
The church is opened for the adherents of other faiths who assemble to pay respect to the Virgin Mary and attend mass, which is held at every Wednesday. It is believed that visiting the Church on the nine consecutive Wednesdays (Novena) will grant their wishes. Devotees offer floral garlands and recite prayers before the image. Some of them offer wax figures of what they desire, for example, a wax house.
As assumed by Father Hugh Fonseca, around 50,000 devotees visit the church every week making it one of the most frequented destinations. The tradition of weekly Novena service was started in 1948, when a priest Fr. Edward Fernandes from Mumbai noticed a similar ritual celebrating Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at Belfast, Northern Ireland, during his visit to Europe. Initially, only two services were held every Wednesday, but at present from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm, the thirteen services are held in various languages: English, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil and Hindi.
How to reach Mahim Church You can get down at Mahim station by a taxi towards Mahim church.