Jurisdiction of Cochin Diocese (India): 1598-1605

The number of Portuguese Christians was gradually increasing in Chittagong. In 1598 there were 2500 Portuguese and their descendants in Chittagong and Arakan.  There were also Indian Christians. In 1599, Fr. Nicolau de Pimenta who was in Goa sent two Jesuits named Fr. Melchior da Fonseca and Fr. Andre Boves from Cochin to assist Fr. Francisco Fernandez and Fr. Domingo de Souza. At that time Chittagong belonged to the King of Arakan but the missionaries found it almost entirely in the hands of the Portuguese.

Fr. Francisco Fernandez managed to receive the letters-patent from the King of Arakan to preach the Christian religion and build churches in his kingdom. Four churches were built in the area of present Bangladesh in 1600 AD. The first church was formally consecrated on the 1^st January 1600 in Chandecan (presently Iswaripur, south of Satkhira) and it was dedicated to the ‘Holy Name of Jesus’. The second church and a residence were built in Chittagong with the funds from the King of Arakan and dedicated to ‘St. John the Baptist’ on the 24^th June 1600. Another church was built in Jamalkhan and was dedicated to the ‘Immaculate Conception’. The first mass was celebrated there by Fr. Fernandez on 8^th December 1600.

At the place of embarkation of the Portuguese, called ‘Kaukac’, one chapel was erected in 1600 AD but was washed away in the river Karnafuli.

The Dominicans were the second religious order to come to Chittagong. Dominican Monks Frey Gaspar d’ Assumpção and Frei Belchior da Luz came to Diang in 1601 at the request of some Portuguese from Chittagong. The Portuguese demanded a land from the King of Arakan to build a church and was given. The Dominican friars built a hermitage with a church. But the church was soon burnt down and sacked by the King of Arakan during his war on the Portuguese. Father Jean Barbé, OSB, pastor at Chittagong in 1843 wrote about the Diang church, ‘the spot may yet be traced’ and ‘the building appears to have been 89 feet in length and 40 in breadth’. He also mentioned that twelve Christian families were living close to the spot. An aged Muslim told him that all the villages near the spot used to be Christian but the people had migrated. The Dominican Monks did not remain long in Chittagong on account of the ‘danger and treacherous wars menacing their residence and the little protection it afforded’ and left in 1603.

The Jesuits used to send Bengali children to be educated in the great Jesuit College of Santa Fé in Goa which was afterwards known as the College of São Paulo. In the catalogue of the students of that college, dated 1559, and still preserved in the Royal Library of Ajuda, Portugal, several names of Bengali children are mentioned. (Download the PDF Book to read the full article). 

Five hundred years is quite a long time at a glance but it counts every single year, month, week, day, and hour, minute and second. We recall now the day when Christian faith was borne and brought by the Portuguese believers to our homeland.

Chittagong has been erected as a Diocese on May 25, 1927 detaching from the diocese Dhaka and was entrusted to Holy Cross of Canadian Province. Numerable important and significant events took place during the last 90 years.