CHAPTER X

Catholic Churches and Schools in Hongkong

Among the forces which influence the lives of men one of the strongest is that of religion. Let me therefore devote a chapter to the religious activities of my compatriots in Hongkong, where complete toleration of creeds and customs has been such a marked feature of British rule.

The Portuguese have clung in simple faith to the religion of their forefathers, and the effect of the teaching of the Catholic Church may be traced in the very fabric of their lives – in the formation of their character, in their mental outlook, and in their mode of living. None are to be found more zealous in the Christian faith than the Portuguese, and wherever they have gone, the Catholic Church has set its roots and flourished.

Born and bred as the Portuguese pioneers of Hongkong had been in the intensely Catholic atmosphere of Macao, it was to be expected that the mental attitude and ethical traditions of their children and grandchildren should have been Catholic and that they should have accepted and maintained the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. Further, it can confidently be affirmed that no Catholic cause in Hongkong has failed to win prompt and willing support from the Portuguese community.

It is well, therefore, to trace the origin and growth of the Catholic Church in Hongkong, its influence on the Portuguese there, and the support which the Portuguese gave to the priests who were entrusted with the task of establishing the Church in Hongkong.

An article in the well-known Catholic journal, The Rock, 98 relates that “in the year 1839 a certain Mr. Board, a Catholic, sent from Hongkong an appeal for Catholic priests to the Procurator of Propaganda then resident at Macao.99 He told the Procurator, Mgr. Theodore Joset, of the sad plight of the Catholic (Irish) soldiers, owing to the fever which was raging among the troops. Four or five Catholics were dying daily without spiritual ministrations as there was no priest in the new settlement. ” There was a shortage of priests in the Macao Diocese at the time, and as Hongkong formed part of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Macao, the inability of the Portuguese Missions to send priests to Hongkong provided Mgr. Joset with the opportunity he required. “On April 22nd, 1841, Propaganda issued a decree removing Hongkong from the jurisdiction of Macao … commending all spiritual care and administration of the said Island and the neighbouring country to the extent of six leagues to the Rev. Procurator of the Sacred Congregation resident at Macao … with faculty of sending there such missionaries as he will judge convenient.” The article mentioned goes on to state that Mgr. Joset kept the decree secret and again approached the Portuguese ecclesiastical authorities at Macao asking them to send priests to Hongkong, and that when the Portuguese Mission could not comply with the request, the Italian priest thereupon “published the decree by which Hongkong came under the immediate jurisdiction of Propaganda and by which he, as its first Prefect Apostolic, was empowered to make provision for the spiritual needs of the new colony.”

Mgr. Joset left Macao and reached Hongkong on the 3rd March, 1842. He chose a spot for his church and received a grant of land from the Government of the new colony upon which he “erected a structure of matsheds for Catholic service. But even on the first day on which it was opened this structure was insufficient for the congregation, consisting of soldiers and others (especially Portuguese) who had already begun to settle in the new colony.”

The first Mass in Hongkong was celebrated on the 26th February, 1842, in a matshed, the officiating priest being Father Michael Novarro. Four months later the first Catholic church building of any pretensions, a brick structure erected by Mgr. Joset, began to be built.

The article above mentioned goes on to state that the church in brick cost about $7,000, of which sum $4,000 was subscribed by the Portuguese and English-speaking residents of Hongkong, Mr. Antonio Freitas, a Portuguese, contributing $500 towards the building fund, with a later donation of $800. The church was situated off Wellington Street in the lower part of the town, in the midst of the homes of the Portuguese community at the time, and remained in use for fourteen years.

With the withdrawal of the greater part of the garrison from Hongkong, when the need for troops for the China campaign was over, the growing Portuguese community formed a ready-made congregation for the Catholic Mission. For many years they were the mainstay of the Church in Hongkong. Thus was established a connection between the Portuguese residents and the Catholic Mission, an affiliation which has been as advantageous to the Portuguese as it has been beneficial to the Catholic clergy of Hongkong.

The growing needs of the Catholic community in Hongkong led to the construction, in 1856, of a larger church building on the site at Wellington Street. It was Father Ambrozi, Prefect Apostolic, who was mainly instrumental in getting this done. The new church and the adjoining mission house were, unfortunately, destroyed in a fire which broke out in that part of the town on the 19th October, 1859. A subscription for replacement of the destroyed Church buildings met with a very ready response, the Portuguese who formed the major part of the Catholic community contributing liberally. A fine new church was built, but a quarter of a century later this edifice, too, was found to be much too small, for

“it had become surrounded by buildings which left no room for the expansion necessitated by the growth of the Catholic population, which had trebled since the year in which the first Cathedral building was built. Bishop Raimondi realised, therefore, that the time had arrived for him to seek a more extensive building area, and he was fortunate in being able to acquire the splendid site of the present Cathedral in Glenealy. This new Cathedral cost $120,000, a very considerable sum, even for a building of this type, in those days. This sum was met by proceeds of the sale of the old lot in Wellington Street and by subscriptions collected in Hongkong and North and South America by Bishop Raimondi and Fr. Borgazzi. The names of the principal Hongkong donors are inscribed on marble tablets set in the great granite columns of the interior. The building was designed by Mr. Crowley [Crawley & Co.], but his plans were somewhat modified by Father Vigano. The building was solemnly dedicated on the 7th December, 1888.”100

Dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, the Cathedral is an example of continental Gothic, with a tower at the intersection of the cruciform structure. The principal features of the interior are the beautiful altars. That of the Immaculate Conception is of Italian marble, the statue over it being presented by Mr. and Mrs. J. M. E. Machado. The altar dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, also of Italian marble, was presented by my father, Mr. V.E. Braga, and his brothers. A third altar, dedicated to St. Joseph, was a gift from King Victor Emmanuel II, grandfather of the present King of Italy. The memory of St. Francis Xavier, the great pioneer missionary of the Far East, is commemorated in a small altar of Italian workmanship. The Bishop’s throne is also from Italy, the work being Venetian. The organ, though small, is a fine instrument of Italian make; it was presented to the Cathedral by the Portuguese community of Hongkong. The pictures representing the Stations of the Cross were painted at an atelier in Rome. The marble tiling of the floor was the gift of Mr. A. M. L. Soares and Mr. Choa Po-sien. The names of donors to the building fund are inscribed in marble slabs in the building, and it is interesting to observe the many names of the Portuguese who contributed substantial sums, as it was fitting that they should.

A much criticised modification to the original plans of the Cathedral was the placing of the campanile (which, incidentally, was for many years one of the tallest structures in Hongkong) in its present position some distance from the Cathedral proper. The original design called for the campanile to form part of the Cathedral building.

The Cathedral compound is small, but it has been the scene over the years of many religious processions and ceremonies, at tended by large numbers of Catholics, Portuguese invariably taking a prominent part. In the same grounds, also, the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s annual al fresco fetes and bazaars – which as the years went by became more and more popular with both children and adults – used to be held. The various stalls and side-shows were in nearly all cases got up and conducted by enthusiastic Portuguese ladies and gentlemen.

Leaving the Cathedral, to which I propose to make further reference elsewhere in this book, I have now to refer briefly to the various churches established from time to time by the Catholic Mission to serve the needs of widely separated sections of the Catholics in Hongkong.

In the 1870’s, St. Francis Chapel was erected at Wanchai, for long the residential area of the seafaring population of the Colony, from the days when sailing ships still frequented Hongkong Harbour. The old chapel has since been enlarged and is now known as St. Francis Church.

To serve the Portuguese who in the old days lived in the West Point area, for many years a large warehousing district, St. Anthony’s Church was built. The Portuguese did not remain in West Point for very long and in course of time moved away to other parts of the Colony, principally to Kowloon. St. Anthony’s Church then ceased to fill a need and so was pulled down in the 1920’s. On the site it occupied there now stands the fine new Government school for Chinese boys, known as King’s College.

In Kowloon, the unpretentious Rosary Church was for some years the spiritual home of all Portuguese residing on the mainland. The Portuguese population of Kowloon increased so rapidly that Rosary Church was soon hardly big enough to accommodate the large numbers of the faithful attending it. With the extension of Kowloon, chiefly in the direction of Homuntin and Kowloon Tong, where numerous Portuguese families made their homes, it became imperative for another church to be built on the mainland. This time, with funds subscribed by Portuguese and others, a larger church building was erected. St. Teresa’s Church, with its attractive tower, is now a prominent landmark on Prince Edward Road.

Yet another church building has been erected in recent years by the Catholic Mission to serve the Catholics, the majority of whom are Portuguese. This is St. Margaret Mary’s Church near the Race Course at Happy Valley.

Though intended primarily for Catholics in the garrison stationed at Hongkong, St. Joseph’s Church, on Garden Road, has always had many Portuguese in its congregation, and its choir has been composed largely of Portuguese singers, both men and ladies.

Closely associated with, and in close proximity to, the Cathedral and St. Joseph’s Church have been the Catholic Union Club and St. Patrick’s Club, respectively. The membership of both these clubs has included Portuguese, those of the Catholic Union Club being almost wholly Portuguese.

I shall have occasion to refer at greater length, later in this book, to several of the churches mentioned above, as well as numerous associations, sodalities, and leagues, composed more or less of Portuguese. They have been in existence for many years in Hongkong, all strengthening the already strong ties existing between the Portuguese community and their Mother Church.

For the first half-century after the setting up of the Catholic Mission in Hongkong, the congregations of the Catholic churches were almost entirely Portuguese. The students attending the Catholic schools were also nearly all Portuguese. Indeed, until the XXth century, when the gradually increasing number of Chinese converts and the larger numbers of British, French and other Catholics broadened the scope of the work of the Catholic clergy in Hongkong, the priests had few friends outside the Portuguese community.

I remember some of the older members of the Portuguese community who maintained the closest friendship with the Catholic clergy, friendships begun in earlier days and continued till death thinned the ranks of the pioneering citizens of Hongkong, on the one hand, and of the priests, on the other.

One of them was my grandfather, Mr. Delfino Noronha, in whose home some of the priests were frequent and welcome guests. A regular, weekly guest was Father Vigano, the Roman Catholic naval and military chaplain, who in his younger days had fought under the famous Garibaldi. He was an excellent conversationalist and was very popular with the younger folk.

Another of Mr. Noronha’s close friends was the respected Bishop Volonteri, who was responsible for the drawing up of the map of the San On District in the New Territories. The map was published by the firm of Noronha & Company, and it formed the basis for the survey of the northern districts of the New Territories when Mr. (later Sir) James A. Stewart Lockhart was appointed Commissioner of the New Territories following the leasing of the area to the British by the Chinese Government under the Kowloon Convention of 1898.

The Portuguese community and the Catholic Church in Hongkong cannot, in a broad sense, be considered apart from each other. They have grown together, from the early years of Hongkong’s existence as a British colony to the present time. I recall speeches by Bishop Raimondi and Bishop Pozzoni – both of whom knew intimately the difficulties under which the Portuguese laboured – acknowledging the faithful, loyal and unstinted help given by the Portuguese members of their flock to the good work of the Church in Hongkong.

Something has been said in Chapter IX regarding social services, but it may not be out of place to mention here an important contribution by members of the Portuguese community to another public service, namely, the provision of economical – and in many cases free – funerals for the Catholic poor in Hongkong, Funerals were becoming an expensive ceremony – Hongkong had already shown many signs of being a place primarily for the rich – when the late Rev. Father Peter de Maria, Pro-Vicar Apostolic in Hongkong and Rector of St. Francis Church at Wanchai, drew up a scheme devised at reducing the heavy burden of cost on the poorer members of the Catholic community of laying to rest their dear ones who had passed away. At a meeting of the Catholics of St. Francis Church, Father Peter de Maria put forward his scheme for Christian burials. He was ably supported by Mr. Henry Dixon, President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and Mr. M. Fernandes, a charitable member of the Wanchai congregation, and the scheme was adopted.

Resulting from that meeting the St. Raphael’s Society was “formed by members of the Confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Francis Church, Wanchai, in 1919, its object being to provide, when practicable, free Christian burial to all those who died in poor circumstances. Upon application the Society may undertake the burial of others than those unable to pay for their funeral. All Catholics are eligible for membership.”

A service of like nature has been given in Macao from its earliest days by the charity organisation, the Santa Casa da Misericordia. In carrying on the traditions of the Macao institution, St. Raphael’s Society in Hongkong has followed a worthy example.

The Society started with a modest hand-drawn hearse, but by 1940 was in a position to acquire a motor-driven vehicle. The coffins supplied have been of different qualities, from expensive oak caskets with trimmings, for the well-to-do, to plain China-fir coffins for those whose families have been unable to pay any fee at all. The principle upon which the Committee have based their charges is that the rich should pay for the poor. This policy has been very successful indeed, and through careful and excellent management the St. Raphael’s Society has rendered splendid service to the Catholics in Hongkong.

Nearly all the members of the Committee of St. Raphael’s Society in Hongkong have been Portuguese and they have performed their onerous services gratuitously.

The Portuguese have been just as prominent in all the other Catholic benevolent institutions in Hongkong, following the example of the older eleemosynary societies of Macao. St. Raphael’s Society and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are concrete examples of their work in this direction.

The influence of Macao has likewise been a compelling one in the more essentially religious aspects of the life of the Hongkong Portuguese. In no other direction have the close ties of affection between the Portuguese communities of the neighbouring cities been more apparent than in the observances during religious festivals. On such occasions, public gatherings at church and in processions are an important feature of the community of the Portuguese in Macao; this has been repeated in Church observances in Hongkong.

A student of ethology might discern in the close connection between the Catholics of Hongkong and the religious observances of Macao a subject of interest. I have in mind the pilgrimages made by Hongkong Portuguese to Macao on the occasion of a number of processions. The most important of these is the ceremony connected with the Procession of the Cross, held each year on the first Saturday and Sunday of Lent. At this procession, in which vast throngs of the faithful take part, the Saviour’s image is borne through the streets of Macao. Of recent years similar processions have been held at the Cathedral, at Rosary Church, and other churches in Hongkong, where the number of Portuguese taking part is a striking commentary on the religious zeal of these people.

One has only to observe the large numbers of Portuguese communicants at Mass every Sunday, and also the intense interest displayed by Hongkong Portuguese in the annual Lenten Retreat – many of them attending the services after a hard day’s work – to realise that there is a great deal of deep religious feeling among them. The Retreats, formerly conducted by the Redemptionist Fathers from Manila, and by Jesuit preachers latterly, last for a week or longer, with services every morning and evening at the Hongkong Cathedral.

All Souls’ Day (2nd November) is dedicated each year to the remembrance of dear ones departed. It is the custom for floral tributes to be laid on the graves in Catholic cemeteries on this day, and, as a rule, the ceremony of blessing the graves is conducted by the Bishop himself. This day is regularly and faithfully observed by the Portuguese of both Hongkong and Macao.

Christmas has its own special religious ceremonies, principal among which are those of the Midnight Mass, and they are all observed with the utmost devotion. This used to be the greatest day in the Church calendar for Hongkong Portuguese, and I well remember the many ceremonies formerly connected with it. The women folk, and those of the men who could do so, attended Mass every morning for many days before Christmas; we observed days of fasting and abstinence with great scrupulousness; and for days on end special preparations were made for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, when everyone at church received Holy Communion. The Crib, showing the Infant Christ in a manger, was installed in every home, and the children were made to feel that Christmas was, in a special way, their day. The grown-ups took special pains to make the children happy. There was one rich old miser, whose name I will not mention, who could never be induced to give anything to anyone, but on Christmas Day he gave five cents to every child he met. The old tradition worked a miracle even in the case of the old skinflint.

I must deplore the changes which have taken place in recent years. No longer do the children’s interests count for much. The grownups have come to adopt new practices. The old celebrations in the homes have been going by the board. A few presents are given to the children, who are left to go their own way, a few decorations are put up in the home, but the cabarets and the hotels have become the venue for parties in place of the good old family festivities, with their sober and salutary influence on the younger generation. I notice that the sensible Portuguese Christmas customs are dying out in Hongkong. It would be good if an earnest attempt were made to preserve them, and thus secure their perpetuation, a suggestion which I commend to those responsible for the moral upbringing of Portuguese youth in the British colony.

At the end of the year, a Te Deum is sung in the Catholic Cathedral and in all the parish churches of Hongkong, just as it is done in Macao, when the congregations join in offering thanks to God for all favours and blessings received and enjoyed during the year. The Portuguese generally are particularly careful to attend this New Year’s Eve ceremonial, but here again I have detected a decided falling-off of interest on the part of some of my fellows in the community. After the service, friends greet one another and exchange hearty good wishes for the New Year. The old-fashioned families then go quietly home, and there in the blessed atmosphere of the family hearth each family holds a reunion. Prayers are offered, when the head of the family returns thanks to the Almighty for the preservation of the family group and for benefits received. A “Happy New Year” is proposed, the little ones are put to bed, the elder children possibly go to some community gathering of the younger men and women, but the elder folk remain at home to welcome, with prayer, the coming of the New Year, their hearts filled with thanks for God’s mercies to their children, and with confident hope in the future.

As I look back on scenes such as these in the life of the Portuguese community in Hongkong, I am reminded of Burns’s immortal lines:

Then homeward all take off their several way;
      The youngling cottagers retire to rest:
The parent-pair their secret homage pay,
      And proffer up to Heav’n the warm request,
      That He who stills the raven’s clamorous nest,
And decks the lily fair in flowery pride,
      Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best,
For them and for their little ones provide;
But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside.

Is it to be wondered at that I regret the introduction of new ways and new uses in place of the good old customs which the Portuguese brought with them from Macao to Hongkong in the days of long ago?

These lines by Burns also remind us of the family gatherings over prayers, for no attempt to delineate an average Portuguese family in Macao or Hongkong would be complete without a description of the family prayers and devotions which are an important part of life in most Portuguese homes- and especially of the old-fashioned homes. The family group assembles in the parent’s room, as a rule after the evening Angelus. The senior feminine member generally leads the prayers, and the responses are said by the others in unison before the little family altar (no matter how humble, each home has its family altar.) The whole of the five mysteries of the rosary are recited. At the conclusion, upon rising, the children in turn take the right hand of their parents and kiss them “Good-night”, invoking their blessing in a single word: “Benção“, to which the parents reply: “Deus dei graça” (“May God bless you.”)101

The value of the simple, homely observances of the Portuguese cannot be overstated. They are part of their national inheritance – to be prized as something exceedingly precious and to be handed down intact to their children and their children’s children. Above all, it is devoutly to be hoped that their fealty to their Mother Church will remain ever unchanged.

In Hongkong, among other races of varying temperaments and traditions, the Portuguese have fitted themselves into the common community life, and if, possessing the Latin temperament themselves, they have been swayed at times by motives too impassioned and impulsive, they have, nevertheless, brought with them all the fervent loyalty inherited from their forefathers. Often too shy to assert themselves, partly because of a consciousness of deficient education, they have nevertheless plodded along faithfully and doggedly and have become an inherent part, and a useful part, of Hongkong’s cosmopolitan community. The one thing which has characterised their individuality as a community in Hongkong has been their steadfast adhesion to the faith of their fathers.

A keen British observer, Sir George Young, has sought to analyse some of the traits of the Portuguese:102

“We may perhaps find the national religion of the Portuguese,” says he, “in their humane conscience and their consciousness of a common humanity, for both are national characteristics. An appeal to the charity or to the courtesy of a true Portuguese is unfailing; if we except those urban classes in whom circumstance, as in every race, have extinguished their national characteristics. In the same way an appeal to the humanity of the Portuguese, as a whole, has never been in vain. The humanity of the Portuguese is especially evident in their treatment of foreigners, inferiors, criminals or animals.”

Sir George had only to add their traditional hospitality, which is proverbial, as all who have been entertained by the Portuguese can bear out, to complete his picture.

May no harmful new doctrines be permitted to work their way into the deep Christian faith of these people; and may educational influences be directed towards the cultivation of all that is good and elevating in the character of the Portuguese in Hongkong and Macao!

One of the most important of Catholic principles is the provision of a Christian education for children in Catholic schools. There were hardly any children of British, Portuguese or other foreign parentage in Hongkong during the first two or three years of the Colony’s existence, when living conditions in the settlement were notoriously unwholesome and unhealthy. However, as early as 1844 the Catholic Mission opened its first school in Hongkong, designed to provide some instruction in the English language, principally for boys of Portuguese parentage. Recognising the difference between the standards of Portuguese and British lads, the Mission opened a separate school for British children in 1845, under the charge of a Mr. Caine. This school had seven students at the beginning. In the following year Mr. Caine was succeeded by Dr. A. Batachi, who realised how unpractical it was to keep a school for British children only, when the number of students was as limited as it was. Accordingly, he admitted children of other nationalities as well, and the school had then a mixed enrolment of twenty-one pupils, some being European and others Chinese. The need for another school led to the opening by the Catholic Mission, some two years later, of an Anglo-Portuguese school, with eighteen Portuguese boys, and Father Girard as headmaster.

Other changes followed, and from this period onward educational facilities for boys were firmly established. Portuguese youths in Hongkong thus obtained an all-round education of sorts, sufficient to enable them to secure employment with the Government and with British and other firms in Hongkong.

It is a sad reflection that, during this time and for many years after, Macao suffered from a deficiency of properly organised schools for Macaense boys, even in the Portuguese language. In spite of the interest shown by some, and subscriptions in later years from the Portuguese community of Hongkong, it was a very long time before really satisfactory educational facilities were made available for the youth of Macao.

On the other hand, the schools in Hongkong improved from decade to decade. In the years 1849 and 1850, three more schools were opened in the British colony, all being for boys. The teachers were, in every case, members of the Portuguese community possessing a knowledge of the English language. The standard of these schools could not have been very high, but they filled a need, and were a move in the right direction, and it was with the indifferent knowledge of English received in these schools that so many of the Portuguese found employment.

All the Catholic schools in Hongkong came under the personal influence and direction of Rev. Father Felix McMahon, with Father Prudence Marie Girard as special delegate, to minister to the Portuguese Catholics in Hongkong. Not long afterwards, Rev. Father D. L. Ambrozi was nominated Prefect Apostolic in Hongkong, with Rev. Father T. A. Raimondi as Vice-Prefect.

Father Raimondi (later Bishop Raimondi) enjoyed a long and distinguished association with the Catholic educational movement in Hongkong. He had a warm place in his heart for the Portuguese community, and took a special interest in the education of Portuguese lads.

He occupied among Catholic educationalists the same prominent and fruitful position which Dr. Legge, whom he so much resembled also in character and shrewdness, occupied among the Protestants. Bishop Raimondi, however, became the strongest opponent in the Colony of that educational secularism which Dr. Legge had established and to which the Protestant missionaries meekly submitted for many years thereafter. From the time of Father Raimondi’s arrival, the English Roman Catholic Schools, which had previously commenced to supply local offices with English-speaking Portuguese clerks, redoubled their efforts.103

Churches and schools are essential amenities contributing to the expansion of any community, and the rapid growth of the new Catholic educational institutions in Hongkong, at a time when there was a paucity of schools at Macao, was one of the factors that led, I believe, to a greater exodus of the Portuguese from Macao to Hongkong. This was particularly noticeable as the school education in Hongkong fitted young men to earn a livelihood in the British colony. Nor did the Portuguese, at any time, question the nature of the education which the Catholic schools provided. Conscious of the material advantages gained from such education side by side with their compliance with the prescriptions of the Church’s decrees (which do not permit, except in special circumstances, attendance by Catholics at non-Catholic schools), the Portuguese were happy to pay the modest fees necessarily charged by the Mission schools.

On the 27th November, 1858, there appeared in the Hongkong Government Gazette a notification about Government schools. It informed parents and guardians that schools for gratuitous instruction had been established by the Government of Hongkong, within the city of Victoria and throughout the Island.104

At that time the Catholics had no free schools in Hongkong for European children, but there was a free Chinese school, with 8 Catholic pupils, and an orphanage for Chinese girls at L’Asile de la Sta. Enfance, which was then the only Catholic charitable establishment in the Colony.

With the coming of the Sisters of the Canossian Order, schooling for girls was placed on a better footing. It was in April, 1860, that a band of six earnest Sisters arrived in Hongkong from Canossa, Italy, to found a branch of the Mother-house of their Order in Hongkong. Sister Maria Stella was leader of the group. She was later appointed Mother Superior of the Canossian Sisters in Hongkong, where she laboured for many years and where she died at over eighty years of age. Before her, the first Superioress was Sister Lucia Cupis, who died in 1869. In less than a month from the date of their arrival, the Sister’s numbers were increased by the addition of a new adherent to the Order in the person of Miss Bowring, who entered the novitiate with the name of Sister Aloysia. Miss Bowring was a daughter of Sir John Bowring, who had been Governor of Hongkong from 1854 to 1859.

The first school of the Canossian Sisters in Hongkong was opened in rented premises not far from the present site of the Convent, on Caine Road. I remember being told that their first pupil was Carolina, eldest daughter of Mr. Delfino Noronha, the printer. The connection, thus early begun, between the Canossian Sisters and the Noronha family has never been broken. Carolina Noronha married Mr. Vicente Emilio Braga (my father) and all their family of four boys and four girls were taught by the Italian Sisters, the boys finishing their schooling in Catholic schools for boys in Hongkong. My mother maintained her father’s tradition of service to Catholic institutions, and in the annual bazaars held by the Convent – quite a feature of Hongkong’s social amenities – she always helped as one of the lady stallholders.

As regards schools for boys, in September, 1860, was opened the first free Roman Catholic School for European boys in Hongkong. It was inaugurated in a small house in Staunton Street, and had two teachers to begin with. “Gradually the Italian Convent School and the school in Staunton Street developed themselves and became, the first, the larger Italian Convent in Caine Road; the second turned first into St. Saviour’s College and then into the present St. Joseph’s College.”

“The little school for Chinese Catholic boys had the number of its pupils increased and a small Seminary for Chinese pursuing ecclesiastical studies was also opened at the Roman Catholic Mission House.”

Not long after, there were three schools for Portuguese boys only. Two of them were in Wellington Street, one under Mr. J. A. Pereira and the other under Mr. R. Freire. The third Portuguese school for boys was in Stanley Street, and was under the direction of Messrs. J. J. Souza and B. Souza.

Sensing the convenience of having all its schools under one roof, the Catholic Mission amalgamated, in 1865, all the boys’ schools under its charge into one institution, and thus it was that St. Saviour’s College in Pottinger Street came into existence. The new school began with 152 scholars and a staff consisting of Messrs. T. T. Terry, J. Mayer, V. Pereira, J. Baptista and C. Wagner. In 1875, the non-Chinese boys attending St. Saviour’s College were placed in the charge of the Christian Brothers, who in that year arrived in Hongkong and opened St. Joseph’s College.

Descriptions of the first years of the Italian Convent and St. Joseph’s College, culled from authoritative sources, make interesting reading.

Of the early success of the Italian Convent we read in a report by Father Raimondi on the occasion of the prize-giving at the Convent in 1872:

“During the ten years the Italian Convent has been opened nearly one hundred girls of good family have received a complete education of the best description. Two hundred Chinese destitute children have been saved from death, and trained up to be useful girls and women. Upwards of 300 girls over ten years of age have been rescued from misery and fed, clothed and taught. These girls and infants but for the Sisters must have been eventually become a charge upon the Colony. About eighty girls have been respectably married.” 105

Further details of the work of the Italian Sisters during their early years in Hongkong are given in another old report:106

“The ITALIAN CONVENT is one of the largest and most important of the Catholic establishments in Hongkong and its speciality is female education. There is no other establishment like it in Hongkong.

“The good Sisters of the Italian Congregation of Canossiane who direct it are quietly and unobtrusively doing a great and a good work in our midst and are daily extending the sphere of their labour. It is only seventeen years ago that the first members of the Sisterhood arrived here, six in number, shortly afterwards to be increased to seven by the reception of a daughter of the late Sir John Bowring. In those seventeen years they have opened five houses, two in Hongkong, one in Macao, one in Amoy and the fifth in Hankow.

“There are five separate departments within the walls, each with its special and proper staff.

” (a) There is first a Boarding and Day School for the education of young ladies …. The boarders were about 20 in number. The day scholars (girls) about 120 divided into two classes, and there is a third class for little boys under eight years of age of whom there were usually 24.

“(b) There are two orphanages, one for Europeans and one Chinese girls. Both together numbered at the end of the last year, 129.

“(c) There is the ‘Holy Childhood’, for foundlings. 45 little ones are kept here, their ages varying from two to five years.

“(d) There is an Asylum for old and invalid women

“(e) There is a small Hospital for women. It is always full and many applicants have to be rejected for want of room. It has helped many to renewed health and strength.

Concerning St. Joseph’s College, the report above mentioned, stated: 107

“There are nearly 300 inmates to be provided for daily in this Convent, over and above the number of the day scholars, and large as is the house it is not by any means large enough for the proper accommodation of the work in it…

“The Government grant of $80 a month towards the expenses of this establishment is well bestowed and profitably employed.”

“ST JOSEPH’S COLLEGE, under the direction of the Christian Brothers. The education here given is essentially commercial.

“All the students are European, the greater number of them being Portuguese, the classes other than Chinese formerly held at St. Saviour’s having been transferred to the new College.

“It is extraordinary how these schools have prospered under the direction of the Christian Brothers. These admirable teachers first arrived in Hongkong and took charge of the European boys at St. Saviour’s on the 15th November, 1875… There were then only 70 pupils and three of the Brothers were more than sufficient for the work. In the month of June 1876 the pupils were 125 and nothing but the want of accommodation prevented a large increase in the number. The transfer to the present premises in Caine Road was made about that time and a fourth class was formed. At the end of last year the pupils frequenting St. Joseph’s school numbered one hundred and sixty-five and as we write there are not far from two hundred with five masters, thus leaving more room, at St. Saviour’s, for the Chinese among whom also has been an increase lately…

“We have every reason to be satisfied with the attendance of the boys at St. Joseph’s. There has been a great improvement in that respect latterly although we have not yet come up to the English standard… The indolent habits incidental to birth and residence in a hot climate must count for something also and a wise administration will allow for it. If all these things are taken into consideration it will be seen that there are difficulties in the way of a high average number of attendances here as well as in England though they differ in kind and degree. In other English colonies similarly situated these difficulties have been taken into consideration and allowed for to an extent no one would ever look for here. Hongkong is not London, neither can European boys in Hongkong be expected to bear the climate as well and do as much work as Chinese boys.”

Those were the early years in the life of the two great Catholic institutions of learning in Hongkong. Their growth has synchronised with the development of education in the Colony, and it can be said without fear of exaggeration that most of the Portuguese, the men as well as the women, owe very much to these schools. Their upbringing their outlook on life, their moral standards, the very instruction enabling them in the case of the men, to find employment, and, in the case of the women, to become worthy mothers of succeeding generations of the Portuguese in Hongkong, they owe in large measure to the teachers and the directors of these two schools. In their turn, the Portuguese have made several contributions to the expansion of these institutions. We have seen how gifts of land were made by early Portuguese landowners. I have not been able to remember all the names of those to whom the Canossian Sisters are indebted for landed property, but one of the latest was from yet another member of the d’Almada family. Regarding this gift we read that

“In memory of his late daughter, another Portuguese resident and his wife emulated the example of his father in his benevolence to the Canossian Sisters. This benevolence assumed the form of a Home for Blind Girls, at Pokfulam, named ‘Honeyville‘ which is the generous gift of Mr. and Mrs. F. X. d’Almada e Castro. There are 35 blind girls housed in Honeyville.”108

I shall attempt, in a later chapter, to deal with certain features of the education given in these and other Hongkong schools. I may, at this stage, mention that until comparatively recent times, no attempt appears to have been made to teach Portuguese to Portuguese children in Hongkong. A number of Portuguese fathers endeavoured to provide some sort of education in Portuguese by the publication of newspapers and the founding of a library; but the educational authorities of Hongkong ignored the need for the study of Portuguese until only a few years ago.

It is not surprising, however, that the reaching of the “language of Camoens” was neglected in Hongkong, seeing that in Macao itself there was for a long time a lack of really satisfactory educational facilities. But for this, parents might have sent their sons to Macao to learn Portuguese, as quite a number did subsequently, when the form of education obtainable in Macao had improved.

I believe that, from a purely academic point of view, a knowledge of Portuguese is very helpful in the study of English. A great number of English words can be traced to Latin languages, and are thus not unrelated to similar words in Portuguese, while other features of the language can possibly exert an influence for good in the other.

It may be true that there was little inducement for the study of the Portuguese language in Hongkong, and many years were to pass before the study of Portuguese became part of the school curricula; but at no period was there lack of persons who took pride in learning generally with considerable effort, the language of their Fatherland. Finally, at the instance of patriotic Portuguese gentlemen in Hongkong, and with the friendly co-operation of the Superioress of the Italian Convent and the Director of St. Joseph’s College, and the support of the Education Board in Hongkong, arrangements were made for the inclusion of a Portuguese class in each of the bigger Hongkong schools having a sufficiently large enrolment of Portuguese boys and girls. Moreover, the Faculty of the Hongkong University decided to require that for the second language in the matriculation examination, Portuguese candidates should be encouraged to take their own language. This was only achieved about two decades ago, when teachers of Portuguese in Hongkong began to enjoy a small annual grant from the Government of Macao. This grant was not forthcoming with great regularity, however. It is worthy of note that when Governor Teixeira of Macao made his first official visit to Hongkong, in 1941, His Excellency made a gift of money to the Little Flower Club for Young Ladies, to be used for starting a Portuguese class under the auspices of the committee of that promising club. The gift was to have been renewed annually as a grant from Macao.

It may be interesting to quote a Hongkong newspaper which offered the advice that “the sooner the Macanese change their language from Portuguese to English the better for the rising generation.109  A knowledge of Portuguese might not have provided bread and butter for the majority of the Portuguese of Hongkong, it may be true, but who will gainsay the value of a knowledge of another tongue, more especially if it be one’s own mother tongue?

Not only material advantages are to be gained from a good education, but great cultural benefits too, and I may be excused for urging the younger folk among the Portuguese to study the Portuguese language as well as English. A knowledge of and love for English literature enriches the mind and brings priceless joys, but I would add that a knowledge of the Portuguese language opens up fresh vistas of beauty and intellectual wealth which more than repay the little effort required to learn Portuguese. It is, furthermore, right and fitting, that men and women of Portuguese descent should know the beautiful “language of Camoens.” I should be happy to see a wave of enthusiasm among the younger Portuguese for such things as the study of our language. I might remind them that there is no time like youth for study. Ruskin puts it well. “Work while you have light,” he says, “especially while you have the light of morning. There are few thing more wonderful to me than that old people never tell young ones how precious their youth is. They sometimes sentimentally regret their own earlier days, sometimes prudently forget them, often foolishly rebuke the young, often more foolishly indulge, often most foolishly thwart and restrain, but scarcely ever warn or watch them. Remember… that the happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now.”

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