POSTCARD N.157 - MALAYSIA

Postcard sent on the 4th July; received  0n the 19th August 2024

Postcard image: St. paulk's Church on St. Paul's Hill, Malacca city
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Ravindra keeps enticing me with great postcards with images which bear a relation to my Portuguese heritage. This time not from his own Sri Lanka, but from Malaysia, and the city of Malacca: the oldest European building east of India, the church of Saint Paul, first built in 1521 as a small chapel, under the orders of Duarte Coelho, who named it Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Anunciada (Our lady of the Annunciation) as a token of gratitude for his having been saved from a storm in the South China Sea.

The Chapel was later donated to the Society of Jesus represented by St. Francis Xavier, who had been sent by the Portuguese King D. João III on an evangelisation mission to the Eastern territories where the  Portuguese  had been present 

The chapel  was enlarged and a belfry added to it in 1590, its designation changing to Igreja da Madre de Deus (Church of God's Mother).

The name by which it is now known, Saint Paul's Church, was given by the Dutch, who, after expelling the Portuguese from Malacca, reconsecrated the Church to St. Paul.

The British, who occupied Malacca from 1826, used the church as a powder magazine, and over time it was left to deteriorate to its present state.

Ravindra used a 100 ringgit stamp part of a 4 x 100 Ringgit se-tenant strip joint issue with Singapore, issued in celebration of the centenary of the Causeway between Johore and Singapore.

The four stamps, issued on 28JUN2024, are illustrated with paintings of views of the causeway in 1930 and in 2020, as seen from the Malaysian and Singaporan sides of the infrastructure.

The stamp on the postcard reflects the view of the causeway from Singapore in 2020. 

The Postmark reads Pusat Mel Nasional (Pos Malaysia National Mail Centre) Malaysia, which is located in the city of Sha Alam, State of Selangor.