Saint Joseph's Church, Ayutthaya
Credits
History
St. Joseph's Church was considered the center of Siamese Christianity when Ayutthaya was the capital of the Kingdom of Siam. French priest Pierre Lambert de La Motte, of the Missions étrangères de Paris, asks King Narai the Great for permission to build a French church. King Narai cedes land to the Annamite camp. A hospital and a seminary, Collège Général Saint-Joseph, were also founded. Two years after Pierre Lambert de la Motte's arrival, Father Pallu, vicar apostolic of Tonkin, and Father Louis Laneau arrive in Ayutthaya. Louis Laneau learns Siamese and becomes the first vicar apostolic of Siam. A few priests are trained, mostly Chinese, Vietnamese and a few Japanese. The prime minister of the time, Constantin Phaulkon, a polyglot Greek, Francophile and close friend of the French king Louis XIV, supported the efforts of the French priests. Their arrival counterbalanced the old influence of the dozen or so Portuguese and Spanish clerics, and the growing influence of the Dutch Protestants of the Dutch East India Company. When the king died in 1688 in his palace at Lop Buri, the French were expelled from the kingdom. All diplomatic relations ceased until 1856.
When Ayutthaya fell in 1767, the wooden church was burned and looted by the Burmese army.
In 1828, at the age of 23, Father Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix was sent to Siam by the Missions étrangères de Paris. He returned to the church in 1831. In 1834, he met the future King Rama IV (Mongkut) while the latter was a monk at the Bowonniwet temple in Bangkok. He gave him Latin lessons, and a friendship was born. The king acceded to the throne in 1851. In 1856, Emperor Napoleon III sent an embassy to Siam. The present church was built by Father Perro. It was consecrated on November 21, 1883.
The church was restored in 2004. In 2005, St. Joseph's received the outstanding award for the conservation of art and architecture from the Association of Siamese Architects.
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