St. Mary's Cathedral, or Sandakan Cathedral, is the cathedral and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sandakan (Dioecesis Sandakaanus or Keuskupan Sandakan) in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. Founded in 1883, it is the oldest church in Sandakan.
During the nineteenth century it was erected a prefecture based in Labuan, an island off the northwestern coast of Borneo. In the period established in the territory of the various mission stations, including the mission of Santa Maria of Sandakan, a small town on the coast of the island of Borneo.
History Founding and early years The apostolic prefecture of North Borneo and Labuan was established 27 August 1855. Subsequent to this, the area came under British control, and English-speaking missionaries were sought, and on 19 March 1881, the Vatican assigned evangelization work to the Saint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill of England. One of the first places the "Mill Hill Fathers" came to was Sandakan. Msgr. Thomas Jackson, the 2nd Prefect Apostolate of North Borneo, arrived in May 1882 to attend a dinner to celebrate the granting of the Charter to the North Borneo Chartered Company in November 1881. In this first visit, he was able to find a suitable spot where the future mission station would be built. He found out that there were about 4,500 Chinese in Sandakan, and thought of establishing a mission for them.
Subsequently, in May 1883 Msgr. Thomas Jackson bought five (5) acres of land on a hill in Sandakan, and the same year ordered Rev. Fr. Alexander Prenger to establish a mission here. Together they built a temporary hut made of kajang (woven Pandanus), which Prenger dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the whole plot named St. Mary's Hill. Having high hopes for the Sandakan Mission, Jackson also asked Rev. Fr. Benedict Pundleider to join Prenger in Sandakan. On 24 July 1883, Fr. Prenger and Fr. Pundleider opened St. Mary's School, the first school in North Borneo. By October in the same year, there was a proper house, a hostel for boys to stay in, and a small church.
Sandakan was subject to frequent pirate raids, however, leading many of the people to flee into the interior for safety. Fr. Pundleider thought two priests serving in Sandakan were too many given conditions, and left in February 1884 to open a mission station in Bundu, Kuala Penyu. Left to himself, Prenger tried to consolidate the mission and the school. However, in November 1885, Jackson ordered him to depart, because “Sandakan unhealthy; a wind blowing across the bay; many Chinese sick, no good water in town; and Fr. Prenger often ill.” Fr. Prenger closed the mission and school and opened a mission station in Penampang.
Reestablishment In July 1886, Rev. Fr. John Byron visited Sandakan and found 26 Catholics. After having been closed for two years, the Sandakan Mission was re-opened by Fr. Byron in May 1887. On 15 August 1887, St. Mary's School was also re-opened. From this year onwards St. Mary's School progressed gradually, with assistant rectors only lasting for a few years. First, Fr. Bernard Kurz joined Fr. Byron in September 1887. He was replaced by Fr. Francis Dibona in March 1888, then Fr. Julius Verbrugge, Fr. John Rientjies in November 1889, and Fr. Albert Reyffert four years later in November 1893.
In 1891, a school was started for girls. The White Sisters (the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph) opened St. Mary's Convent on 5 November 1891. The first four sisters were Sr. Theresa, Sr. Peter, Sr. Rose and Sr. Collete. This was the first convent to be opened in North Borneo. After the year 1899, Sandakan was an established Mission with a presbytery, a boys’ school, a convent, and church. Rev. Fr. Cornelius Keet became the rector. In the same year, a great number of Catholic Filipino refugees fled to Sandakan because of the war in the Philippines. This created an artificial increase in the Catholic population. In 1900, Rev. Fr. Cornelius de Vette came to assist. The year 1903 saw the arrival of more Filipino refugees. In 1904, de Vette built a permanent church in Sandakan. The next several years in the history of the Mission and School in Sandakan followed much the same pattern of short tenureship of various priests.
Towards the end of 1907, the situation became normal in the Philippines, and many Filipinos returned home. Between the years 1909 and 1920, a number of Mill Hill Fathers came to keep the mission going, but some stayed only for a year and others for two years. Within this period, Tawau was opened as an outstation mission of Sandakan in 1915. With the frequent transferring of the Fathers in and out of Sandakan, there was no continuity in mission work, which could not be expected to improve much. Furthermore, some of the Fathers spent more time in the school.
In early 1920, with the appointment of Rev. Fr. Aloysius Stotter as rector in Sandakan, mission work became more active. The school also improved day by day. He built a three-storey building, and with Rev. Fr. Bernard J. Davis running it, became the best school in North Borneo. In 1923, Fr. Stotter wanted to devote most of his time taking care of the growing number of Catholics. He contacted the La Salle Brothers to take over the school, but no agreement could be reached. The Fathers who came later continued the work of expansion by the previous Fathers.
The next couple of decades seem to be clouded in “history” as few records are available. The Mission continued to progress until the Second World War when the European priests were arrested and sent to war camps. According to Rev. Fr. Laurence M. Parsons, “I arrived to Sandakan in November 1933 to take charge of the Mission. I was lent to Jesselton for a year in 1935, and then went back to Sandakan until I was taken away by the Japanese. The Japs razed St. Mary’s to the ground in 1943.”
Postwar revival When Parsons returned to Sandakan in November 1946, there was neither church nor school standing, except for the pillars and the concrete part of the wall of the boys’ school. An attap roof was put over these pillars and concrete walls, and the school re-opened in 1947. The reconstructed structure doubled as a church and school. Fr. Davis continued to be the principal of the school.
The period after the Second World War belongs, however, to Rev. Fr. Anthony Mulders, who oversaw the difficult process of reconstruction after the devastation of the War. Mulders arrived in Sandakan in 1952, and wasted no time in rebuilding both the primary and secondary school buildings. He then began to bulldoze the hill to level a site for a permanent church. This led to serious erosion, but after that problem was solved, St. Mary's Church was finally constructed, opened, and solemnly consecrated in 1961 by the Rt. Rev. Bishop James Buis, the Vicar Apostolic of Jesselton. Fr. Mulders transformed the mission compound beyond recognition, making it one of the finest sites in Sandakan. A rectory was built in 1967 for the priests, who had been staying in the schools. The next development was the building of St. Joseph's Church, supervised by Rev. Fr. Francis van den Schoor. It was completed and blessed in 1971.
As the schools and church flourished, six to seven priests were sent to Sandakan to teach in the schools and to minister to the parishioners. This has resulted in a fast growth rate in conversion. However, hard times came in the 1970s as a new immigration policy required most of the foreign priests to depart from Sabah, leaving Sandakan with only one priest. Eventually, Fr. van den Schoor the parish priest was also ordered to leave.
In April 1972, Rev. Fr. Thomas Sham became the parish priest. Apart from carrying out his priestly duties, he set up the Catholic Women's League and the Parish Council. He also built a fence around the church compound, put up a Shrine to Our Lady, and built a parish hall behind the church (present-day Catechetical Room).
Spiritual renewal Rev. Fr. John Lee, later Archbishop of Kota Kinabalu, replaced Fr. Sham as parish priest in January 1978. At this time, the winds of renewal reached Sandakan. Firstly, it was the Aggiornamento followed by the Catholic charismatic renewal movement. Fr. John Lee encouraged the formation of a Prayer Group in 1979. On 3 October 1978, Sandakan witnessed the ordination of Rev. Fr. Nicholas Ong at St. Mary's Church.
When Rev. Fr. Aloysius Tung took over from Fr. John Lee in July 1980, he continued to encourage spiritual renewal in the parish. This resulted in the growth of the prayer group and the formation of the first Neo-Catechumenal Community and the Star of Yahweh Covenant Community (SYCC). Renewal seminars continued to be held in 1981 – 1983 which saw a significant increase in the number of spiritually renewed parishioners, and the Church became a hive of activities. The old parish hall became inadequate and Fr. Tung requested the Parish Council to design and build a larger Parish Hall to cater for meetings, seminars and other activities of the parishioners. The new hall, christened St. Mary's Parish Centre, was completed and blessed by Msgr. John Lee on 3 May 1987 just as he received news from Rome of his appointment as the next bishop of Kota Kinabalu.
Rev. Fr. Tobias Chi became parish priest in October 1984, later joined by Rev. Fr. John Mansul, Rev. Fr. Bruno Yasun and Rev. Fr. Thomas Yip, and parish growth accelerated. He organized evangelization talks to gather new converts and started the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) in 1985. The evangelization talks were replaced by the Good Tidings Concert and the printing of the Good Tidings Magazine in 1987. These became avenues to evangelize invited guests and also to serve as a platform for the many church groups and communities to work together in unity.
To revitalize and make the Parish Council more representative, Fr. Chi called the first Annual Delegates Assembly in 1986. The delegates were nominated from all the groups and communities and any other parishioners. They met annually to report and deliberate the affairs of the parish, and elected the office bearers of the Parish Council every two years.
One of the most important liturgical events in the parish was the introduction of the Chinese-language Mass, which resulted in the growth of the Chinese Catholic Community. As the various groups and communities grew, it became necessary to form three language coordinating bodies to facilitate communication. This led to the formation of the English Coordinating Committee, the BM Coordinating Committee, and the Chinese Coordinating Committee.
Fr. Chi also initiated the Sunday School programme where children received their faith formation and preparation for their First Communion and Confirmation. In order to further build up the faith of the children and to make the Liturgy of the Word more meaningful and interesting to them, he launched a liturgical team for the Children's Liturgy of the Word, and the first demonstration was done in November 1992.
Under the leadership and encouragement of Fr. Chi, several more projects were completed. A grotto, resembling the grotto in Lourdes, was cut out of the hillside in front of the Church in 1987. It has now been enhanced with a waterfall. The former Shrine of Our Lady was converted to a shrine at St. Joseph's Church. A block of three storey building was constructed for the St. Mary's Kindergarten in 1990. St. Mark's Church and St. Joseph's Multi Purpose Hall were completed and blessed in 1993. In 1995, a new church named St. Paul's was opened in Ulu Dusun. He also blessed the new Sibuga Cemetery and opened it for use. St. Joseph's Church was renovated and beautified in preparation for its Silver Jubilee in 1996. In 1998, both St. Mary's Bandar (boys' school) and St. Mary's Convent were relocated to new school buildings at Mile 2 North Road.
Paitan Mission