Church of Our Lady of Health (Monte Pequeno)

Mylapore [Meliapor/São Tomé de Meliapor], Tamil Nadu, India

Religious Architecture

It was tradition among the old Saint Thomas Christians that the apostle and his disciples took refuge from their persecutors in a small grotto on Monte Pequeno, Chinna Malai in Tamil. Nuno Álvares de Faria managed to lease the site in 1545 and erected a small chapel over the grotto. The tenant later financed the construction of a church and the Jesuits began to accompany the Christian community in the suburbs. The building has very little character, the façade being of simple classical lines, the portal having a circular arch, simple jambs and is flanked by pilasters. The interior is of a single, rectangular, barrel-vaulted nave, a construction that was generalised in Coromandel, even in small churches like those of Light and Our Lady of the Rosary. There are a series of images in the interior, outstanding being that of Saint Thomas, ordered by António Gonçalves de Ataíde in 1612.

• Helder Carita