Though the Jesuits had established themselves at Agra in the reign on Akbar and maintained themselves there with varying fortune under his successors, Delhi received only cursory attention until the nineteenth century.
Tradition associates the village of Masihgarh, near Okhla, with Juliana, one of the captives brought to Delhi after massacre of the Dutch Settlement at Hooghli. She was retained as an attendant upon the ladies of the Imperial seraglio and earned fame for her skill in medicine.
Juliana was given this estate by Aurangzeb as dowry on her marriage to the adventurer Phillipe de Bourbon. Upon this young man the Emperor conferred also the title “dar-I-Yamaa” which served as the family’s surname in succeeding generations. Time and the rise of European influence eventually corrupted this proud title and the last representative of the house of Bourbon in India died and was buried as Dominga Deremao.
It was Dominga Deremao-who bequeathed to the Catholic Church the estate on which the village of Masihgarh now stands. But this was towards the close of the nineteenth century.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Delhi seems to have received only fleeting visits from Missionaries stationed at Agra or Sardhana. For Sardhana under Walter Reinhardt (General Sumroo), was the residence of a numerous and fervent Catholic community. His wife, originally a Muslim, was baptized after his death by Father Gregory of the Carmelite Order and the Church she built was granted the privileges of a Basilica by the Holy See. Father Gregory becoming the first (and last) Bishop of the See of Sardhana. The honours and privileges accorded to the Basilica were withdrawn soon after the Begum’s death and Father Gregory, a simple priest once more, left Sardhana for Delhi some time after 1802. He was buried there in 1807. Of his labours between 1802 and 1807 we know nothing.
The Carmelites had been granted the territories of the Agra Mission as the field of their labours by Propaganda Fide in 1773 on the withdrawal of the Jesuits from this Province. Little progress was made between this date and the final merger of the Agra Province with the Prefecture of Hindustan – Tibet which had its headquarters at Patna. The Capuchins had received charge of this Prefecture in 1960 and twenty years later the sphere of their activities was augmented by the decree of Propaganda adding Agra to their charge.
While the titular kings of Delhi remained virtual prisoners of the Mahrattas, Delhi was of little significance and received scant attention from ecclesiastical or political authorities.
At the time of the Mutiny there was in Delhi a Catholic Chaplain, Father Zachary of the Capuchin Province of Venice, and (so it was later discovered) a community of Armenian Catholics in Serai Rohila. Both the priest and the lay community perished in the first onslaught of the mutineers, Father Zachary being murdered in his own church which stood in what are now the grounds of the Presentation Convent.
When peace returned to the Capital Father Kegan, a secular priest and former student of the Sardhana Seminary, was appointed Military Chaplain. It was through Father Kegan’s influence that Dominga Deremao made to the church the bequest of her lands already mentioned. At this time St. Mary’s Church on Queen’s Road (S.P. Mukherjee Marg) was the only place of Catholic worship in Delhi. This Church was built by Father Kegan with the help of his parishioners, but was subsequently made over to the Government for maintenance as a Military Church.
When the ground for India’s new Capital was being cleared, a group of Christians, displaced from Raisina, settled on the estate bequeathed to the church by Dominga Deremao and a small church, the nucleus of the Masihgard community, was built there in 1921. a residence for visiting priests was added in 1927.
Father Luke of the Tuscan Province of the Capuchins came to Delhi in 1919. At that time even the priest’s residence at St. Mary’s Church was unfit for habitation and he was compelled to spend the summer in a tent. The generosity of the Archbishop of Agra and of the parishioners, however, enabled Father Luke to put the house in good repair before the monsoon started.
He invited the Nuns of Jesus and Mary to establish a school, first in the compound of St. Mary’s Church, (where they lived and worked in tents) and later in Chief Commissioner’s Lane. In 1924 this school moved to New Delhi which was then permanently occupied by the officers of the Central Government.
Later, Father Luke organized a new school under the patronage of St. Theresa within the grounds of his own residence. This prospered rapidly so that by 1935 it was a recognized High School with its own buildings and a fleet of buses. The gracious intervention of Lady Willingdon enabled the school to acquire, on very favourable terms, a plot of land originally allocated to the Police. This land, between Queen’s Road and the Fort, became the school playground. In 1940 St. Theresa’s School passed into the hands of the Presentation Nuns, ill health having forced its founder, Father Luke, to leave Delhi. From this seed grew what is now the Presentation Convent.
During the twenty years of his labours in Delhi, Father Luke was repeatedly indebted to generous friends for their assistance in difficulties which appeared at times insurmountable. Some of these friends happened to enjoy high status in the official hierarchy of the times, others remain unknown. Lady Willingdon’s kindness in procuring a playground for St. Theresa’s School has been mentioned. It was again Lady Willingdon who caused the plans for the Post Office to be modified so that the adjacent Mission property (in which the Cathedral was to be built) might be spared the proximity of an eyesore in the form of staff quarters behind this office. When the perspective of the new Cathedral was distorted by an error which placed the foundations too close to the boundary, Lady Willingdon once more came to the rescue and upon very generous terms, secured a small addition to the property.
Sir Malcolm Hailey, then Governor of the United Provinces, was also uniformly sympathetic and helpful. Sometimes this help took material shape as when an interest-free loan of Rs.60,000 was obtained from the Government of India to complete the Cathedral. At other times Sir Malcom’s sage advice softened the blows of disappointment and frustration. An instance of this was the patience with which he explained the legal difficulties which necessitated abandonment of the Mission’s claim to a vast area now occupied by the Delhi Cantonment. This land had been donated to the Catholic Church in the days of the Mahratta occupation by one of Scindia’s Catholic Generals but since there was no permanent Mission establishment at Delhi in those days, proper records were not kept and the title lapsed.
Numerous other benefactions and kindnesses heartened and supported Father Luke amidst his many difficulties. Sometimes these kindnesses assumed a guise so unexpected as to seem almost miraculous. Such was the donation from a gentleman, known fifteen years earlier, who from Japan sent Rs.15,000 at a time when Father Luke was left with no resource but prayer to meet his building contractor’s quarterly bill. Providential, too, was the warning given by an unknown young man which enabled Father Luke to withdraw his building Fund from the Alliance Bank a day before the Bank collapsed.
The land on which the Jesus and Mary Convent School, the Irish Christian Brothers School and the Cathedral itself now stand, measures more than fourteen acres. All this was acquired in 1920 for the trivial sum of Rs.7,000, upon a perpetual lease with a yearly rental of Rs.365. The present value of this land would, in comparison with the original price, appear astronomical, but in 1920 no one could foresee the future significance of this site.
Eight architects were invited to submit plans for the new Cathedral. Sir Edward Lutyens consented to be one of the panel of judges, of which Father Luke, too, was a member,. The plans submitted by Mr. Med were finally selected but some modifications in the façade were required and these the architect subsequently effected. The foundation stone was laid by the Very rev. Dr. E. Vanni, Archbishop of Agra, in 1929, and construction began in 1930. For five years the work went forward; Father Luke constantly at his wits’ end for funds but as constantly assured of the guidance of Providence in all he did.
At last the noble edifice stood complete. Sir Anthony de Mello donated the main altar of pure Carrara marble. His Grace the Archbishop of Agra presented the bell, vestments and altar furniture. And so from many benefactions, from the prayers and sacrifices of many, by the grace of God arose this Cathedral Church of the Sacred Heart in Delhi. The poor Capuchin whom God made the instrument of His will in raising this beautiful shrine now views it with humility and wonder. To him, the least qualified by training or natural capacity for such a task, his Master gave the joy of expressing in enduring and visible form the yearning of the human spirit for communion with the Eternal and Divine. His heart fills with an inexpressible gratitude for the proud privilege of such service.
If the walls of Maria Bhawan were to speak, they would have spoken volumes of the days before and after the Cathedral was built. It was the Dak bungalow of the Raisina forests and after the church was built it became the residence for priests and was known as the Cathedral Cottage. In the 60’s it was renovated and named as “Maria Bhawan”. Since September 99, it houses the parish fathers and known as “PARISH HOUSE".
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