St. Joseph's Seminary and Church

St Joseph's Seminary was founded by the Jesuits in 1728 and trained missionaries for China and the wider region for two centuries, and its church, completed in 1758, is the fullest expression of baroque architecture in Macao, with a scrolled facade and a dome over the crossing that is unusual anywhere in East Asia. A relic of St Francis Xavier is kept here. The seminary buildings around it remain in use and are not open to visitors.

History

The seminary was founded in 1728 and until 1758 stood on a hilltop south of St Paul's College rather than on its present site. From 1759 Portugal suppressed the Jesuits under the chief minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, and after they were expelled from Macau in 1762 the seminary stopped working; it reopened in 1784 under the Lazarists, the Congregation of the Mission. A piece of the right upper arm of Francis Xavier, brought to Macau sometime before 1619 as a relic, is kept in the church, and in 2005 the church became one of the sites of the Historic Centre of Macau World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, St. Joseph's Seminary and Church).

What you'll find

• The dome - the crossing dome, unusual for a church in this part of the world.
• The baroque facade - the scrolled front reached up a flight of steps.
• The Xavier relic - the arm bone kept in the church.
• The 1728 seminary - the buildings that trained missionaries for two centuries.

When to go

October to December is dry and cool. The church keeps daytime hours and closes at midday. The seminary itself is not open.

Good to know

The church closes for a period in the middle of the day. The seminary buildings are in use and cannot be visited. Access is up a flight of steps from a quiet lane.

Nearby

St Augustine's Square is north, and St Lawrence's is east.

Key facts