our lady of betlehem

 church  Add category

 Upload a photo

Our Lady of Bethlehem, Dongri (About 1613)
As one travels from Bhayander to Uttan today, one notices to the left soon after crossing a little creek, the hill of Imitri or Ermitri- the hill of Hermitage. For on it stands the 80-foot ruin of the Jesuit Hermitage of Our Lady of Nazareth. Below in the valley towards Daugi hill, lies the parish of Our Lady of Bethlehem, once reputedly the largest on the island of Dharavi.
Fr. Conti asks the question: What led the Jesuits to buy the village of Dongri about the year 1613 and what led them to erect an Hermitage there? He then proceeds to offer a number of conjectures. It could be that Fr. Francisco Azavedo, the founder of Dongri church, was implementing Jesuit policy, for a dozen years before that, Fr. Acquaviva, the General of the Jesuits, had ordered all Jesuit houses to provide a couple of rooms, isolated from the community, for the use of Retreatants. Was the Hermitage a Retreat House? Or was it St. Francis Xavier's own personal tradition of withdrawing from time to time into solitude, still living after sixty years? Or did the lush valley and hillsides of northern Dharavi promise the Jesuit Mission Burar a variety of crops other than those to be found in the flatlands of Bassien? Or were the twin establishments in the valley and on the hilltop, a refuge and a watch-tower against pirates and other marauders?

Above the village of Taroudi was built the great church of Our Lady of Bethlehem that was able to hold a congregation of 900 persons. The three "pakharias" of Dongri, Tarouri and Palli, then had a population of 605 Christians and 3 non-Christians (a shop-keeper and his family).

After the Maratha conquest of Salsette, the parish was looked after by the secular clergy. The church appears to have been spared the ravages of the war, for Dongri had a Vicar of its own from 1760 on (Humbert I:196)

Around 1950 a stature of Our Lady of Fatima was donated by one of the parishioners and placed in the ruined Hermitage on the hill. This initiated devotion towards the image among the people of the area, and led to a partial renovation of the Hermitage so that today on October 18, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, Mass is celebrated on the hill, attended largely by the people of Dharavi. Leading up to the old Hermitage are crosses marking the 12 Stations of the Cross that once stood on Pali Hill, Bandra together with the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Calvary. Donated by the Fonseca family of Bandra, these crosses were transplanted here by Fr. Rudolph D'souza, Vicar of Dongri around 1965.