Visita Iglesia in Bangkok

While attending the Holy Thursday in 2006, an acquaintance told me that they just came back from Visita Iglesia. I recall only going through this experience in Manila with my father when I was still a little boy. All I remember was that it involved a lot of walking. However this lady told us that they took a van to visit the different churches around Bangkok. So that evening I looked up the different churches that dot Bangkok and there I discovered that there were a couple that dot the Chao Phraya River. It was Songkran and the traffic in Bangkok was quite nice. So I asked a friend to drop me off to the first Church, St Francis Xavier and then I figured that it was quite near one of the ferry station. So I did a mental note on it.

The Visita Iglesia is a Lenten tradition practiced in the Philippines as well as other countries in Europe and South America which involves visiting 7 churches. I do not know the exact practice but the way I did it this year was that with each church I visit I would pray with my Rosary and then go through 2 stations of the Stations of the Cross. Then this will continue to the next stations in the next churches you visit. Last year, I said my Rosary and did the complete station of the Cross for each of the Church that I visited. I started early in the morning and finished in time for the evening services at the Holy Redeemer Church.

Instead of driving to the first church (this year Holy Week is not at the same time as Songkran so it was a regular working day in Thailand), I took the ferry from one of the stations nearest to my home and headed towards the Krung Thon Bridge. I tried walking over the bridge towards Charoen Krung Road but the fumes from the cars and buses got the better of me so I decided that it would be better for my health to walk back to a bus stop to take me over the bridge and from there I walked towards St. Francis Xavier.






St. Francis Xavier is over 200 year old. It was a church established for the Vietnamese communities that had resettled the area. The first structure was made of bamboo but this was destroyed during one of the storms. Then after that a wooden structure was made. The latest version was built in stone because a bigger church had to be built because more people need to go to church.



The Immaculate Conception church can be reached by going through the entrance of St Francis Xavier (this is assuming that you entered St. Francis Xavier church through the back entrance as that is the nearest to Charoen Krung road) It is just a short stroll through the sois. If lost, ask the corner store. This was exactly what I did and I was told to just follow the small soi that was leading from the street in front of St. Francis Xavier and turn right at the end of the soi and turn left on the first soi. And then there it was, the Immaculate Conception Church, again you see the back of the church and what struck me are the dragons that decorate the top of the church. Originally the church was built for the Cambodian settlers of Bangkok and then later served the Portuguese and much later on the Vietnamese community that lived in the area.

From Immaculate Conception, you can exit to the road that leads back to the road going to the Krung Thon bridge where you can go back to the ferry station. Or else you can take a cab to go to another ferry station which was what I did. I took a cab to go to Phra Arthit Road. From there I headed towards the Sta. Cruz Church.



The previous year, the ferry stopped at the Rachinee pier. This year the express boat stopped at the memorial bridge. Nevertheless, this gave me the opportunity to walk through the Pak Klong market where the vegetable and flower wholesale market is located. From there I made my way towards the Pak Klong Pier where the ferry that would cross towards the Thonburi side of the river. There stands the Sta. Cruz Church. This year the ferry no longer stopped the pier in front of the Church and just stopped at the Wat next door. This meant that I had to find the way through Soi Kudeejeen which was where the original Portuguese settlements were located in the 19th century. This worked out for the best because this meant that I got to see the interesting community that led to the Church. It was here that I found out that not all churches were opened during Holy Thursday. A man from the village told me that the church was closed and will only open in the evening for the Holy Thursday service. But then I did not give up easily, afterall it took a lot of effort to get here. I noticed that the rectory at the back of the church was opened so I asked if I could enter through there. The caretakers told me that they would open the church front door for me. After leaving my shoes at the front door I was allowed inside. It was a big contrast to last year when the church was busy. I recalled that villagers were busy preparing the images which is probably for their procession. They were wiping the Santa Intierro and the image of the Virgin with perfume. This time the church was closed until I arrived.

After Santa Cruz, the easiest way was to make your way back to the Memorial Bridge Ferry station and from there board the ferry to go to the Harbour Station and from there it is a short walk to go towards the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church. This is also known at Bot Kalawar. It is located beside the original offices of the Siam Commercial Bank.






From the Rosary Church, one could either walk, take a cab or take the ferry to go to the soi of the Oriental Hotel because that was where the Assumption Cathedral is located. I remember a few years ago I wanted to take pictures inside of the Cathedral and the guard stopped me until I was able to ask permission from the Rector of the church. This time around I just took a picture of the front of the church. Again the church was dark but a door at the front was opened and a few people were doing their stations of the cross. The Assumption Cathedral is the last church beside the river that I included in my Visita.





I also noted that life in the olden days were closely linked to the Chao Phraya river because the entrances of all of the 5 churches beside the river were oriented towards the river. This explains why nowaday you tend to enter the back of the church coming in from the main roads. Perhaps people travelled via the river during the 19th Century Bangkok. From here I headed back towards the Charoen Krung Road and walked through the Bang Rak Market to reach the Thaksin Bridge station of the BTS station. From there I went to the next stop which is the Surasak Station.








This is an easy stop. From the Surasak station you walk towards the St. Louis Hospital. You will pass by the Papal Nunciature, which is the Embassy of the Holy See. The entrance next to this is the church which I am calling St. Louis because it is near the St. Louis Hospital. Again my timing was good because there were people making preparations for the Holy Week services. This church was meant to be airconditioned which at that time was turned off. After visiting this church, it is best to take the cab to head towards Soi Ruam Rudee to go to the Holy Redeemer Church.

However if you wish to take the BTS, you can get off the Sala Daeng Station and walk towards the Silom station of the MRT and make your way to the Lumpinee Park. From the entrance where the statue of King Rama VI is located walk towards the corner of the park where Wireless Road and Sarasin Road. From there you can go up the walk way that can take you all the way to the Tobacco Monopoly. But you need not walk that far and go down when you see the Holy Redeemer Church nearby. Again as with the other churches, the front gate of the Church was closed and so were the front doors. But since there were several cars inside the church yard I figured that the gate at the back was opened. I then noticed that the door was also opened. This was the seventh church that I visited and was my last stop.





I following this Filipino Lenten tradition here in Bangkok. It took me through interesting communities. It is also nice to take the ferry to do your pilgrimage for the day. It is best to take an umbrella because of the heat. There were a lot of 7/11's along the way to buy bottled water from. If you cannot read Thai, it is best to bring your own prayer books as most of the books available in the churches are in Thai. I started my journey at 7:30 am and I was able to complete it at 3:00pm. The aerial maps that I used in this blog was taken from Google Earth.

Happy Easter everyone!