Milagres Church in Mangalore - Our Lady of Miracles

Established in 1680 by Bishop Thomas de Castro, Milagres Church is a Roman Catholic Church at the heart of Mangalore. The church is dedicated to Our Lady of Miracles. The church has come across a lot of hurdles every time when the dynasty changed. It was the Portuguese Franciscan Missionaries, who built a small church when they first landed at Mangalore. Late came the Dutch, who were not kind to any Catholic cause. The British East India Company was established in 1600 which resulted in the Portuguese and Goan priests being recalled to Goa. Subsequently, the faithful in Kanara were left with no sacraments but they remained firm in their faith. In 1658, a Carmelite missionary visited the Kannada Christians and appointed Thomas de Castro, a Theatine Priest as a Vicar Apostolic of Kannada and Malabar in 1674.

Bishop de Castro made his residence at Milagres, got a grant of land from Queen Keladi Chennama and built the first church in 1680 here. After the death of the Bishop in 1684, Queen Chennama and King Bassappa retained the land. In 1715, a Mangalorean Priest Rev. Fr. Pinto secured the land again from King Somashekar II and his nephew Rev. Fr. A. Pinto, who succeeded him, built a new church in 1756. In 1763, Kannada fell under Hyder Ali and then his son Tipu Sultan. However, Tipu Sultan captured about 180000 Christians and destroyed 27 churches including this. After Tipu’s death, the third time construction was laid by one Lawrence Bello (a baker to the Europeans) in 1811. Fr. Augustus Diamanti S.J., an Italian architect with rich knowledge of European art is responsible for the architecture of this building.