page_title: St. Michael's Church, Mumbai
section_title: Novena
hierarchical_section_title: St. Michael's Church, Mumbai / Novena
caption_attribution_description: Our Mother of Perpetual Help, a 15th Century Marian Byzantine Icon
context_page_description: St. Michael's Church is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Mumbai. The church is situated in Mahim, located at the intersection of L.J. Road and Mahim Causeway. The church was originally built by the Portuguese in 1534. Initially known as San Miguel, it is the oldest Portuguese Franciscan church in Mumbai. It was rebuilt a number of times; the present structure dating to 1973. The church also served as a refuge to the popular icon of the Virgin Mary from Our Lady of the Mount chapel, Bandra from 1739 to 1761.
  Due to its location, it is also informally known as Mahim Church. The church is famous for its Novenas on Wednesdays, which is visited by thousands.
context_section_description: St. Michael's sees a large number of people on Wednesdays every week, when novena prayers to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour are held throughout the day. These services are attended by people of all faiths. Devotees believe that visiting the Church on nine consecutive Wednesdays (Novena) will grant their wishes. Some of them offer wax figures of what they desire, for example, a wax house. According to Father Hugh Fonseca, around 40-50,000 devotees visit the church every week.
  The weekly Novena services were started in 1948, when a Father Edward Placidus Fernandes from Bombay noticed a similar ritual celebrating Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at Belfast, Northern Ireland, during his visit to Europe. Fr. Fernandes brought with him a picture touched to the original icon at Rome. On 8 September 1948 – the Birthday of Mary, concurrent with a Wednesday that year, Fr. Fernandes as the vicar held the first Novena services. Initially, only two services were held every Wednesday, but today from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm, the thirteen services are held in various languages: English, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil and Hindi. In 2014, A painting of the Our Lady of Perpetual Succor was gifted to St. Michaels by the Vatican. The painting is an authentic hand painted version of the original icon in Rome.
caption: The original Our Lady of Perpetual Succour picture from Rome
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