Santa Maria de Fatima Church, Jakarta

A very unique Catholic church which was once the home of a wealthy Chinese Indonesian. Located in the heart of Jakarta's Chinatown, it is adjacent to the Ricci Catholic school. Not far away from the Kota station as well as the Petak Sembilan location which is the focus of activities during Chinese New Year.

When we walk around Glodok Chinatown area, we will easily find a lot of Buddhist and Confucious temples. One of the less expected religious building here is church. But here, we will find Church of Santa Maria de Fatima, a Catholic church that is located in a housing area, so that we could see that the church exterior is just like a house. At the beginning, there were a school named Ricci School, and dormitory named Ricci Youth Center to the Chinese wanderer that lived around Glodok. There was also English, Germany, and Mandarin course named Ricci Evening School. In 1953, a wealthy Chinese man bought a piece of land there, and built a complex of a school and church.The following year, the land and building was fully owned by the church.The first mass was held, conducted by four priests with 16 members. Week by week, the amount of member was rising. Even until now, there are more and more member of this church. Not only church member, a lot of tourists also come here to see and learn more about this historical church. Nowadays, they serve a daily mass every day at 6AM; Saturday mass at 6PM; and Sunday mass at 6AM, 7.30AM, 9.30AM, 6PM. They also serve a mass in Mandarin every Sunday at 4.15PM where most of the member is elderly. Outside the church is a wide space area where there is my favorite place which is a small and colorful Saint Mary's cave. It is not the real cave, but similar. In here, we could stop for a while, find the serenity, and start to pray to our Holy mother of God 🙏🏻 "Does this church only serve a mass or activity to Chinese?" Well, the answer is definitely no. Everyone from another culture is welcomed here. Since they aslo serve a mass in Mandarin, so that those who can do a mass in Mandarin are very welcomed here 😃