Last Updated on 19 December 2007

1875- 1880

The history of the Taiping Catholic Church had its beginnings in 1875, when Fr. F. Allard, was sent by Bishop Le Turdu, the Vicar Apostolic of  Malaya and Singapore to start the first Catholic Mission in the state of Perak.  Fr. F Allard built the first church dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, a simple wooden structure at the top of the hillock behind the present Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at the Klian Pauh area near the Taiping Lake Gardens. The ruins of this first structure can still be seen on the top of the hill. 

Subsequently the Bitish Resident granted the Catholic Church 100 acres of land in the Klian Pauh area for the purpose of settling Catholics there. However,  the Chinese Catholic farmers who followed Fr F Allard from Province Wellesley found the soil unsuitable for cultivation because of high content of tin ore and most of them subsequently moved to Kinta in Ipoh. The Catholic Church only retained 14 acres of that initial grant from the British Resident as the other 86 acres have been taken back by the Malaysian Government. 

Fr. F Allard also pastured a Catholic community in Krian Road, on the way to Butterworth in the north  from the Klian Pauh Church. Just before he left for Penang in 1880,  Fr. F Allard built a chapel dedicated to St. Paul the Hermit and a priest house on a knoll about 5 miles north of Taiping along Krian Road to serve the isolated Catholic community made up of Chinese farmers and Indian railway workers who were building the railway track to Butterworth to the north and Ipoh/Kuala Lumpur to south of Taiping.

1880-1884

In 1884, to meet the growing needs of the Catholic community which had increased to about over 200 persons, Fr. Charles Mazery, the second parish priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church,  built the present brick and motar Church at the foot of the hillock to replace the wooden church on the hillock. The current Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church was built using more durable material was blessed by Fr. C Mazery on 23 April 1884. The relatively poor Chinese parishioners  responded generously towards the church building fund with “Chinese towkays”, presumably non-christians, subscribing handsome sums, and Sir Hugh Low, the British resident contributing a substantial sum.     

1884-1897 

Fr C Mazery was replaced by Fr. Ferdinand Vignol as the next Parish Priest. Fr F Vignol was in turn replaced by by Fr. Laurent Pouget in 1885-1889 with Fr. Emile Barillon as acting as the assistant assistant Parish Prient. Fr. L Pouget used the materials from old wooden church at the hillock to build a priest’s house and erected a “catechism centre” at the present parish quarters a little distance away from the present Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church. 

The Parish Priests serving the Taiping Catholic community until 1897 were Fr. Vincent Gazeau, Fr Victor M. Renard and Fr Emille J. Mariette in chronological order. Until 1897, Our Lady of the Sacred Church served the needs of the entire Catholic community in Taiping which comprise of various language groups. As at 1897,  the baptismal register showed 245 entries of baptisms of Indians, of which 215 were babies, and only 30 were adults, most of whom were baptised at the hospital death beds. The baptismal register also showed 225 entries of baptisms of Chinese, about 90 were babies and some 115  were adults. This shows that most conversions were from the Chinese population whereas the growth of the Indian Community  was due to birth rate among Indian Christians who came from India. The Eurasian community registered 120 baptisms.

in 1897, Fr J Mariette installed 3 new bells which rung in 3 different notes at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church. The bells called out to the Catholics who lived near by the church  to morning mass, angelus, or vesper or special joyous occassions by the various combination of the 3 notes of the bells. The medium size bell, named “Josepha Bertha” was left with the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and the remaining 2 bells, the smallest named “Angela Susanna” with the note “mi” and biggest named “Maria Macellina” with the note “do", were subsequently installed at St. Louis Church at Kota, Taiping.

1897- 1997

In 1897, as the Indian parishioners grew to 700 persons, the Bishop Fee of the Diocese of Malacca appointed a young priest fresh from France, Fr. Marie Louis Duvelle to stay with Fr. Grenier, the parish priest of the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, to learn Tamil and to start a new parish in Taiping catering for the needs of Indian Catholics in Taiping. After the new parish was set up, the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart catered for the Chinese Catholics in Taiping.     

In 1898, Fr. Duvelle acquire a piece of land from the government along Convent Road in the Kota area where the current St Louis Church is located. With donations from parishioners and contributions from his own wealthy family in France, contruction of the church began. Before the new church was fully completed,  Fr. Duvelle was replaced by Fr. A. Auve, the second parish priest of St. Louis Church. 

After the construction of the first St Louis Church was completed, it was blessed by Msgr. Fee on 5 November 1899 and named after Saint Louis IX a king of France as “Saint Louis Church”. The first  baptism at St. Louis Church was on 7 November 1899 by Fr. Auve.

To meet the growing needs of the Tamil speaking Catholic Community, the present St Louis Church was built. Fr. Hermann blessed St. Louis Church on 7 October 1923. The first St Louis Church building is the dilapidated building next to the current church building.

The parish priests for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church from 1897 to 1997 were Fr. Charles Grenier (1897-1905), Fr. Emile J. Mariette (1905-1909), Fr. Francois Faucillon (1909-1911), Fr. E. Chevauche (1911-1914), Fr. J.M. Vey (1914-1919), Fr. Rene Cardon (1919-1931), Fr. Noel Maury (1931-1934), Fr. Octave Dupoirieux (1934-1938), Fr. Rene Ashness (1938-1938), Fr. Peter Chin (1939-1939), Fr. Paul Vong (1939-1940), Fr. Philip Lee (1939-1940), Fr. Francis Lek (1944-1944), Fr. Joachim Teng (1945-1948), Fr. Anthony Tan (1948-1952), Fr. Jose Liu (1952-1957), Fr. Peter Wang (1957-1960), Fr. George Lee (1960-1963), Fr. Rene Chineau (1963-1970), Fr. Barnadas Gao (1970-1970), Fr. Thomas Chin (1970-1986), Fr. Maurice Surmon (1986---), Fr. Michael Sinnapan (---) and Fr . Augustine Wong (--- 1997).   

At the beginning of the 20th Century, grateful parishioners erected a statue of the Sacred Heart made of cast iron in memory of the founding priests of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart namely, Fr. F. Allard (1875-1880), Fr. C. Mazery (1880-1884),  and Fr. C. Grenier (1897-1907). 

The parish priests for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church from 1897 to 1997 were ------. 

1997 - Present

On 18 May 1997, Pentecost Sunday, Under the porch and to the right side of the main entrance to the Church of  Saint Louis, Taiping, the Titular Catholic Bishop of Penang merged St. Louis Church and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church into the Taiping Catholic Church and appointed Fr Augustine Wong as the first parish priest of the Taiping Catholic Church. The Bishop also declared that the administrative centre and the residence of the parish priest will be at St. Louis Church, 288, Jalan Convent, 34000 Taiping, Perak.

The parish priests for the Taiping Catholic Church from 1997 to the present are as follows, Fr Augustine Wong (---), Fr ---- (---), Fr Victor Louis (--- 2005), Fr David Lourdes (2005-present) and Fr Stanley Anthony (2007-present).