Armenian Church of St Gregory The Illuminator
60 Hill Street, Singapore 179366
The Armenians were the first of the Christian communities to erect a permanent place of worship in Singapore. The Armenians were among the earliest Christian migrants and after arriving in Singapore, the community raised the necessary funds and appealed for a priest to be sent to minister to them. The archbishop of Persia sent Rev. Gregory Johannes who arrived in July 1827.
As the number of Armenian families grew, a place of worship was deemed necessary and the community applied to the government for a plot of land for the building of a proper church. In 1833, the community was allocated and acquired a plot at its present site, at the foot of Government Hill, as Fort Canning was then known.
In 1834, community elders commissioned Irish architect, George Drumgoole Coleman, to design and build the Armenian Church. The church was completed in 1835 and on 26 March 1836, the church was consecrated and dedicated to St Gregory the Illuminator, the first Armenian monk. A fourth century monk, St. Gregory the Illuminator was so named because he brought Christianity to Armenia and became the first Patriarch of the Armenian Church.
Coleman was most likely briefed by Armenian Church elders on the mother church - also dedicated to St. Gregory, at Etchmiadzin, Vagarshapat, near Erevan in northern Armenia - as his design is generally accepted to resemble. The neo-classical architecture set an inspired tone for subsequent church buildings, including the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd (1843-46) and the first St. Andrew's Cathedral (1836-38) also designed by Coleman.
Just behind the church is the parsonage, a two-storey bungalow in a style that is typical for the period. It was rebuilt in 1905 with funds donated by Nanajan Sarkies in memory of her husband, John Shanazar Sarkies, a scholar and merchant who died in 1904.
In 1909 when electricity came to Singapore, the Armenian Church was believed to be the first building to have electricity with the installation of fans and lights.
Although cemeteries in church grounds are common, there are no burial plots under the tombstones in the compound. The first Christian cemeteries were at the foot of Government Hill, and later, in Bukit Timah. In 1988, when Bukit Timah cemetery was exhumed, the tombstones of Armenians buried there were removed and assembled in the grounds of the church to form the Memorial Garden.
The memorial garden includes the tomb stones of famous Singaporean Armenians such as Catchick Moses, co-founder of Straits Times; Sarkies brothers the founders of Raffles Hotel and Agnes Joaquim who discovered the hybrid orchid, Vanda Miss Joaquim, which is named as Singapore's National Flower.
For many years, the church was maintained entirely by voluntary subscriptions from the congregation, and church affairs were managed by a committee comprised of the warden and two trustees, elected biennially by the congregation. Priests were sent to Singapore on a three-year term by the Armenian Archbishop of Persia who had jurisdiction over all the Armenian churches in India and the regions beyond. The last appointed priest serving the community here retired in the late 1930s.
In 1973, the building was gazetted as a national monument by the National Preservation Board of Singapore and has since been carefully restored, winning an Urban Redevelopment Authority conservation award in 1995. The year 2005 marked a special milestone for the church as it celebrated its 170th Anniversary.
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