St Luke's Church, Patna

St. Lukes Church is located at Danapur Cantonment in Danapur, a satellite town of Patna in the Indian state of Bihar. It is around 10 kilometers from Jay Prakash Narayan Airport. It is more than 200 years old, and has stood on the site through the most turbulent times in Indian history.

Saint Luke's Church
St Luke's Church , Danapur Patna , Bihar
LocationDinapur Cantonment, Patna, Bihar
Coordinates25.636542°N 85.0338506°E / 25.636542; 85.0338506
Built1827-1830[1]

The building is typical of 19th century British colonial architecture. It is now within the grounds of the Bihar Regimental Centre and is maintained by the Indian Army.

Reverend Henry Frank Fulford Williams (1885-1966)[2] served as a chaplain in Bengal from 1913 until 1935, and was chaplain at St. Lukes for part of his tenure.[3][4][5][6]

History

The East India Company set up a military station here due to its location on the bank of river Ganges at a junction with other rivers like the Son River from the south and the Ghaghara and Gandaki River from the north. Rivers were important transport routes before railways were built in India.

The British built a church at the station to provide for the spiritual needs of its servants and medical aid. The construction of the church started in April 1827 by Captain I Thompson of British Engineers. It was completed in 1830 under the guidance of Captain W Sage of the 48th Native Infantry.[1] It was later named St. Lukes Church of Patna.

During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a number of barracks were constructed around the church to provide shelter for the soldiers.[7]

The belfry was a later addition. It was designed by Frederick William Alexander De Fabeck, an assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army, and built in 1862.[8]

The Bihar Regimental Centre took over responsibility for the building from the Church of North India in 1947.[8]

References
  1. Verma, Kumod (22 March 2010). "Danapur's Silent Sentinels". The Times of India. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  2. "Williams, Henry Frank Fulford (1885-1966), clergyman and antiquary". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  3. Williams, H. Fulford (1 July 1927). "A Century and a Half of an Indian Parish". Theology. 15 (85): 18–25. doi:10.1177/0040571x2701508504. ISSN 0040-571X. S2CID 171634580.
  4. "Papers of Henry Frank Fulford Williams relating to the history of India - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  5. Statistical, Sanitary, and Medical Reports For The Year 1862. Army Medical Department. 1864. p. 294 – via Google Books.
  6. "Henry Frank Fulford Williams, a Chaplain in Bengal 1913-35". Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 2019-08-27.
  7. Taheem, Meenakshi (2019-04-22). "Top 6 Churches In Patna | List of Churches in Patna Bihar - FabHotels". FabHotels Travel Blog. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  8. Verma, Kumod (30 September 2001). "Danapur churches mute witness of good, bad times". The Times of India. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
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