St. Teresa's Church

St. Teresa's Church

St. Teresa's Church (English: St. Teresa's Church) is a Catholic church located at 258 Prince Edward Road, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Its consecration ceremony was held on December 18, 1932. The year 2007 marked the 75th anniversary of the church's establishment. According to regulations set by the Hong Kong government, St. Teresa's Church is one of the Catholic churches authorized to hold marriage ceremonies. It is the second-largest Catholic church in the Kowloon region under the Hong Kong Diocese and also the most popular church in Hong Kong for weddings. St. Teresa's Church has been designated as a Grade I historic building in Hong Kong.

Architectural Style

Designed by Father Grignard, St. Teresa's Church is a Byzantine-style church featuring a dome and spires. Its layout forms a Latin cross and adopts a Roman-style rounded design, with the side aisles themed around rounded arches. The stone pillars inside the church are Corinthian in style. While the roof beams are made of concrete and reinforced steel, the building still incorporates construction methods typical of traditional Chinese imperial architecture.

The bell tower of St. Teresa's Church can be considered the church’s signature feature, but the original bronze bells were sold during the war. However, according to parishioners’ recollections, the church bells were still ringing on time as late as the 1960s.

St. Teresa's Church houses three historically valuable stone tablets. The first is located at the base of the bell tower on the right side of the church, erected in 1932 as a foundation memorial. Another tablet is situated above the basin used for washing sacred items in the sacristy, dating back to 1950. It commemorates the reconstruction of the sacristy and the declaration of the Assumption of Mary as dogma in the same year. The last tablet is on the right side of the church’s main entrance, listing donors who contributed to the church's construction. Strangely, the final line of this tablet bears the name Mussolini—this name is in a different font and carving style compared to the other donors’ names, suggesting it was added later. Father Xavier, a well-known researcher of the history of the Hong Kong Diocese, was also unable to determine the reason for this name appearing on the tablet.