UNDER THE ARCHES OF TEN DECADES: 1863-1963
by Master J.V. Neeff
From the St.Stanislaus Institution Centenary Souvenir
Antecedents:
After a series of protracted negotiations spread over a period of more than four decades and necessitated by conditions prevalent at the time among various conflicting elements, the
then Vicar Apostolic of Bombay, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Anastasius Hartmann, acquired by purchase a plot of land and proceeded to raise on it, not exactly a church, but a two-storeyed building, the ground floor of which was to be used as a church.
The blessing of the foundation stone was done by Bishop Hartmann himself on the 12th April 1852. On 11th September 1853, the Church of St. Peter was consecrated by the same Dr. Hartmann and thus the first Propaganda Chapel of Salsette Island was inaugurated. Fr. Pascoal de Mello, a secular priest and native of Bandra, was appointed the first Vicar of the Church and was succeeded in 1856 by Fr. Anthony Pereira S.J., a native of Goa.