St Mary’s Cathedral pioneer of mission schools in Sabah
SANDAKAN: Being the first church for Catholic faith in Sandakan, the St.Mary’s Cathedral has been the pioneer in the establishment of schools both for boys and girls in North Borneo.
The five-acre land on top a hill that houses the church, former school for boys and convent years ago in Sandakan Town is now an hidden treasure for historical and environmental value.
Parish Pastoral Counsel, Mr. Pilis Malim said this discovery had made St. Mary’s Cathedral beyond the pilgrimage site in the state.
“After the schools of SK St.Mary’s and SK St.Mary’s Convent were moved to a new site located at Mile 2 1/2 Jalan Labuk, the former site was turned into religious center for Catholics.
“As for the SK St Mary’s Convent, the wooden school building had been demolished and replaced with a new concrete building for Roman Catholic Diocese of Sandakan.
“While the former school for boys, SK St.Mary’s is now turned into the Catechetical Center Father Mulders,” he said.
In 2015, after the St Mary’s Cathedral got the permit to occupy land, the Marian Rosary Corridor was then erected on a hill near the St. Mary’s Cathedral and thus the church committee named it Marian Mount.
Marian Rosary Corridor has five stations which were built for pilgrims to perform their meditation.The last station was the Chapel that was built on top of the Marian Mount overlooking the Sulu Sea and Sandakan Bay.
Upon making the layout and setting up the proper route for pilgrimage site for the Marian Rosary Corridor, the team of Marian Mount Development Committee led by Mr. Edward Marigi discovered the remarkable heritage that was built during the colonial time and Japanese occupation.
Edward said his Committee had found one defence bunker where Japanese placed an artillery to shoot an airplane and some 10 bunkers around the Marian Mount.
“Since the St Mary’s was located on a hill, the Japanese soldiers had chosen the place as their nerve during the World War 2. There were still war remnants such as the defence bunker and bunkers around the Marian Mount.
Apart from that, the team of Marian Mount Development Committee had discovered a Colonial Dam which was built in 1902 by prisoners during the colonial time in North Borneo.
The Colonial Dam was the prominent dam that collected water from the Trig Hill before supplying the water to people in this district during that time.
However, it was then guarded by the Japanese soldiers who had occupied the area in the World War 2 as it was the main water source.
Edward said the Colonial Dam was found in bad condition as some of its retaining walls had collapsed.
“The collapsing dam wall happened due to greedy treasure hunters who believed that there were gold around the Colonial Dam.
“Therefore, in an effort to preserve the Colonial Dam, we had repaired some of its condition by filling in the 20-foot depth mine hole excavated by treasure hunters. This enables to stabilise the dam structure,” Edward said.
Apart from the bunkers and dam, there were also four tombs of pioneer Catholic priest and nuns located near the schools.
The first tomb is the Fr C. de Vette who came to Borneo in January 1901 and appointed rector of St. Mary’s Sandakan and served until his death due to illness. The second tomb is the Sister Teresa, one of the pioneers appointed to Borneo in 1885 and opened the Sandakan Convent in 1891.
The third tomb is the Sister Leo from Dublin, Ireland and was assigned to Borneo and laboured for five years in Sandakan before suffering years of sickness and buried here.
While the fourth tomb is the Sister Rose, from England. She was sent to Borneo in October 1891 and posted to Sandakan. Less than two years later, she died on August 1893.
With the discovery of Japanese defence bunkers, Colonial Dam and tombs of the pioneer priest and nuns, the team of Marian Mount Development Committee had uncovered the forgotten history at the southern corner of Sandakan municipality which can be an added value to tourism industry in Sandakan.
In addition to these historical values, the Marian Mount is also rich in flora diversity.
Through a research made by one of the former Forestry officers, there are three types of Pitcher plant species and more than 200 species of trees on the Marian Mount.
Among the trees are Obah, locally known as Rosok, the Pelawan Pelawan, a unique tree species whereby it sheds its bark when it grows in diameter, similar to a snake’s behaviour and Bintangor tree species.
Each species of trees had been marked with its names both locally and scientifically that enable visitors to learn about it.
The tree identification was voluntarily made by Diwol Sundaling, a retired Senior Research Assistant, Botany Section at Forest Research Centre, Sepilok Sandakan.
According to Edward, Marian Mount would be a suitable place for botanist, students or researchers to conducted their specific study on tree species.