Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Manama
La church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Manama is the oldest Catholic church in the entire Arabian Peninsula outside Yemen, built in 1939-1940 thanks to the donation of land by the ruling sheik of Baréin. Mother of all the Catholic communities of the Persian Gulf, was declared Sanctuary of the Apostolic Vicariate of North Arabia on November 8, 2025, in the year of its 85th anniversary, bringing together today some 140,000 faithful of over a dozen nationalities.
🌹 Wonders and anecdotes
- On June 9, 1939, the first stone of the temple was placed on a land given by Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the whole - church, priestly residence and school of the Sacred Heart - rose in just six months, and the church opened its doors on the Christmas Eve of 1939, being solemnly consecrated on March 3, 1940.
- Mons. Giovanni Battista Tirinanzi, Apostolic Vicar of Arabia and titular bishop of Gaza (1937- 1948), directed his building, and from his early years the priests left Manama to the scattered workers' camps of the rest of the Gulf, making the temple a basis of misational irradiation for Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
- In 1953 the Apostolic Carmelite Sisters arrived, which transformed the parish school into a reference educational centre for the expatriate community; later the San Bartolomé Hall (1958) and the new main church (1990) were built to accommodate the unstoppable growth of the community.
- The parish today celebrates its Eucharistic and sacraments in ten languages - English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Malabar, Tamil, konkani, Filipino, Telugu and Sinhalese - reflecting the 140,000 faithful from India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Arab world who come to their two churches.
- On November 8, 2025, Bishop Aldo Berardi, Apostolic Vicar of North Arabia, solemnly proclaimed the temple Shrine of the Vicariate in the framework of a celebration that coincided with the 85th Jubilee of the temple, recognizing its role as "centre of spiritual vitality and intercession" for Catholics who work and live in the Gulf.
- Our Lady of Arabia, patron of the vicariates of the North and the South who inherited the jurisdiction of the Gulf, began to be venerated in 1948 in neighbouring Kuwait on the initiative of the Carmelite Fathers; in 2021 the great Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, whose maternal image comes to coronate the Marian devotion that the "mother church" of the Sacred Heart of Manama fed for decades, was consecrated in Awali (Barein).
Sacred Heart of Jesus (first Catholic temple of the Persian Gulf)
First Catholic church in the Persian Gulf, built in Manama in 1939-1940 with land donated by the Al Khalifa family. Mission center for the whole Arabian Peninsula during the 20th century, today hosts about 140,000 faithful in ten languages. Declared Sanctuary of the Apostolic Vicariate of North Arabia in November 2025.
"The Sacred Heart of Jesus, who opened your doors in the heart of the Gulf when few were waiting for him, keeps under your protection those far from his land who seek you and serve you.
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