Sacred Heart Cathedral

The history of the Archdiocese of Delhi and its Cathedral is inalienably related to the establishment of the Catholic Mission of Agra which later became the Archdiocese of Agra.

Akbar the Great ascended the throne of Mughal Empire in Agra 1556. He was a mere lad of 13 years old. Yet from the very beginning of his reign he showed extreme generosity and tolerance towards other religions. He undertook to create a State religion which had the acceptable characteristics of Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity. Thus he created Din-e-Illahi.

Akbar sent a delegation to Goa in 1578 requesting the Portuguese Viceroy to send a team of learned Catholic priests to his Ibadat Khana in Fatepur-Sikri where he held learned discussions about religions. On November 17, 1579 the Viceroy and the Jesuit Provincial in Goa selected three Priests for the Court of Akbar. Inflamed with zeal for Christ and in obedience to the command of their founder Ignatius of Loyola “Ite, inflammate omnia” (Go, set all on fire), these three Jesuits set out from Goa. They travelled by primitive modes of transport and arrived in the Mughal Court at Fatehpur-Sikri near Agra on February 28, 1580. Akbar received from them a copy of the Bible with profound reverence.

Emperor Akbar added the three Jesuits to the list of learned scholars of Hinduism, Islam and Zoroastrianism who adorned the Ibadat Khana, the hall of discussion. Two of them, Rudolf Aquaviva, and Francis Henriquez were depicted in an illustration to Akbarnama by Nar Singh (1605).

With this the Catholic Mission in north India had started. However the climate of acceptance and tolerance changed over the years.

By the Papal Brief: Dominus ac Redemptor (Lord and Redeemer) of July 21, 1773, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus due to political reasons specific to Europe. It had nothing to do with the missionary zeal and faith of the Jesuits in the missions. Following the Suppression, the Northern part of the Mughal Mission was entrusted to the Carmelites. Two Carmelites from Bombay took charge of the Mission. They were Fr. Agnelo di San Giuseppe and Fr. Gregorio della Presentation. Fr. Agnelo stayed for a little while before he left. Fr. Gregorio worked in Delhi for a longer period of time under the Capuchins. He died on September 29, 1807.

The Mission of North India started with the Mughal Court of Akbar. However, the purpose of the mission was restricted to discussions on religious tenets. After the reign of Jehangir the mission of the Jesuits moved out of Agra and spread its wings to far off regions of Indian subcontinent. The Church had acknowledged the mission by calling it Tibet-Hindustan Mission. The Capuchins received charge of the prefecture of Tibet- Hindustan Mission in 1760. They moved into the Agra Mission in 1780.