Penang International Museum Day 2024 - Penang Diocesan Museum

Next museum I visited was the Roman Catholic Diocesan Museum. I didn't even knew such museum existed in Penang if it was not for Facebook. Some say social media platform is bad, but I think it's more like how you make use of it. If you're just doom scrolling away, then it rots your brain. But if you are using the information in real life, I think it's not a bad invention! Anyway, the museum was just a few meter walk away from the Penang State Museum, next to the Church of Assumption, which I found out is the oldest church in Penang after visiting the museum :P You can see the above structure outside.

Outside the structure, there are also some historical artefacts you can explore.

I've always associated Penang with the British, never then French. So I was quite surprise to see and read about the above here. Nice! French influence!

After exploring the compound of the church, I went inside to the museum. Entrance if by donation, and I think I dropped 10rm here? It's up to you, but there is a receptionist there eyeing at you! God is watching!

I think there are about 2 or 3 stories of the museum. It was super detailed in documenting the history of the catholic church development in Malaysia, with information all the way from Thailand. I learned so much about the spread of roman catholic and their mission in Malaysia from this museum. It also has a record of all the church and priest that have served, and also some of the missionary schools in Malaysia, mainly focussing on North Malaysia. 

A well displayed of RC artefacts are also available here. Very detailed and fascinating to me!

Almost all the artefacts here are linked to some historical event from the past. For such a small museum, it held a lot of value and treasure!

I didn't know there are mobile priest kit too! Above is one such kit. You can bring it anywhere with you and still perform a complete ritual with it. How convenient!

There were also some text which I found fascinating and beautiful. I spend a lot of time here. Even though I can't read most of it, it's always a pleasure to look at beautiful, text, calligraphy etc. It's a special bond between a bookworm and words. 

Beautiful display above <3

I was also rather delighted to see many displayed of stained glass in the church!

I'm a super fan of stained glass, practically going to Europe to view these beautiful work of art. 

The stained glass here were just as nice. It's strange that they don't promote of this little gem of a museum. I realise that Malaysia actually have beautiful places of worship, but you seldom see them in tourism information places. I wonder why is that. I for one would be interested in them. 

More stained glass :)

And more :)  I didn't even took all of it! Just a majority of it. 

And lastly, at the end of the museum, there was a display of novelty items. Above some handiwork which was rather cute. There is also a museum shop. The attendance there asked me which church I was from when I told her I was from Penang. She was rather taken aback when I told her I was not a Christian, but that I used to played at the compound of the Church of Immaculate Conception in Pulau Tikus when I was a kid. She was pretty much lost for words, so I left the museum after talking to her :P  I feel that maybe she can only operate based on an expected script, and that I was probably outside her expected scripting, lol. Still, it was a very nice museum. I would recommend it for visitors who are interested in the history of the Roman Catholic church in Malaysia.