Santa Cruz on Malim Hill: Malaysia’s Living Witness to the Cross

Every year on September 14, the Catholic Church pauses to remember one of the most paradoxical symbols in human history: the Cross. What was once a brutal instrument of shame and death is now lifted high as a sign of triumph, hope, and eternal love.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross reaches back to the fourth century, when St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, is said to have discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem, a discovery that forever deepened Christian devotion to the sign of salvation.

The Feast Day is celebrated across the world, from the stone basilicas of Rome to the rural chapels of Borneo, reminding the faithful that God’s greatest victory was won through what seemed like utter defeat.

And in Malaysia, that victory has found a special gathering place. On September 14, all roads lead to Malim Hill in Malacca, where pilgrims climb the slope to adore the Cross at the Chapel of Santa Cruz.

Perched along the old Malacca–Alor Gajah trunk road, 149km from Kuala Lumpur,  this 19th-century chapel has, for more than a century, been wrapped in mystery and legend, its origins tied to the discovery of a small wooden cross on the hilltop.

The story of that cross is told in many ways. One account recalls a devout Catholic woman from Kubu who fell gravely ill. In a dream, an old man revealed that a cross would be found on Malim Hill. Days later, her family, aided by neighbours, uncovered a 46-centimetre wooden cross partly hidden in a termite nest.

Another version speaks of a Portuguese child who dreamt, on three consecutive nights, of a cross waiting to be found atop the hill. Still other accounts suggest the Cross may once have marked a grave or stood within a ruined chapel dating back to Malacca’s Portuguese Catholic past.

Priest-author, the late Father M.J. Pintado, in his book Survival Through Human Values, noted that during Portuguese rule (1511–1641), Malacca was so Catholic that “there was a church or chapel on every street and hill.” The cross may have belonged to one of these forgotten sanctuaries, destroyed during the Dutch occupation.

J.V. Mills, a renowned translator of that time, in his translation of Godinho de Eredia’s 1613 description of Malacca, also recorded local tales of Malays noticing strange lights on the hill. Upon inspection, they found a wooden cross and alerted St. Peter’s Church.

Whatever its true origin, the Cross quickly became a magnet for devotion. A small wooden chapel was first built between 1870 and 1880 to enshrine it and was later replaced by the present brick structure.

Over time, the wooden relic was chipped away by eager pilgrims seeking a fragment of the holy cross. Yet the site itself endured, and the Feast of Santa Cruz grew into one of the most significant religious events in Malacca.

Today, the chapel opens only once a year for the feast, drawing thousands of pilgrims from across Malaysia and Singapore. This year alone, more than 12,000 people thronged the hill over three nights beginning on Thursday, before culminating on the Feast Day. 

For many, the climb to Malim Hill is an annual pilgrimage of gratitude, a return to the place where prayers have been answered, favours granted, and grace received. Catholics and non-Christians alike light candles, offer donations, and lift their hearts in prayer, keeping alive a tradition that has turned legend into living faith.

To the Romans, crucifixion was the most humiliating of punishments. To Christians, it became the greatest of victories. That transformation, from gallows to glory - lies at the heart of the feast. “By his cross, Christ has redeemed the world,” the Good Friday liturgy proclaims.

For the early Christians, the Cross was so central that they greeted one another not with “hello,” but with Ave Crux, Spes Unica , “Hail, O Cross, our only hope.”

On Malim Hill, that ancient greeting finds flesh each September as pilgrims kneel before the humble chapel, some fingering rosaries, others lighting candles, still others praying in silence. Their prayer is immediate as their own lives: that the crosses they bear, of poverty, sickness, loneliness, or injustice, may be lifted, transformed, and redeemed.

For over a hundred years, the little chapel has welcomed pilgrims, blending legend with faith. Whatever its beginnings may be, the Feast of Santa Cruz continues, an annual witness that the Cross still speaks, still heals, and still draws people together in hope."

And year after year, the chapel on Malim Hill whispers the same truth: that out of suffering can come salvation, and out of death, new life.