The original church was built by Spanish Augustinian friars in 1586 and taken over by the Portuguese three years later. The present building dates from 1814 and has a spacious interior with three aisles separated by colonnades. The marble-clad high altar contains a statue of Christ carrying the cross.
It is said that when this statue was taken to the Cathedral by Church authorities it would mysteriously return to the altar of the church. In commemoration the procession of Our Lord of the Passion (Nosso Senhor dos Passos) is held every year on the first Sunday of Lent. The statue is taken to the Cathedral for a night and next day is carried through the streets where the Stations of the Cross are set up, and, attended by the clergy and hundreds of citizens, is restored to St. Augustine's.
When the Augustinians were expelled in 1712, the Passos procession was cancelled. It was a time of food shortage and the local Chinese associated the two events. They asked that "the man with the cross" walk the streets again and when the Church agreed the shortage ended.
Among the people buried in the church is Maria de Moura, a romantic heroine who in 1710 married Captain António Albuquerque Coelho, in spite of this, having lost an arm when attacked by one of her unsuccessful suitors. She died in child-birth and is buried with her baby and António's arm.