Puducherry, also known as Pondicherry, is a union territory of India, consisting of four small geographically unconnected districts. It was formed out of four territories of former French India, namely Pondichéry, Karikal (Karaikal), Mahé and Yanaon, excluding Chandannagar (Chandernagore), and it is named after the largest district, Puducherry, which was also the capital of French India. Historically known as Pondicherry, the territory changed its official name to Puducherry on 1 October 2006.
Karaikal is a town of the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. Karaikal was sold to the French by the Rajah of Thanjavur and became a French Colony in 1739. The French held control, with occasional interruptions from the British, until 1954, when it was de facto incorporated into the Republic of India, along with Mahé, Yanaon, and Pondichéry.
The Carnatic region is the peninsular South Indian region between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, in the erstwhile Madras Presidency and in the modern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and southern coastal Andhra Pradesh. During the British era.
In the canon law of the Catholic Church, a mission sui iuris, also known as an independent mission, can be defined as: "an ecclesial structure erected from a previous territory, with explicit boundaries, under the care of a religious community or other diocese, responding to a missionary exigency and headed by a superior nominated by the Holy See, under the aegis of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples."
Karaikal district is one of the four districts of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India.
The Madurai Mission, or Madura Mission, (1606-1773/1937-1952) was a Jesuit Mission founded in 1606 encompassing the south-eastern portion of the Indian peninsula around the Coromandel coast stretching from its tip to areas slightly north of the Vellar River although it would later lose parts of its jurisdiction to the Carnatic Mission in 1776. It was taken over by the aforementioned mission following the dissolution of the Jesuits and was only reconstituted as a Jesuit mission again in 1929 before finally being made an independent Jesuit province in its own right in 1952. These two missions are known as the Old Madurai Mission (1606-1773) and the New Madurai Mission (1937-1952). The mission is distinguished from earlier Christian presence by being those related to and following in the steps of Roberto de Nobili in the city of Madurai itself and spreading out across the south east of the peninsula from that point.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore/Madras and Myliapor is an archdiocese based in the city of Madras, in India. It took also the name of the ancient diocese of Mylapore, now a part of Chennai.
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore Latin: Pondicherien(sis) et Cuddaloren(sis) is an archdiocese located in the cities of Pondicherry and Cuddalore in India. It is a part of Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Vellore is a diocese located in the city of Vellore in the Ecclesiastical province of Madras and Mylapore in India.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Dharmapuri is a diocese located in the city of Dharmapuri in the Ecclesiastical province of Pondicherry and Cuddalore in India. This Diocese administrate the political region of Dharmapuri district and Krishnagiri district.
The Diocese of Salem is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in India. Its episcopal see is Salem. The Diocese of Salem is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore.
Archbishop Savarinathan Michael Augustine was an Indian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the sixth Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore from 1992 to 2004. He is an honorary member of Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. He served the church for 39 years as a bishop and for 56 years as a priest. He died on 4 November 2017 at the age of 84.
Christianity in the state of Tamil Nadu, India is the second largest religion in the state. According to tradition, St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, landed in Malabar Coast in AD 52. In the colonial age many Portuguese, Dutch, British and Italian Christians came to Tamil Nadu. Priests accompanied them not only to minister the colonisers but also to spread the Christian faith among the non-Christians in Tamil Nadu. Currently, Christians are a minority community comprising 6% of the total population. Christians are mainly concentrated in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu - Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli.
Immaculate Conception Cathedral is the cathedral mother church for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore. It is located in the Union territory of Puducherry. The church is also known as Samba Kovil, which is a phonetic corruption of "Saint Paul's Kovil" where "Kovil" means church.
This article gives a list of the territories of the dioceses of the Catholic Church in India.
Rayappan Antony Muthu (1912–1980) was the third Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vellore in Tamil Nadu, India from 1971 up to his death. He undertook religious and social initiatives, and presided over diocesan boundary changes.
Pierre Brigot was a missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the first Superior of Karnatic Mission headquartered at Pondicherry which later became the Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore. He was the Superior from 30 September 1776 until his death. He was formerly the Vicar Apostolic of Siam in Thailand from 8 December 1755. After his death the Karnatic Mission was headed by Bishop Nicolas Champenois.
Nicolas Champenois was a missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the Superior of Karnatic Mission after Pierre Brigot from 8 November 1791 until his death. He was succeeded by Louis-Charles-Auguste Hébert.
Joseph-Isidore Godelle was a missionary of Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the vicar apostolic of Pondicherry from 21 March 1861 until his death on 15 July 1867.
Our Lady of Angels Church is the fourth oldest church in Puducherry, a Union territory in South India. The original structure was built in Greco Roman architecture by Napoleon III in 1855, with the architect being Louis Guerre. It is the only church in Pondicherry city that offers mass in three languages namely French, Tamil and English.
