Joseph C. Panjikaran (1888-1949) of Shertallay was a Syro-Malabar Catholic monsignor, historian, theologian, journalist, and the founder of the Dharmagiri Hospital, Kothamangalam, and the Congregation of the Medical Sisters of St. Joseph (Dharmagiri sisters). [1] [2]
The cause of his canonisation was initiated by the Diocese of Kothamangalam in 2010. [3]
Joseph C. Panjikaran was born on 10 September 1888 in the village of Uzhuva, in the diocese of Ernakulam as the son of Chacko Panjikaran and Mariam Kanichattu.
Panjikaran became director of the propagation of faith in the Vicariate of Ernakulam. He believed that the church had responsibility to provide medical services to the poor and the sick. He opened a hospital named Dharmagiri at Kothamangalam, Kerala in 1934 and founded the congregation of Medical Sisters of St. Joseph in 1944. [4]
He died of a heart attack on 4 November 1949. [4]
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic church based in Kerala, India. The Syro-Malabar Church is an autonomous particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, including the Latin Church and the 22 other Eastern Catholic churches, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO). The Church is headed by the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar, currently George Alencherry. The Syro-Malabar Synod of Bishops canonically convoked and presided over by the Major Archbishop constitutes the supreme authority of the Church. The Major Archiepiscopal Curia of the Church is based in Kakkanad, Kochi. Syro-Malabar is a prefix reflecting the church's use of the East Syriac Rite liturgy and origins in Malabar. The name has been in usage in official Vatican documents since the nineteenth century.
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