St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Parumala

Last updated

Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Orthodox Seminary, Parumala
Parumala Church.jpg
St. Peter's and St. Paul's Orthodox Seminary, Parumala
India location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Orthodox Seminary, Parumala
9°19′29″N76°32′13″E / 9.3247°N 76.5369°E / 9.3247; 76.5369
LocationP.O, Thiruvalla, Parumala Seminary, Parumala, Kerala 689626, India
Country India
Denomination Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
Website http://parumalachurch.org
History
Founded1895
Founder(s)Metropolitan Joseph Mar Dionysius
Consecrated 1895
Relics heldTomb of St. Gregorios
Associated people Oriental Orthodox Christians
Architecture
Architect(s) Charles Correa
Construction costINR 4 crore (40 million) [1]
Specifications
Capacity2000
Administration
Diocese Niranam Diocese
Episcopal areaMalankara Metropolitan Baselios Marthoma Mathews III
Clergy
Bishop(s) Yuhanon Mar Chrysostomos
Priest in charge Very. Rev. K. V. Paul Ramban
Priest(s) Fr. J. Mathukutty, Fr. Eldhos Elias

St. Peter's and St. Paul's Malankara Orthodox Church also known as Parumala Pally is a famous church in Kerala, India. This church is located in Parumala in Thiruvalla Taluk In Pathanamthitta district and is a pilgrimage center and mausoleum of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

Contents

History

The village of Parumala is a small stretch of land on the shores of the river Pampa. Before the church was built, the Malankara Metropolitan, Joseph Mar Dionysius wanted to establish a seminary in the area. In 1885 a two-acre plot of land was donated by Arikupurathu Mathen Karnavar to Mar Dionysius. With the land there was already a temporary church built by the Arukupurathu Family. Mar Gregorios decided to rebuild the temporary church into a more befitting and beautiful church. [2]

Mar Gregorios used the personal gifts he received as well as the donations from parishes to build a church and adjoining seminary building. On the feast of the Mother of God, Greogorios temporarily consecrated the church and celebrated the divine Eucharist in the presence of Dionysius. [3]

The first building was called "Azhippura" and was used for teaching church functionaries for the Orthodox Church, including providing lessons in Syriac. Dionysios eventually passed the responsibility for the seminary to Mar Gregorios in order to carry on the Syriac teaching sessions more efficiently and also to help him in other church matters. [4] The Church is dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul. [5]

Saint Gregorios of Parumala

Gheevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala (Portrait by Raja Ravi Varma, 1905) Raja Ravi Varma, Gheevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala (1905).jpg
Gheevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala (Portrait by Raja Ravi Varma, 1905)

This church contains the tomb of the first canonized Christian saint from India, [6] [7] Geevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala, [8] who died on 2 November 1902 at the age of 54. [9] In 1947 he was declared a saint of the Church by the Catholicos and Malankara Metropolitan Baselios Geevarghese II. Belief in his saintly qualities caused it to become a pilgrimage center for Christians and Hindus seeking his intercession. [10]

Abraham Verghese of the New York Times wrote about his visit to the church saying

Mar Gregorios’s benevolent image — a cross in one hand and a scepter in the other — had stared down at me from the wall of our house in Africa when I grew up; it now hangs in my study in Palo Alto. My grandfather was a deacon in this church, and my father worshiped here every Sunday until he left Kerala. My grandparents are buried in the adjacent cemetery. During our summer holidays, we would all walk from the ancestral home to the boat jetty on the Pampa river and then be poled across on long boats to the far bank where the church stood. Now, a broad bridge spans the river and the crumbling old church has been replaced by a postmodern one built in 1989.

— Abraham Verghese, Going on Faith, New York Times

Present church

The present church, which can accommodate more than 2000 worshipers, was designed by acclaimed architect and award winner, Charles Correa. [11] [12] [13] It is a circular design with an inner diameter of 39 meters. This circle is again divided into three segments by two chords of 16 meters length. [14]

In 2018, under the direction of Fr. Ashwin Fernandes, the main altar wall of the church was iconographically adorned with the "largest icon painting in Malankara." [15] The icon behind the throne includes Christ in the center, to the left, His Mother, Yoldath Aloho Mariam (Theotokos), to the right, the forerunner, Mor Yuhanon Mam'domo (Saint John the Baptist). Surrounding the three are the assembly of the apostles and disciples of Christ. Fluttering their wings above the crowd are the host of angels and archangels who ceaselessly glorify God.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church</span> Orthodox Church in Kerala, India

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. It serves India's Saint Thomas Christian population. According to tradition, these communities originated in the missions of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. It employs the Malankara Rite, an Indian form of the West Syriac liturgical rite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syro-Malankara Catholic Church</span> Western Catholic church

The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, also known as the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic sui iuris particular church in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church possessing self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. It is one of the major archiepiscopal churches of the Catholic Church. It is headed by Major Archbishop Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos of the Major Archdiocese of Trivandrum based in Kerala, India. With more than 1096 parishes, it is one of India's biggest church evangelical establishments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malankara Metropolitan</span> A title in Orthodox Christianity

The Malankara Metropolitan or the Metropolitan of Malabar is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of the Malankara Syrian Church. It evolved from the title of the sixteenth century East Syriac metropolitans of India who were also styled the Metropolitan of Malabar. Since the division among the Saint Thomas Christians following the Synod of Diamper, the title has been mostly employed in association with the West Syriac branch of the community, usually known as the Malankara Church, among whom the office of the Malankara Metropolitan became the continuation of the local dynastic Archdeaconate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregorios of Parumala</span> Indian saint

Gregorios of Parumala, also known as Parumala Thirumeni and Geevarghese Mar Gregorios, was a Metropolitan of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Parumala Thirumeni became the first person of Indian origin to be canonised as saint. In 1947, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church declared Mar Gregorios as a saint, making him the first saint from India canonized by that church. In November 1987, the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church(Syriac Orthodox Church) canonized him as a saint.

Varghese, Varughese, Verghese, Geevarghese, Varughis, and Varkey are Syriac–Malayalam variants of the Assyrian Syriac/Aramaic Christian name Giwargis/Gewargis/Givargis (George). It is given as first, middle, or last name among the Syrian Christians, an ancient community of Christians from Kerala, India. The pronunciation from Syriac/Aramaic was naturally adapted to fit the vowels of the local dialect. Many names of this community are a combination of Aramaic and Hebrew names, that have been adapted into the local dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathews Athanasius</span>

Mathews Mar Athanasius Mar Thoma XIII was the Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Church from 1852 until 1865. As a reformer, he spent most of his reign attempting to reform and heal rifts within the church. However in 1865, he was deposed by the traditionalist faction of the Malankara Church and Pulikkottil Joseph Dionysius became their leader.

The Parumala Seminary is a Syrian Christian religious school located in Parumala, Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta District, Kerala, India. It was established by Pulikkottil Joseph Mar Dionysious II and served as the seat of Metropolitan Geevarghese Mar Gregorios of Niranam diocese, the first Indian to be elevated as a saint by the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Syrian Orthodox Church. The administrative annexe in India of the UK, Europe and Africa Malankara Orthodox Diocese, whose headquarters is in London, is in Parumala Seminary.

Mar Gregorios Orthodox Christian Student Movement (MGOCSM) is the oldest Christian Student Organization in Asia. It is a spiritual organization of the Indian Orthodox Church, officially known as the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church for the student community. The MGOCSM headquarters is located in Devalokam, Kottayam, Kerala, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malabar Independent Syrian Church</span> Oriental Orthodox church in India

The Malabar Independent Syrian Church (MISC), also known as the Thozhiyur Church, is a Christian church centred in Kerala, India. It is one of the churches of the Saint Thomas Christian community, which traces its origins to the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century.

Moran Mor Baselios Geevarghese II of the Malankara Church. Third Catholicos of the East in Malankara and 16th Malankara Metropolitan, was born to Ulahannan and Naithi of the Kallaserri family in Kurichi, Kottayam India on 16 June 1874.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dionysius Vattasseril</span> Indian saint

Geevarghese Dionysius Vattasseril, also Dionysius VI, Dionysius Geevarghese II or, popularly, Vattasseril Thirumeni, was a bishop of the Malankara Church and 15th Malankara Metropolitan. In 2003, Dionysius was canonized as a saint by the Malankara Orthodox Church, and his feast day is celebrated on February 23 each year. He is known as 'The Great Luminary of Malankara Church', a title which the Church bestowed on him in recognition of his contribution to the Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam</span> Church in Kerala, India

The Orthodox Theological Seminary also known as Old Seminary and M. D. Orthodox Seminary is a seminary of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. It was founded in 1815 priest-monk Pulikkottil Joseph Ittoop Ramban with help from Colonel John Munro to serve the Malankara Syrian Church and to invite CMS missionaries to teach theology. At that time deacons were ordained as priests without an organized theological education. After the arrival of CMS missionaries, theological education was organized for the priests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athanasius Paulose</span> 19th and 20th-century Jacobite Syrian patriarch and saint

Saint Paulose Mor Athanasios, popularly known as Aluvayile Valiya Thirumeni, was the Metropolitan of the Angamaly Diocese and malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kadapra</span> Village in Thiruvalla subdistrict, Kerala, India

Kadapra is a village in the Thiruvalla subdistrict of Pathanamthitta district, Kerala state, India. It shares an intradistrict river border with Nedumpuram village separated along the Manimala river towards its north and an interpenetrating intradistrict land border with Niranam village towards its west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baselios Marthoma Paulose II</span> 21st Malankara Metropolitan and 8th Catholicos of the Malankara Church (1946–2021)

Baselios Marthoma Paulose II was the primate of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He was ordained in 1973, consecrated in 1985 and enthroned as the 8th Catholicos of the Malankara Church and the 21st Malankara Metropolitan on 1 November 2010, succeeding Didymos I.

Geevarghese Mar Philoxenos aka Puthencavil Kochu Thirumeni was an administrator, orator and an advocate of Orthodox and the Catholicate of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India. He served as Metropolitan of Thumpamon Diocese from 1930 to 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Mary's Church, Meenangadi</span> Church in Kerala, India

E. A. E St. Mary's Soonoro Syriac Orthodox Church, Meenangadi, is a Marian Pilgrim center of the Syriac Orthodox Church located at Meenangadi in Kerala, India. The church is under E.A.E Arch Diocese, the first missionary association of Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, and is currently under the direct control of Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church. In 2006, the church was elevated to the status of "Marian Pilgrim Centre", and in 2018, it celebrated its diamond jubilee. It is the first church to adopt the 8 Day Lent in Malabar Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kollam Orthodox Diocese</span>

The Kollam Orthodox Diocese, one of the 32 dioceses of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, was created after the Mulanthuruthy Synod in 1876. H.G. Dr. Joseph Mar Dionysius is the Metropolitan of the diocese, whose head office is in Bishop's House, Cross Junction, Kadappakada, Kollam, Kerala, India.

Geevarghese alongside Varughese, Varghese, Verghese, Varkey, Varughis, and Vergis are Syriac–Malayalam variants of George in India. Geevarghese may refer to:

Saint Coorilos Paulose of Panampady, also known as Kochuparambil Thirumeni, or Panampady Thirumeni, was Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church in India from 1911 until his death in 1917. He was canonized in 2008 by Ignatius Zakka I.

References

  1. ↑ Construction Cost
  2. ↑ ""50 Stars of Christmas" :Parumala Church,Kerala - Symbol of Syrian Orthodox Traditions Religion World". Religion World. 3 December 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  3. ↑ ""50 Stars of Christmas" :Parumala Church,Kerala - Symbol of Syrian Orthodox Traditions Religion World". Religion World. 3 December 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  4. ↑ "Parumala Church, Kerala". p4panorama. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  5. ↑ ""50 Stars of Christmas" :Parumala Church,Kerala - Symbol of Syrian Orthodox Traditions Religion World". Religion World. 3 December 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  6. ↑ "114th feast of St. Gregorios celebrated". The Hindu. 3 November 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  7. ↑ "1Relics of saint to be installed in Ahmedabad church". DNA India. 18 March 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  8. ↑ "St. Gregorios Of Parumala – Metropolitan Geevarghese Mar Gregorios|". mosc.in. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  9. ↑ "Hundreds pray at saint's tomb". The Hindu. 1 November 2019. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  10. ↑ Verghese, Abraham (18 May 2012). "Going on Faith". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  11. ↑ Parumala Church Reconstruction
  12. ↑ "Inspiration in brick and mortar: Architects talk about Charles Correa". Hindustan Times. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  13. ↑ "Charles Correa, legendary Indian architect, dies at 84". Archinect. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  14. ↑ Desk, India TV News (21 September 2014). "Five most famous churches in India". www.indiatvnews.com. Retrieved 1 September 2020.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  15. ↑ "മലങ്കരയിലെ ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ഐക്കണ്‍ പെയിന്റിംഗ് പരുമലയില്‍". KVARTHA: MALAYALAM NEWS | KERALA NEWS | KERALA VARTHA | ENTERTAINMENT ചുറ്റുവട്ടം മലയാളം വാര്‍ത്തകൾ. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.