Photos: A historic Syrian Christian church in Kerala

In Kerala there are several Syrian Christian churches much older than St. Antony’s, Thycattussary which is my mother church. But the importance of this one is that for a century and more it played an important part in the struggle of the Syrian Catholics of Kerala to free themselves from the dominance of the foreign missionaries.

Many crucial events and decisions took place in Thycattussary involving dignitaries like Paremmakkal Governedor, Papal Delegates, Persian bishops, Blessed Chavara, Nidheerikkal Mani Kathanar and Bishop Thondanatt. The Parayil Family which built the church had a major role to play in this saga.

The photographs here were taken by different Parayil Family members at different times. Copyright is reserved. Click on them for enlarged view.

The church after renovation

Front view.

Many historic meetings have taken place and many

dignitaries accommodated in this building.

The bell fry

View from the church towards the lake.

The old chapel near the lake.

Flagstaff.

Also see:

A unique prayer.

Heritage: Kerala High Court saves historic churches

Whichever religion one might belong to, nobody would deny that the many centuries old Twin Churches of Ramapuram, Kerala, are beautiful. And there is so much of history behind them.

The Church wanted to demolish them and build a new church. There were widespread protests including from this blog (Churches on demolition line.). Finally the Kerala Government declared them to be heritage structures and brought them under the control of Archaeology Department, thereby preventing demolition.

The Church appealed against this order to the Kerala High Court. Earlier this week the HC ruled in favour of the Government and all those believe that heritage monuments should be preserved. It is not known whether the Church will go for further appeals.

It is difficult to understand the Church policy of demolishing old structures. I don’t recall hearing about an ancient temple or mosque being razed to ground to build a new one. The money spent on new churches to replace old ones could be utilized more meaningfully.

Nearer my home, the 1791Thycattussarry Church (A historic church is no more.) has been renovated. See photos below:

Old structure.

After renovation.

A saving grace here is that the architect has managed to retain some of the ethos. But lost in the process are the ‘Mondalam’ (picture below),

and more sadly, the beautiful frescoes that adorned the inside of the old building.

The next structure in line for the Church bulldozers is the Parayil Family’s 1861private oratory at Velliara (picture below).

Naturally, we have objected.