Thrikkunnathu Seminary - St Mary's Church

St Mary's Church

In 1880 the Malankara Church acquired 18 acres (73,000 m2) of land for construction of the church and a cornerstone was laid in 1889. The church began as a small building thatched with coconut leaves which was slowly built out in the early 1900s. Paulose Mar Athanasius built the current St Mary's Church in the early 1930s. The Syriac Orthodox Church canonized him as a saint at Damascus in August 2004. Mar Athanasius both gave away and sold at very low cost much of his inherited land so that Syrian Christians settling in the area could live near the church. The western side of the building was enlarged in 1964. Inside are the tombs of three 19th and 20th century Syrian Christian metropolitan bishops, Kadavil Paulose Mar Athanasius (d 1907), Saint Paulose Mar Athanasius (d 1953) and Mor Gregorios Geevarghese Vayaliparambil (d 1966).

On the 25th and 26 January each year thousands of pilgrims gather at St Mary's Church to take part in dukrono celebrations for its builder, Saint Paulose Mar Athanasius, who has been called "one of the most revered metropolitans" of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church "after Gheevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala."