Important places and Persons in the Diocese

	KODUNGALLUR Kodungallur is blessed by the footsteps and preaching of St. Thomas the Apostle. He landed here in A.D 52 and established one church. It is called the cradle of Christianity of India. Now there is a famous shrine at Azhikode dedicated to the Apostle where the relic fore-arm of St Thomas, brought from Ortona, Italy, by H.Em. Eugene Cardinal Tisserant in 1953, is kept for veneration. Devotees crowd there to pay homage and get favours from the holy and historically important place. C.M.I Fathers are in charge of the Pontifical Shrine. During Apostolic times there were well frequented trade routes, by land and / or water, connecting North-West India (today Pakistan), the West Coast and the East Coast, with North Africa and West Asia. Thus Alexandria, Aden, Socotra, Ormuz, Ctesiphon, Caesarea, Taxila, Broach, Kodungallur (Muziris) and even Rome were inter-linked. The growth of Christianity in Kerala along the sea-coast and its geographical dispersion indicate the importance of Kodungallur in the spread of the gospel message in Kerala and India. According to the strong Kerala tradition as found embedded in the Ramban Song and in the collective consciousness of the whole land and people irrespective of creed or denomination Kodungallur (Maliamkara) was the headquarters of Apostle St. Thomas from where he organised and operated his various mission projects and apostolic journeys to the various mission centres. There were a number of factors that must have prompted the saint to make Kodungallur his mission headquarters. For example he himself had first landed in the land of Kerala in Chera country and our India at Kodungallur. Even if he had gone to the land of King Gondophares earlier, as far as present day India is concerned it was Kodungallur that first came into contact with the Apostle and his message. And the possibility that the Apostle might have first come to Kodungallur itself, the port most accessible to foreign ships, and primum emporium Indiae, before embarking for Taxila or Gandhara along the coastal route could not be totally rejected. more PUTHENCHIRA  Puthenchira adjacent to Kodungallur is of ancient Christianity tracing their origin to AD 400. The seat of Archdiocese of Kodungallur from 1701 to 1771 was at Puthenchira. The then Archbisops lived in the presbytery at Puthenchira. On their demise there, the mortal remains of Most Rev. Dr. Rebeiro S.J., Dr. Antony Pimentel, Dr. John Aloysius Vasconels and Dr. Salvador Dos Rays were intered in the floor of St Mary's Forane Church at Puthenchira. In those days water-transport from Kodungallur to Puthenchira was very popular. Blessed Mariam Thresia, the foun-dress of the Holy Family Congregation hails from Puthenchira. She lived from 1876 to 1926. Together with Fr. Joseph Vithayathil, the vicar, she founded the Holy Family Congregation for sisters. The house wherein she lived, things she used and the dress with demarcations of her stigmata have been preserved intact now. Her mortal remains are re-interred at Kuzhikattussery convent chapel. Mother Mariam Thresia was beatified on 9th April 2000 and her cause for canonization is in due progress. The cause of S. D.Rev. Fr. Joseph Vithayathil is in the inetial process.