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| Keywords: PATRICKSCHURCH.jpg HISTORY OF ST PATRICK �S CHURCH THOOTHUKUDI St Patrick �s Church Vadakkur in Thoothukudi in the district of Thoothukudi is a protestant church It is located west of the sea shore and near to Thoothukudi Railway Station St Patrick �s church has a long history of its own It is considered as the oldest protestant church in Thoothukudi and called the mother of all protestant churches in Thoothukudi which is popularly known as the Pearl City Originally constructed as the thatched shed it has gone through many phases of construction modification and renovation Today it stands majestically and impressively In the year 1839 St Patrick �s church was situated in a small thatched shed in Vadakkur Some ten families attended the Church services The important person among them was a customs clerk He served in the church for nearly 25 years This fact is mentioned in the stone plaque fixed on the western side of the vestry inside the church building From 1861 onwards men and women mostly residing in Vadakkur came into the faith on Jesus Christ It was from then onwards that the Christian congregation witnessed an appreciable growth in numbers In the meantime kearns worked hard for the improvement of Thoothukudi There were more Christians in Vadakkur So Kearns a missionary in Puthiamputhur felt that the congregation needed a church near their habitations in vadakkur He got a land from the Government; and laid the foundation in July 1868 to build a Church GNANAPRAKASAM 1869-1871 In 1869 a Pastor namely Gnanaprakasam was appointed as the pastor of Thoothukudi He was ordained by Bishop Frederick Gell on 31 1 1869 at Palayamkottai Gnanaprakasam was the first pastor of Thoothukudi He was the second son of Daniel native of Idaiyangudi Daniel was one of the early Christians of that place He did yeoman service in his new pastorate and helped kearns a great deal in collecting money for the building of the church As the first pastortate chairman he was put on the list of missionaries and treated as such though Thoothukudi congregation paid his salary When Thoothukudi was made a pastorate on the 2nd of February 1869 a new era of progress dawned In September 1871 D Gnanaprakasam was transferred to kumbakonam SWAMIDASON 1871-1879 In Gnanaprahasam �s place A Swamidason a candidate for ordination was appointed Swamidason was ordained in December 1871 and he took charge soon after He gave full attention to the building work The church building was completed in 1872 The missionary J E Kearns wrote a year later on 13 12 1872 the following I am now completing a neat and substantial church in Thoothukudi and hope to have it opened in the first week of February for divine service The building is quite an ornament to the town and is regarded by native Christians with pardonable pride It is thoroughly well-built But to me the church will be known as �St-Patrick �s Church � Swamidason served here till 1879 During his eight years he helped the building of not only the church but also the parsonage and a small school room near them During his devoted ministry the congregation grew in number and in Christian life INAUGURATION OF ST PATRICKS �CHURCH Frederick Gell of Madras came to palayamkottai again in January 1873 After few days the Bishop went to Thoothukudi on Friday the 17th January The 19th January 1873 the second Sunday in Epiphany he dedicated the Church for divine worship with the name of St Patrick �s Church Thoothukudi This is the name of a saint form Ireland Patrick who lived in Ireland during the 4th century was a very pious person In 1855 Kearns named the church at Nagalapuram as �St Patrick �s Church � Generally many C S I churches are named of the saints BISHOP CALD WELL In 1877 during the month of April Bishop Caldwell arrived Thoothukudi harbour from Calcutta A grand welcome was given to him under the leadership of Swamidason Then the Bishop held a thanks giving service at the English Church After that a large number of Christians were fed by an Asanam feast In the evening the Bishop held another Thanks giving service at St Patrick �s Church and gave the message Caldwell mentioned in the SPG Report as follows Next to Tirunelveli Thoothukudi was a fast improving town So I decided to transfer some institutions from sawyerpuram to Thoothukudi S DEVASAGAYAM 1874 � 1881 D SAMUEL 1881 � 1889 and D PAKYAM 1889 � 1896 were served as priest in St Patrick �s Church A J Godden a young missionary of 29 years was working in sawyerpuram He was an able administrator During his first official visit to Thoothukudi in 1893 he preached to the congregation in St Patrick �s Church Due to the lack of space in the church most of the congregation had to stand outside He therefore decided to demolish the church and rebuild another at a cost of Rs 20 000/- The extension work of the church was begun in 1894 D Pakyam stained himself much to have the work completed His labours were crowned with success They extended and renovated the church which was opened for divine worship in 1895 In 1907 this church building was constructed in another direction This has been mentioned in the S P G Report by Dignam The opening of the new church has had a good effect upon the attendance at services and on Sunday mornings and at the chief festivals the church is well filled with a congregation of 800 or 900 people As the building constructed in 1907 was not enough for the congregation it was decided to expand the church building Rev A Diraviam Jesudason was the pastor of the church from 1960 -1966 At that time Koilpillai the chief Engineer and Administrator of Thoothukudi Harbour gave his full support for the construction So the expansion work was started in 1965 and was completed quickly The building was re-dedicated by the Bishop Rt Rev A G Jebaraj Tirunelveli In 1992 Rev Pitchamuthu took pains to construct concrete terrace in the portico removing the tiles There is a small brass stand used for Bible Reading The Pulpit is placed at the right side of the building There are pews for choir boys special seats for presbyters and also special chair for the Bishop There is also a tank used for adult baptism From the year 1991 the church has been kept open from 5 am to 9 pm for the convenience of people those who want to pray on the compound wall an arrangement has been made to keep the Bible open with necessary light Since the letters are big enough the passers by can read the passage of the day In fact one could see many people halting before the Holy Scripture and reading it ARCHITECTURE OF THE CHURCH Generally the doors and windows of all Christian churches will be in arch shape Likewise the doors and windows of St Patrick �s Church are also in the shape of an arch The windows have been built in arch shape After constructing the concrete terrace on both sides of the church building tiles were fixed in the central upper part of the walls The concrete pillars in the centre though small are strong and sturdy The small towers outside the building are designed as ancient forts Thermo coal ceiling is fixed above the altar floor and side walls have been polished THE MEASUREMENT OF THE CHURCH AT PRESENT AS FOLLOWS Altar 14 10m x 8 80m Sitting space 24 65m x 14 45m East West Sitting space 21 10m x 6 20m North South Portico 7m x 4 95m Nearly thousands people can be accommodated inside the church Note This information and specification details are briefly taken from the project submitted by R LYDIA SOPHIA M A History of ST MARY �S COLLEGE THOOTHUKUDI 2008 - 2009 ST PATRICK'S CHURCH HISTORY 2009-10-16 ARUN EBENEZER + 91 98941-76346 ST PATRICK'S CHURCH TUTICORIN TAMILNADU INDIA CHURCH OF SOUTH INDIA Churches in Thoothukudi district Buildings in Thoothukudi | ||||
