A report from Hindu News paper on St. Francis church in Fort Kochi.
All the history yo half heard in the classroom, guess-wrote in the ex-arms, read in books and heard from tourists does not prepare you for what St. Francis Church, standing silently in Fort Kochi, narrates. Starting life in 1503 as a small wooden structure, the St. Francis Church has gracefully aged, watching the Pourtuguese , the Dutch and the British conquerors come up the back waters, and leave their footprints in and around it.
It's amazing how much of local and national history a church can reflect, especially one that has served the community for 505 years.
Preserving for prosperity.
Every church maintains a meticulous record of the parish families ' Says Father Stanly Mathirappilly, Director Ashir bhavan Ernalulam, a long time resident of those parts. "This is possible because all the major events- baptisms, weddings, funerals- happen in the church'. The St. Francis Church still has a pieces of this link to the past- the 'Doop Book', a Baptism and marriage register from 1751-1804, maintained for 40 Years by one Predikant Cornelies. Repaired and rebound in its original style. It is preserved in the vestry. Visitors get to see a photocopy.
Fort Kochi (Formerly Cochin) in the oldest European settlement in India. And St. Francis Church is the oldest European Church. Five years after Vascoda Gama landed in Calicut, one Alponso Albuquerque wangled permission from the Rajah of Kochin to build a fort in Kochi. The fort had walls of coconut trunks held with iron bands, and the Portuguese sailor- traders built a church dedicated to St. Bartholomew in the middle.
Within three years, Don Almeyda, the Viceroy, had the Rajah's nod to re-build it with mortar and stone, it was opened in 1516 in the name of St. Antony. Vascoda gama returned to Cochin in 1524, died on Christmas eve and was burried in the St. Francis Church.
All the history yo half heard in the classroom, guess-wrote in the ex-arms, read in books and heard from tourists does not prepare you for what St. Francis Church, standing silently in Fort Kochi, narrates. Starting life in 1503 as a small wooden structure, the St. Francis Church has gracefully aged, watching the Pourtuguese , the Dutch and the British conquerors come up the back waters, and leave their footprints in and around it.
It's amazing how much of local and national history a church can reflect, especially one that has served the community for 505 years.
Preserving for prosperity.
Every church maintains a meticulous record of the parish families ' Says Father Stanly Mathirappilly, Director Ashir bhavan Ernalulam, a long time resident of those parts. "This is possible because all the major events- baptisms, weddings, funerals- happen in the church'. The St. Francis Church still has a pieces of this link to the past- the 'Doop Book', a Baptism and marriage register from 1751-1804, maintained for 40 Years by one Predikant Cornelies. Repaired and rebound in its original style. It is preserved in the vestry. Visitors get to see a photocopy.
Fort Kochi (Formerly Cochin) in the oldest European settlement in India. And St. Francis Church is the oldest European Church. Five years after Vascoda Gama landed in Calicut, one Alponso Albuquerque wangled permission from the Rajah of Kochin to build a fort in Kochi. The fort had walls of coconut trunks held with iron bands, and the Portuguese sailor- traders built a church dedicated to St. Bartholomew in the middle.
Within three years, Don Almeyda, the Viceroy, had the Rajah's nod to re-build it with mortar and stone, it was opened in 1516 in the name of St. Antony. Vascoda gama returned to Cochin in 1524, died on Christmas eve and was burried in the St. Francis Church.
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