Sacred Heart Malankara Syrian Catholic Church or referred as ''S H Church'' is located in the village of

Mylapra Mylapra is a small town in Pathanamthitta district in the Indian state of Kerala. It comes under the Mylapra Panchayath. The town is situated on the way to the famous Hindu pilgrim center, Sabarimala. The Main Eastern Highway (Punalur–Pa ...

, near

Pathanamthitta Pathanamthitta (), is a municipality, city in southern Kerala, India, spread over an area of . It is the administrative capital of Pathanamthitta district. The town has a population of 37,538 (as of 2011 census). The Hindu pilgrim centre Sab ...

, on the road side of the

Main Eastern Highway The Main Eastern Highway is the lifeline of the high range townships of the midlands and highlands of eastern kerala Kerala state, India. It is also known as Punalur-Muvattupuzha Highway. Main Eastern Highway is categorized as State High ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. It is home to one of the first

Syro-Malankara Catholic Church The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, also known as the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic '' sui iuris'' particular church that employs the West Syriac Rite and is in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church posse ...

communities and is the biggest and oldest established church in the Eparchy of Pathanamthitta. This church is the patron of two schools,

Mount Bethany EHSS Mount Bethany English Medium Higher Secondary School is a school in Kerala, India. The school began providing education to lower primary level classes in the late 1970s. Later the school added further classes and now serves classes from Kinderga ...

and S H Higher Secondary School.

History

Soon after the reunion movement in 1930 by Archbishop Geevarghese Mar Ivanios, about five families from Mylapra reached Thirumoolapuram and behold the Catholic Faith in the presence of Jacob Mar Theophilos. They established a small

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

named St. George Malankara Catholic Church in

on 9 June 1932 with 29 families and 106 members. Rev. Fr. M.T Philipos (Kumbazha Achan) served as the first Vicar of the parish. The history of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

took a diversion on 19 January 1936 when Rev. Fr. A.G. Abraham Thengumtharamedayil (Mylapra Achan) with a group of more than 100 families embraced the

before Archbishop Geevarghese Mar Ivanios at a ceremony held in the Mylapra school. When the community grew up, it was essential to build a large church to accommodate the faithful and so the church construction was started on 13 March 1941, with the foundation stone being laid by Archbishop Geevarghese Mar Ivanios. It was the diligent works of Rev. Fr. A.G. Abraham Thengumtharamedayil and K I Thomas Kalayil which made the ambiguous task possible. The church construction was completed on 15 September 1944 and the church was renamed as Sacred Heart Malankara Catholic Church, due to a request made by the German family who were the main sponsors. Rev. Fr. A.G. Abraham Thengumtharamedayil was the first vicar of this church. After 58 yrs, the parish vicar and the committee members decided to reconstruct the church in 2002, due to the lack of space. The foundation stone was laid by Moran Mor Cyril Baselios Catholicos on 12 January 2003 and was reconstructed under the leadership of Rev. Fr. John G Vadakepuram and M T Thomas Mannil. The church was consecrated by Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholicos along with

Joshua Mar Ignathios Joshua Mar Ignathios (born 24 May 1950) was the Eparch of the Eparchy of Mavelikara of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the state of Kerala, India. He retired as Eparch on 30th May 2025. Family history and childhood He was born at Kot ...

and

Yoohanon Mar Chrysostom Yoohanon Chrysostom Kalloor (born 19 May 1944) was the second bishop of the Eparchy of Marthandom (1998–2010) and the first bishop of the Eparchy of Pathanamthitta (2010–2019) of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. He retired from Pathanamth ...

in a ceremony held on 28 and 29 December 2007.

Educational institutions

* Mount Bethany English Higher Secondary School, Mylapra *Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Mylapra *Sacred Heart Teachers Training College, Mylapra

Gallery

File:Mylapra achen.jpg, Rev. Fr. A G Abraham Thengumtharamedayil (Mylapra Achan) File:Msg Curia.JPG, Rev. Fr. Jose Chamakalayil with other curia members File:Ordination at church.JPG, Ordination of priests held at the Church

References

External links

The Official WebsiteThe Eparchy of PathanmthittaMalankara Catholic News
{{Churches of Kerala Eastern Catholic churches in Kerala Syro-Malankara Catholic church buildings Churches in Pathanamthitta district Churches completed in 1932