Description of the attraction
Parumala is a small settlement located on the island of the same name on the Pampa River, which is located in the Pattanamtitta region in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The town is primarily famous for its Christian shrines. So on its territory are the Syrian Orthodox Church, as well as Parumala Thirumeni - the Tomb of St. Gregory, one of the most revered Christian saints in India, which is located on the territory of the Orthodox Indian Church of Malankara. In Parumal, the Ormapperunnal religious festival is held annually on November 1st and 2nd, which attracts a huge number of pilgrims from all over the world.
The biggest attraction of the town is, of course, the building of the Syro-Malankar Church - an independent Eastern Orthodox Church, which was created by the Indian Christian Society of the Apostle Thomas, which was organized back in the 1st century. The church uses the Eastern Syrian rite, because it was the Eastern Assyrian Church, up to the 15th century, that sent its metropolitans and bishops to Kerala. But, after the intervention of the Portuguese, the church gradually became Latinized, which led to serious disagreements within the community, which lasted for many centuries, and only by the 20th century, namely in 1930, the Syro-Malankara Church was finally formed, joining Catholic Rome. In 2005, the organization received the official status of the Supreme Archdiocese.
The church building itself is a rounded snow-white, futuristic structure topped with a large cross and decorated with dove-shaped windows. Its diameter is about 39 meters, and at the same time it can accommodate up to 2000 parishioners. The foundation of this church was laid in 1995 on the site of an old building that was built a hundred years earlier - back in 1895.
