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| India.com |
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| The Muttuchira church/en.wikipedia.org |
The Muttuchira church, one of the most ancient churches in India, is said to have been built in the 6th century AD. The local Hindu rulers were of great help to the newly arrived Christians in this area. Mention may be made of the dependants of the then llocal land owners Myal Pazhur Naboothiripadu and Mamalassery Kaimal. They helped the local Christian community build a new church in that area to cater to their spiritual needs. One family called Kallarveli family was behind the construction a church here. an agricultural area where they raised ginger and paddy.
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| Location map. Muttuchira, Kerala http://wikimapia.org |
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| Muttuchira, Church trekearth.com |
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| New Indian-Chennai News & More - ActiveBoard |
As the time went by, the church was patronized by more members and this resulted in the shortage of space during prayer in the church. To cope with more members, a spacious church was built in the 7th Century on the present plot of Kochupally (little church) inside the compound. In the 9th century AD all was not well with the church and it was severely damaged by the Mukalan rulers.The church was without bells that were removed by the local ruler. In the 13th century, the church was rebuilt with funds from various sources and was named ''The Holy Ghost''.
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| Ancient Painting at Muttuchira Churchen.wikipedia.org |
When the old church at Muttuchira was demolished to replace it with a new one, an ancient Thomas Cross, belonging to 5th century, was found inside the madbaha wall at Muttuchira church. Many churches in the near-by areas have Persian crosses. This St Thomas cross is set near the entrance inside the new Valiyapally church now. This church and the presbytery came into being during the period of Rev. Fr. Kuriakose Parambil, who had been the ward minister here since 1859. After 1890, it became a Forane church.
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| Muttuchira Inscriptions-Nasrani.net |
It is said that the stone Cross set in front of the church was presented to the church by Kallarveli Kurisingal Mathai Chacko in the thirteenth century. Earlier, Muttuchira was known as 'Njayapally'in olden days.. The name Muttuchira was adopted in the later period. In the Muttuchira church the 5 story 150 feet tall bell tower is an interesting one and came up when Rev. Fr. Ouseph Chakkalackal was the ward cleric in 1901. The fifth floor has three major bells.
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| Ancient Rock Inscription Muttuchira Church, en.wikipedia,org |
The major attestations in this historical church are the amazing mural paintings and the carvings. The stone engravings are in old Malayalam called Vattezhuthu-Nanam Monum. They are on a rectangular stone piece in two areas partitioned by a vertical line in the middle. They date back to AD1581 or later.
Muttuchira, a village in the Kottayam District Kerala, was earlier called Nayappalli as per old records. It was in the 6th century the Christian settlement of Muttuchira came up. The church was previously called as 'Spiritu Sancto' (Latin word for Holy Spirit) Antonio Gouvea, the Portuguese voyager recorded the visit of Alexis De Menezes, the Archbishop of Goa in 1599. He mentioned the name of village as Nayapili. French Scholar and Orientalist in January 1758, mentions about the Catholic church of Holy Ghost at Muttiera and mentions of Saint Sebastian .
https://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Holy_Ghost_Forane_church,_Muttuchira
Een.wikipedia.org
