# St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Parumala

St. Peter's and St. Paul's Orthodox Church also known as Parumala Pally or Parumala Seminary is a famous church in Kerala, India. This church is located in Parumala in Thiruvalla Taluk In Pathanamthitta district of Kerala and is a pilgrimage centre and mausoleum of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

## History

The village of Parumala is a small stretch of land on the shores of the river Pamba. Before the church was built, the Malankara Metropolitan, Pulikkottil Joseph Mar Dionysius II wanted to establish a seminary in the area. In 1885 a two-acre plot of land was donated by Arikupurathu Mathen Karnavar to Mar Dionysius. With the land there was already a temporary church built by the Arikupurathu Family. Chathurithiyil Geevarghese Mar Gregorios decided to rebuild the temporary church into a more befitting and beautiful church.
Mar Gregorios used the personal gifts he received as well as the donations from parishes to build a church and adjoining seminary building. On the feast of the Mother of God, Gregorios temporarily consecrated the church and celebrated the divine Eucharist in the presence of Mar Dionysius V (Pulikkottil Joseph Mar Dionysius II).
The first building was called "Azhippura" and was used for teaching church functionaries for the Orthodox Church, including providing lessons in Syriac. Dionysius eventually passed the responsibility for the seminary to Mar Gregorios in order to carry on the Syriac teaching sessions more efficiently and also to help him in other church matters. The Church is dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul.

## Saint Gregorios of Parumala

This church contains the tomb of the first canonized Christian saint from India, Geevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala, who died on 2 November 1902 at the age of 54. In 1947 he was declared a saint of the Church by Baselios Geevarghese II, the then Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan . Belief in his saintly qualities caused it to become a pilgrimage centre for devotees seeking his intercession.
Abraham Varghese of the New York Times wrote about his visit to the church saying
   Mar Gregorios’s benevolent image — a cross in one hand and a scepter in the other — had stared down at me from the wall of our house in Africa when I grew up; it now hangs in my study in Palo Alto. My grandfather was a deacon in this church, and my father worshiped here every Sunday until he left Kerala. My grandparents are buried in the adjacent cemetery. During our summer holidays, we would all walk from the ancestral home to the boat jetty on the Pampa river and then be poled across on long boats to the far bank where the church stood. Now, a broad bridge spans the river and the crumbling old church has been replaced by a postmodern one built in 1989.

## Present church

The present church, which can accommodate more than 2000 worshipers, was designed by acclaimed architect and award winner, Charles Correa. It is a circular design with an inner diameter of 39 meters. This circle is again divided into three segments by two chords of 16 meters length.
In 2018, under the direction of Fr. Ashwin Fernandes, the main altar wall of the church was iconographically adorned with the "largest icon painting in Malankara." The icon behind the throne includes Christ in the center, Saint Mary (Theotokos) to the left, the forerunner of Christ, Saint John the Baptist, to the right. Surrounding the three are the assembly of the apostles and disciples of Christ. Fluttering their wings above the crowd are the host of angels and archangels who ceaselessly glorify God.