Ecclesiastical Details

The Church in India traces its origin to the missionary endevours of St Thomas the Apostle who arrived in India in 52 AD Due to this apostolic foundation the ancient Christian Community in India was known as the St Thomas Christians This Church that remained one holy catholic and apostolic was autonomous and remained in communion with the Universal Church till the 17th century A movement to Latinize the Indian Church with the arrival of Portuguese missionaries resulted in a schism and a portion of this undivided community eventually came into contact with the Jacobites under the Patriarch of Antioch-

There were many attempt for reunion with the Catholic Church ever since the split The efforts the Servant of God Archbishop Mar Ivanios and Bishop Jacob Mar Theophilos paved way to the historical event of Reunion Movement in the Malankara Church On 20 September 1930 the Universal Church received the Malankara Church into the Catholic communion with its liturgy customs and jurisdiction -As the Reunion Movement developed Pope Pius XI established the Syro-Malankara Catholic Hierarchy for the reunited people and established the Archieparchy of Trivandrum and the Eparchy of Tiruvalla by the Apostolic Constitution Christo Pastorum Principi of 11 June 1932 The Eparchy of Tiruvalla extended from the River Pampa in the south to the River Ponnani in the north

The migration of people from Kerala to the southern parts of Karnataka began in 1950--s The pastoral works in Karnataka commenced with the extension of the Eparchy of Tiruvalla on 14 February 1958 by the Holy See with the Decree Prot 534/43 In the second half of the 1960 Most Rev Zacharias Mar Athanasios sent Fr Thomas Neriamparambil to explore the possibilities of the extension of the Malankara Mission in Dakshina Kannada And later in 1967 the first Malankara Catholic Rite Mass was celebrated by Rev Fr Isaac Koottaplackal later who became the Bishop of Thiruvalla In the same year Rev Fr Thomas Thannickakuzhy who was appointed Vicar and send to South Kanara (Dakshina Kannada) to work among the Malankara faithful living in this region Desiring to establish the identity of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and to accelerate the Reunion Movement in the newly organized territories Mar Athanasios requested the Holy See to bifurcate the Eparchy of Tiruvalla and to erect a new Eparchy with Sulthan Bathery as its See -His Holiness Pope John Paul II responded to this request and erected the new Eparchy of Bathery on 28 October 1978 -Most Rev Cyril Mar Baselios was appointed as its first Bishop-

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After the erection of the Eparchy of Bathery there has been a great progress in the evangelization work in Karnataka However the distance from the eparchial headquarters as well as the shortage of priests and religious were strong obstacles in organising the migrated people and founding new missions in this area -In spite of the said difficulties due to the selfless hard work of priests both eparchial and religious who belong to the Order of the Imitation of Christ (OIC) and the religious sisters belonging to the congregations of the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ (SIC) the Daughters of Mary (DM) the Deena Sevana Sabha (DSS) and the Holy Spirit Sisters (OSS) 20 parishes and mission centres were established The Eparchy and the religious congregations also started a few educational institutions to impart a value-based education to the children and youth irrespective of their social religious and cultural differences There aroused a desire in the Faithful of our Church in this region to be organised into an Eparchy for their ecclesial growth and development-

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On the recommendation of Most Rev Geevarghese Mar Divannasios the then Bishop of Bathery taking into consideration of the geographical cultural and linguistic identity of the northern region of the Eparchy of Bathery the Holy Episcopal Synod of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church convoked from 17 to 21 November 2008 decided to erect a new eparchy in the region-

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Bearing in mind the geographical position of the city of Puttur and the other diocesan centres of other Churches the city of Puttur was fixed as the Episcopal See of the new eparchy In consultation with the Apostolic See His Beatitude Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholicos the Father and Head of the Church with the Apostolic Decree Prot No2/2010 erected the Eparchy of Puttur on 25 January 2010 He also transferred Most Rev Geevarghese Mar Divannasios from the See of Bathery and appointed him as the first Bishop of the Eparchy of Puttur The Pro-cathedral of the new eparchy was fixed to be St Mary--s--s Church Noojibalthila and the Patron Saint of the Eparchy is St Joseph With the enthronement of its first Bishop at St Mary--s Church Noojibalthila the Pro-Cathedral the new eparchy was inaugurated on 15 April 2010-

The Eparchy consists of nine civil districts of Karnataka State with a vast geographical area of 51950 sq km The civil districts are Dakshina Kannada Chamarajnagar Chickmagalur Hassan Kodagu Mandya Mysore Shimoga and Udupi It has two ecclesiastical districts at present namely South Kanara (Dakshina Kannada) and Shimoga