Best Articles: 2013

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

மணல் மாதா

History of Church

வரலாறு

In the first century AD, St.Thomas, started spreading christianity in the state of kerala, which is on the west coast of India. By preaching about Lord Jesus, he started to draw the Indian people towards Christianity. During that period. St.Thomas started healing many people from deadly diseases. By doing those miraculous things, his fame began to spread across Kerala and neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

During the first century A.D., the southern tip of India, was under the regime of Pandya Ruler Kandappa Rasa. The king and his family was suffering from a lot of diseases. During this period, he came to know about the miraculous power of St.Thomas through the traders who used to visit Kerala for selling their spices. On hearing about St.Thomas, the king left for Kerala immediately to meet him and described his sufferings and brought St.Thomas to Tamil Nadu.

With the blessing of Lord Jesus, St.Thomas healed the sufferings of King and his family. The king was surprised by the miraculous powers of St.Thomas.

St.Thomas preached Christianity to the King and his followers and they soon started following Christianity. St.Thomas renamed the King as " Sabor ".

As a mark of respect, the King donated 3 cents of land to St.Thomas to build a church for Mother Mary. As per tradition in those days, St.Thomas built the church with palm leaves. This piece of land was the FIRST in INDIA to be donated to Christianity.

In this church, St.Thomas embibed a holy cross made of wood and instructed the people to pray the cross. St.Thomas marked the letters INRI on the top portion of the cross. The church built on 3 cents of land donated to St.Thomas is the " Athisaya Manalmatha Church ".

Wherever St.Thomas went, he preached people about Lord Jesus and Mother Mary's miracles. His preachings has been the reason for the fame of Mother Mary in India. This is the history of Manalmatha Church and it is dated back to 2002 years.

The statue of Mother Mary in this church is made of wood. But there is no proof, literature as to how this statue came to this church.

After the death of St.Thomas, St.Xavier started preaching Christianity in India. He started preaching Holy Bible in Southern part of Tamil Nadu. During that time he was preaching in Manapadu Malai. St.Xavier came to know about the church of Manalmatha in Kanakkan Kudieruppu and he also came to know that the Christians in Kanakkan Kudieruppu were all followers of St.Thomas and he was very eager to visit the " Athisaya Manalmatha church ".

When St.Xavier came to see Manalmatha Church, a lady was seen weeping with her dead son besides her. She was praying to mother mary to give life to her son. Seeing this St.Xavier started praying to mother Mary and dead boy got back his life. This young boy became a disciple of St.Xavier and this incident has been hand written by St.Xavier himself in his diary which is kept in Rome.

Christianity which came into existence in Kanakkan Kudieruppu, started to spread across several villages. Christianity was particularly very popular in a village called " Vadalivilai ". St.Xavier who came to Vadalivilai was surprised by the faith shown by the people in this village towards Christianity. All Christians in this village lived together in unity. Today this village is called : SOKKAN KUDIERUPPU ".