Holy Muroon ceremony of St Antony’s Jacobite syrian church held.

Mangalore Today

Mangalore, Jan. 31: His Beatitude Basaliyos Thomas I, Catholicos of the East, along with four eminent Metropolitans performed the Holy Muroon ceremony of the renovated St Antonies Jacobite syrian church at Jeppu, Mangalore on Sunday, January 31 .

The Holy Muroon Mass was served by Five Bishops in unison in the alter of the Church. It was indeed a specialty ceremony of the consecration the church. Joseph More Gregorious, Bishop of Kochi, Mathews More Ivanios, Bishop of Kandanad, Mathews More Eprem, Bishop of Angamaly and Yakub More Antonios,Bishop and Honnavara were part of the Muroon ceremony.

 

 

 

 

A Eucharistic procession was taken out from the Church to the St Antony’s statue at the Valencia gate and offered a special prayer before returning to the church. Over five thousand devotees took part in the procession
On this occasion, the Catholicos of the East preached the message of love and peace to the devotees assembled in the church.

Architect Santhosh John, Isac E P, senior member, A C Jayaraj, secretary of church committee, Fr.Sunny John, Vicar of the church were honoured.

 

 

 

A public function was held as part of the consecration at 5.30 pm on January 30 at the Church grounds. The grand occasion was presided over by His Beatitude Baselios Thomas 1 Catholicos of the East. Sri. Oscar Fernandes, former union minister inaugurated the program. Dr D. Veerendra Heggade, Dharmadhikari of Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala, was the chief guest of the occasion.

Dr J S Sadananda, CSI Bishop of Karnataka Southern Diocese, Bishop Gee Varghese Mor Polycarpose of the Honnavar Mission, Bishop Joseph Mor Gregonos of Cochin Diocese, Bishop Mathews Mor Ivanios of Kandanad Diocese, Mathews Mor Aprem, Assistant Bishop of Angamali Diocese, Grace Yacob Mor Anthonios, Assistant Bishop of Honnavar Mission,  Rev. Denis Moraes Prabhu, Vicar General of Mangalore Catholic Diocese, U T Khader, Legislators and Vinay Kumar Sorake, former MP of Udupi,  were the guests of honour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to the ceremonies, on January 29, Assistant Bishop Yacob Mor Athonios of Honnavar Mission, blessed the Holy Cross at the Church.  Fr Ebi Elanganamattam of  Kerala, delivered a homily on the Holy Scriptures.

 

HIST0RY

The St Antony’s Jacobite Syrian Church at Jeppu was established in the year 1937 under the purview of the Honavar Mission and under the direct and supreme leadership of His Holiness Moran Mar Ignatius Zakha I, the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, at Damascus in Syria. The St Antony’s Jacobite Syrian Church in Mangalore was founded by Fr George Pinto, a Mangalorean by origin who was also the Founder of the Honavar Mission. After the demise of Fr George Pinto in Mumbai in 1954, Rev Jacob Kurikkal Cor Episcopa took charge as the Director of the Honavar Mission and even served the church in Jeppu. In the later years, Fr Philip Pallichera, Fr M P George (now HV Geevarghese Mor Polycarpose) Rev Thomas Cor-Episcopa, Rev.  P J Jacob Cor Episcopa (now HG Yacob Mor Antonios), Fr P K Abraham, Fr Kuriakose Kavanatil, Fr Jacob Markose (Now HG Markose Mor Christostamus) served as Vicars in the Church.

The Church since its inception has been giving due importance to charity and has never looked back in  extending financial aid to orphanages and old age homes apart from helping  education of poor students and extending monetary aid for the marriages of girls hailing from  economically backward families.

The developmental and charitable activities of the Church got a further boost after His Holiness H V Geevarghese Mor Polycarpose took charge as Director of the Honavar Mission. At present, the Mission is also running 32 schools, orphanages and oldage homes in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi districts under a registered organization named St Antony’s Educational Society.

 

 

RENOVATION

The management of the St Jacobite Syrian Church at Jeppu decided to go in for renovation of the church building which was in a quite dilapidated state, in October 2005 Accordingly, the renovation began under the guidance of eminent architect Santosh John.

The present Vicar Fr Sunny John has been serving the Church since 2003 and has been playing a pivotal role in the progress of the church. Isac E P, a senior member on the church management and its Secretary, senior advocate AC Jayaraj took the leadership in building a new look, well decorated church in the same place of the old church.