India’s first European church completes 510 years

Kochi: Dec 19, 2013: India’s oldest European church observed its 510th anniversary with a seminar on December 17. St. Francis Church in Fort Kochi, Kerala, is now under the Church of South India. The church, originally built in 1503, has great historical significance as it had witnessed the European colonial struggle in the Indian subcontinent.

The International Forum for Cultural Heritage and Tradition (IFCHAT) organized the seminar on Tuesday at St Teresa’s Higher Secondary School. Member of Parliament Charles Diaz opened the seminar that passed a resolution urging the government to take steps to develop and protect Fort Kochi Parade Ground in the lines of Hyde Park, London.

IFCHAT president Austin Paul presided over the function and councilor Antony Kureethara, former principal Josephine Austin and Indo Portuguese Society director Ralf Fariya addressed the seminar. It was in this church that Vasco da Gama, the first European to discover a sea route to India from Europe around the African continent, was originally buried.

Gama died in Kochi in 1524 when he was on his third visit to India. His remains were removed to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon in 1538. The church now holds Gama’s gravestone on the ground at the southern side. The gravestones of other Portuguese are on the northern sidewall and the Dutch on the southern wall. A cenotaph in memory of the residents of Kochi who fell in the World War I was erected in 1920 in the church campus.

Gama first landed at Kappad near Kozhikode (formerly Calicut) in 1498. He was followed by Pedro Álvares Cabral and Afonso de Albuquerque who conquered Goa for the Portuguese. The king of Kochi (then Cochin) permitted the Portuguese traders to build a fort at Kochi. Within the fort, the Europeans built a church with a wooden structure, which was dedicated to St. Bartholomew. The neighborhood is now known as Fort Kochi.

In 1506, the Cochin king allowed Portuguese viceroy Francisco de Almeida to reconstruct wooden buildings in stone and masonry. The wooden church was rebuilt, presumably by the Franciscan friars, with bricks and mortar and a tiled roof. The work was over in 1516 and the church was dedicated to St. Anthony.

The Franciscans retained control over the church until the Dutch captured Cochin in 1663. The Portuguese were Catholics, and the Dutch Calvinist Protestants. The Dutch demolished all Catholic churches in Cochi, but retained St Francis. They reconditioned it and converted it into a government church.

When the British captured Kochi in 1795, they allowed the Dutch to retain the church. In 1804, the Dutch handed over the church to the Anglican Communion. It was placed under the Ecclesiastical Department of the Indian government. It is believed that the Anglicans changed the name of the patron saint to St. Francis.

The Church was declared a protected monument in 1923 under the Protected Monuments Act of 1904. As a protected monument it is under the Archaeological Survey of India but is owned by the North Kerala diocese of Church of South India. It has services on Sundays and commemorative days. On weekdays it is kept open for visitors.

Source: Mattersindia