KOCHI: The renovated St. George Orthodox Church at Mattanchery, better known as the Koonan Kurishu Pally, will be declared as an international pilgrim centre at a two-day function scheduled on February 24 and 25. The church entered the annals of history following the oath taken by Christians of Kerala in 1653 protesting against the the attempt to impose the hegemony of the Roman Church by the Portugese. The followers of the Malankara Orthodox Church project the incident as a turning point in the history of Christianity in the country.
The Koonan Kurishu Sathyam refers to the action of thousands of native Christians assembling before the church and taking an oath to preserve the traditions followed by them since AD 52 and resist the attempts to impose the Roman rituals amongst the native Christians. “The incident is the first attempt to resist colonialism and western invasion in the country”, says Fr. Benjamin Thomas, vicar and manager of Koonan Kurishu Pilgrim Centre.
Apart from the historical legacy the method adopted for the renovation of the church building assumes importance, he said. The new church has been built using clay to keep faith with the ancient architecture heritage. “The use of cement and steel have been completely avoided and visitors from India and abroad are coming to the centre to see the architecture of the building,” he said. Vinu Daniel of Wall Makers, a Kochi-based design firm, is behind the architecture of the renovated building.
The renovation of the church was undertaken with the help of many people by the Koonan Kurishu Pally Development Council with John Samuel, a businessman based in the UAE, acting as the general convener of the council. The council was responsible for formulating the design and selection of the architects after a careful scrutiny of ancient church architecture. The concept of domes, vaults and arches used in the renovated building has been drawn from early symbols of eastern Christianity. Rammed earth and compressed earth blocks are dominant materials used in the design process. Masons received training by the architect himself in building with compressed stabilised earth block using ancient Nubian technology of arch and vault building without extensive shuttering.
