Category:Roman Catholic Diocese of Quilon



This is the most ancient diocese in India. According to tradition, St. Thomas the Apostle established seven churches along the west coast of India, and Quilon is the second on the list of the seven churches. Quilon was the See of one of the two Bishops consecrated by St. Thomas and soon rose to be a flourishing Christian center. Marco Polo visited India in 1292 and testified to the presence of a Christian community in Quilon. In 1329, Pope John XXII (in captivity in Avignon) erected Quilon as the first Diocese in the whole of Indies. On August 21, 1329, the French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani of Severac was appointed as the first Bishop of Quilon.

The Portuguese missionaries made Quilon one of their most important centers of evangelization. St. Francis Xavier laboured here for several years. He established a Seminary in Quilon and his letters to Rome give testimony of a dynamic Christian community in Quilon. It is worth noting that Quilon is the only city where both the Apostle St. Thomas and the great missionary of the East St. Francis Xavier spread the Gospel of Christ.

In 1661 the Portuguese who tasted defeat from the Dutch, left Quilon. The Dutch who took control over Quilon, destroyed catholic churches and persecuted Catholics. The Christians of Quilon went through a dark period till 1741. The Dutch, defeated by Marthandavarma the King of Travancore, had to leave Quilon. Yet another dark period for the Church in Quilon was in 1808 when Velu Thampi Dalava unleashed a fierce persecution on Christians.

The Diocese of Quilon has a unique distinction of leading many a struggle to protect the legitimate rights of Christians in the State and in the Nation. On several occasions when successive state governments enacted legislation to undermine the rights of Christians in the educational sphere, it was left to this Diocese to challenge such inroads into the fundamental rights of Christians as a minority community in this country and assert the right of Christians to establish and manage educational institutions and thus spread the message of the Gospel to the society at large. This is still being promoted today as Most Rev. Stanley Roman, installed as the thirteenth Bishop of the most ancient Diocese of India, continues by starting a self-financing College of Nursing in the diocese, along with many other innovative programs to assure a quality education is available for all in his care.