Location Angamaly, Kerala Founded 1577 Function Church | Country India Opened 1567 Founder Abraham of Angamaly | |
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Denomination Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Former name(s) Mar Hormizd Metropolitan Cathedral Archdiocese Syro-Malabar Catholic Major Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly Similar Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chu, St Raphael's Cathedral, Little Flower Forane C, Little Flower Church - K, St John the Baptist Church - S | ||
Mar Hormizd Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Angamaly is a church located in Angamaly, Kerala, India. It was established in 1570 by Mar Abraham, the last Chaldean Metropolitan to reach Malabar Coast. It is dedicated to Mar Hormizd, a seventh century Chaldean saint.
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History
Mar Abraham who came to Malabar in 1570 settled in Angamaly as his See to govern the Saint Thomas Christians. Its jurisdiction was extended whole over India till the 16th century. The most ancient University for Malpan training was established at Angamaly before the arrival of the Portughese. The Chaldean bishop Mar Abraham was ordained as the Metropolitan and the Gate of All India and Rabban Hormiz Church was the Cathedral church. This title denotes a Quasi Patriarchal status with all India jurisdiction.
The church houses the tomb of Mar Abraham who died in 1597.
Mar Hormizd Church, built by Mar Abraham
After having made a successful escape from the Portuguese detention in Goa, Mar Abraham returned to Angamaly in 1570. In the same year, Mar Abraham built his first Cathedral Church namely Rabban Hormizd, a seventh century Abbot of the East Syrian Church, as its patron.
In 1578, as a response to the requests made on the part of the Jesuit missionaries who had been working in Angamaly and in the other centres of the Christians of St. Thomas, the pope sent plenary indulgences to the Church of Rabban Hormizd which the faithful could obtain four times a year for 25 years from the year of the election of the Metropolitan Mar Abraham. The indulgences covered two feasts of the Patron Rabban Hormizd that fell on the fifteenth day after Easter (Monday) and on the first of September. On 15 August 1579, as requested by Mar Abraham, the Jesuits laid the foundation stone of a new Cathedral Rabban Hormizd in the same place that was chosen by the Metropolitan.