Ernakulam, Vicariate
Apostolic Of, in India. In May, 1887, the churches of Syrian Rite
in Malabar were separated from those of the Latin Rite and formed
into the Vicariates of Trichur and Kottayam under European
prelates. In response, however, to the petitions of the Syrian
Catholics desirous of obtaining bishops of their own race and
rite, Leo XIII by his Brief "Quae Rei Sacrae" (July 28,
1896) divided the territory anew into three vicariates: Trichur,
Changanacherry, and Ernakulam. The last comprises all the churches
of Syrian Rite between the Chalakudy River and Lake Vempanatu,
excluding the Suddhist churches of Bramangalam, Caringoth, and
Chumkam. The Suddhists are Syro-Malabar Christians, descended from
the fourth-century Syrian immigrants; they were formed into a
distinct ecclesiastical unit on August 29, 1911, when the
Vicariate Apostolic of Kottayam was revived for them. The
Vicariate of Ernakulam contains about 814,000 inhabitants, of whom
101,400 are Catholics; the chief language spoken is Malayalam.
Msgr. Aloysius Pareparambil, titular Bishop of no (b. on August 1,
1848, named first vicar Apostolic on August 11, 1896), was
consecrated at Kandy, Ceylon, on October 25, 1896, and resides at
Ernakulam. On August 29, 1911, Msgr. Augustine Kaudatkil was
appointed coadjutor bishop. There are 81 parish churches, 20
chapels with resident pastors, 112 secular priests, 32 divinity
students at Puthenpally and 11 at the Papal Seminary, Kandy,
Ceylon; 6 convents, 116 native Carmelite Tertiary nuns and 28
postulants; 2 catechumenates; 1 orphanage with 25 orphans; 7
boarding-schools with 267 pupils, 201 primary and secondary
schools with 12,386 pupils; 412 converts in 1911; 39 Jacobite
churches with 32,000 members; 1 industrial school. In the
printing-press attached to this school there are published the
"Messenger of the Sacred Heart" (monthly) and
"Sathianadam" (weekly), both in Malayalam; "Eucharist
and Priest", an English monthly periodical of the Priests'
Eucharistic League, and "Promptuarium Canonico-Liturgicum",
a Latin monthly for the missionary clergy. There is a Lazarist
community of 3 Fathers and 1 lay brother at Thotacam. The
Syro-Chaldaic Carmelite Congregation of Malabar has 4 convents and
31 members in the vicariate; this institute, the first of its kind
in India, was begun at Mannanam in 1831. The first priests were
professed on December 8, 1855, and on October 1, 1860, the
congregation was affiliated to the Discalced Carmelites. Its rules
and constitutions were approved by the Holy See tentatively on
January 1, 1895, and definitively on March 12, 1906.
A. A. Macerlean.
