Bishop Joseph Pastor Neelankavil
1930–2021
CMI priest from Aranattukara and the second Bishop of Sagar (1987–2006)
Joseph Neelankavil was born in Aranattukara on 19 March 1930, the feast of St. Joseph. He was the eldest son of Neelankavil Lazar and Palathinkal Kunjannam. The Neelankavil family had been among those who promised help to St. Chavara when he founded the Elthuruth monastery in 1856.
From Tharakans School to Rome
He went to school at Tharakans School in Aranattukara and then joined the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), the congregation founded by St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara. On 15 October 1951 he received the religious habit at Ambazhakkad and took the name Pastor, Latin for “shepherd”.
His training took him to Mannanam, Koonammavu and Chethipuzha, to Pune for philosophy and to Dharmaram College, Bangalore, for theology (1957–1960). Cardinal Joseph Parecattil ordained him priest on 17 May 1960. He worked first in the social apostolate of the Thrissur diocese. In 1963 he went to Rome, where he studied pastoral sociology and canon law and earned a doctorate in canon law from the Lateran University.
Shepherd of Sagar
In 1987 he became Bishop of Sagar, in Madhya Pradesh, after Bishop Clement Thottungal. He was its second bishop. The book describes him as a bishop who put fresh energy into the diocese’s mission work and carried its people in his heart.
He never lost touch with home and often joined in Aranattukara’s parish celebrations. After retiring in 2006 he lived at the Sagar Mission Home at Kuttur, near Thrissur. He died in 2021, during the Covid years. The book links his calling, and that of Mar Antony Chirayath, to the holiness of Chavara, who once said Mass in their parish church.
Related
Tharakan's School, Aranattukara
The parish school beside St. Thomas Church, which grew from a village writing school into Tharakan's High School and taught generations of Aranattukara children.
St. Thomas Church, Aranattukara
The parish church at the heart of Aranattukara, whose story runs from a first church in 1796, through a long division, to reunion in 1964 and the church we see today.
The Schools That Shaped Aranattukara
From village writing schools taught by Hindu teachers to Tharakan's School, the girls' high schools and St. Aloysius College at Elthuruth, this is how Aranattukara learned to read, and how its classrooms helped heal a divided parish.