Fr. Antony Thachuparambil
1894–1963
Servant of God; vicar of Aranattukara East Church (1928–1933), later known as "the Apostle of Chelakkara"
Fr. Antony Thachuparambil was vicar of Aranattukara’s East Church from 1928 to 1933. The book remembers those years as a time of spiritual renewal in the parish.
A hill in the churchyard
His best-remembered project was a “Golgotha hill” for the Holy Week services. It was a temporary hill in the church compound, about as tall as a three-storey building, made from areca-palm trunks and sacks of sawdust. A parishioner, Chiramel Ouseph Devassy, built it. The Passion services of those years were held on it.
He had a deep love of the Eucharist. For his Eucharistic procession, the whole of Valiyangadi was decorated. He started prayer groups and parish associations. In his time many young women and men from Aranattukara chose to become nuns and priests.
It was also while he was vicar, in 1930, that the Tharakan family handed their English school over to the church. That school became today’s Tharakans School.
The Apostle of Chelakkara
He went on to serve Chelakkara, in the north of Thrissur district, for about three decades, and people there came to call him “the Apostle of Chelakkara”. The book gives his Chelakkara years as 1930–1963, which overlaps with his time in Aranattukara, so the exact dates need checking.
He died on 9 June 1963. On the same date in 2009, Mar Andrews Thazhath, Archbishop of Thrissur, announced that he had been declared a Servant of God, the first step on the road to sainthood. For Aranattukara, he remains the priest who made the parish a place where vocations grew.
Related
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.
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.
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.