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Steeped in history
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offbeat St. Francis Church in Kochi has seen it all
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Photo: Mahesh Harilal
standing tall St. Francis Church in Fort Kochi
All the history you half-heard in the classroomdoes not prepare you for what St. Francis Church (SFC), standing silently in Fort Kochi, narrates. Starting life in 1503 as a small wooden structure, the SFC has gracefully aged, watching the Portuguese,
the Dutch and the British conquerors come up the backwaters, and leave their footprints in and around it. It’s amazing how much of local and national history a church can reflect, especially one that has served the community for 505 years.
“Every church maintains a meticulous record of the parish families,” says Fr. Stanley Mathirappilli, Director, Ashirbhavan, Ernakulam, a long-time resident of those parts.
“This is possible because all the major events — baptisms, weddings, funerals — happen in the church.” The SFC still has a piece of this link to the past — the ‘Doop Book’, a baptism and marriage register from 1751–1804, maintained for 40 years by one Predikant Cornelies. Repaired and rebound in its original style, it is preserved in the vestry. Visitors get to see a photocopy.
Five years after Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut, Alphonso Albuquerque wangled permission from the Rajah of Cochin to build a fort in Kochi. The fort had walls of coconut trunks held with iron bands, and the Portuguese sailor-traders built a church dedicated to St. Bartholomew in the middle.
Within three years, Dom Almeyda, the Viceroy, had the Rajah’s nod to re-build it with mortar and stone. It was opened in 1516 in the name of St. Antony. Vasco da Gama returned to Cochin in 1524, died on Christmas eve and was buried in this church. The adventurer’s body lay there for 14 years till his remains were shipped to Portugal. The spot is marked in the church.
When the Dutch arrived in 1663, they ordered Catholic priests to leave and demolished all the convents and churches. The CSF miraculously survived.
The Dutch converted it into their Government church, replacing the stone altar and the gilded screens with their own communion table and rostrum furniture. They consecrated the Dutch Cemetery, one of the oldest in India, in 1724. Embedded on the church walls are elaborate gravestones shifted from the graves when the church went through one more renovation in 1886. The British captured Cochin in 1795 and the church was passed on to the Ecclesiastical Department of the Government of India. It fell into bad days. One Rev. Thomas Morton, discovered the dilapidated church while passing through the area and ordered its restoration. Eventually, the CSI took over its management in 1947. But its name was retained.
The cenotaph in the middle of the lawn was erected in 1920 in memory of Cochiners who fell fighting WWI. The lovely, carved wood of the pulpit, confessional, baptism platform, book rests and the offering stand are proof of this period of opulence. The church was declared a protected monument in 1923.
GEETA PADMANABHAN
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