St. Mary’s Forane Church, Chalakudy, Kerala

St. Mary’s Forane Church, Chalakudy

St. Mary’s Forane Church, Chalakudy, is one of the 10 Foranes or deaneries under the diocese of Irinjalakuda, which was established in 1978 by the bifurcation of Thrissur Diocese. Prior to that, Chalakudy was part of Thrissur diocese, the most ancient diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church. Thrissur diocese has since been elevated to an archdiocese within which comes the Irinjalakuda diocese. There are 15 parishes under the Chalakudy forane. The people of Chalakudy, mainly in business or service sectors, belong to middle or upper-middle class families. They maintain strong family ties and hold spiritual and traditional values in high esteem. Chalakudy is one of those areas in Kerala with high concentration of Christian population majority being Syro-Malabar Catholics.

Associations & Activities

The main pious associations of the parish are Darshana Sabha, Vincent de Paul Society, SFO – Franciscan Third Order, Mothers’ Association, Christian Life Community, Catholic Youth Movement, Altar Boys Association and the Choir Group. Important activities include Family Apostolate, Catechism, Parish Bulletin, Social Action Forum, Bible Study Group and Prayer Group. The church runs a Lower Primary School that was established more than a century ago. By God’s grace and with the intersession of Blessed Virgin Mary, the church has been able to meet all the spiritual needs of the faithful and lead them in the light of faith upholding the gospel values. Besides, the church remains committed to the general causes of the community as a whole, rendering all possible assistance to the needy in areas such as housing, education, health care, social welfare, etc. with the support and cooperation of parish associations and generous individuals.

Holy Land

A beautifully made park like structure which depicts all the scenes from Jesus’s life. 16 pictures taken from the Holy Land are given above. It is a nice walk through seeing all the important events in our Lords life depicted with statues along with an on going commentary describing the scene beside each station.

How to Reach

Chalakudy is conveniently connected by air, rail and road. Located very close to the National Highway 47, it is 30 Kms south of Thrissur, 45 Kms north of Ernakulam, and 22 Kms from Kochi international airport (Nedumbassery). Chalakudy railway station is just two kilometers away.