St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Cathedral, Pala

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St. Thomas Cathedral, Pala

St Thomas Cathedral is the cathedral of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Palai in Kerala, India.

The church was constructed in the year 1002 July 3rd by four Syrian Christian families. These four Christian families of Palai were Tharayil (tharayil mappila) KOOTTUMKAL (brother of Tharayil Mappila) ERAKONNI & VAYALAKOMBIL. They engaged mainly in agriculture and trade. It is believed that the old church ST. THOMAS CATHEDRAL was built by these families. THARAYIL MAPPILA seek the permission to build a church at PALA. But the local ruler meenachil kartha's (karthavu)asked him to bring three more families. He brought two families, ERAKONNI & VAYALAKOMBIL. And still he was in need of one. So he brought his own brother(THARAYIL FAMILY) to PALA and gave him family name KOOTTUMKAL, in order to construct the church. MEENACHIL KARTHAS gave land on the banks of meenachil river and the church was constructed. These four families stayed in and around the church and opposite to the church. This church was designed by Architect Philip Mathew. He studied in Sir J.J School of Architecture, Bombay.