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St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral, Puthencavu is one of the important churches in
Central Travancore
region of Kerala.
History
The people of Puthencavu depended on the old Suriyani Church in
Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. It is legendarily believed that the Tharakans and the Christians in Puthencavu saved the arrest of the metropolitan bishop by giving the money which was gathered for the construction of the church. The excess money after settling this was believed to be the source of vattipanam later, as follows: soon after becoming the Metropolitan Mar Thoma VII continued to discuss with Col. Macaulay, the British resident, and the church decided to deposit as loan in perpetuity a sum of 3000 Poovarahan (a poovarahan, known as Star Pagoda, had a market value of Rs. 10300). The deposit was handed over to Col. Maccaulay on 1 December 1808 and he issued the receipt.[4]
The agreement stipulated that interest should be paid to the Malankara Metropolitan. This deposit is now known as Vattipanam. Later when there was more than one metropolitan in the Malankara Church, it became necessary to decide the rightful authority to receive the interest. So the government convened meetings with the church leaders and according to their decision issued proclamations authorizing that person to be the metropolitan to receive the interest. This resulted in several court cases for several years until 1958.
Ayrookuzhiyil Abraham Kathanar (Sr.), youngest son of Ayrookuzhiyil Idicula Tharakan (Sr.) was the first vicar of this church in 1793 and was ordained by Marthoma VI.
On 9 December 1896, Rev. P.J. Dethos was consecrated as Titus II Mar Thoma Metropolitan at the Puthencavu Palli (then shared between both Orthodox and Mar Thoma churches).
He was consecrated by Titus I Mar Thoma with the assistance of Geevarghese Mar Koorilose (Karumamkuzhi Pulikkottil) Metropolitan of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church.
Two perunals[
Syrian saint who was buried at Kallada, and Geevarghese Mar Philoxenos are celebrated in this church yearly.[13] The wooden horse of Mar Anthrayos is still preserved in the church. There are a lot of folktales about the horse, on which the Anthrayos Bava used to travel at night.[13]
The church is also the parent parish of several parishes within and around of the same diocese which includes Arattupuzha, Kurichimuttam, Piralassery, Mulakuzha, Koorthamala, Nellikkal, Idanadu, and Mangalam.[2]
