St-Joseph's-province

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Institution Profile

Sacred Heart Monastery
Chethipuzha
ESTD: 1883

About

Though the monastery was established only in 1883, Blessed Chavara himself had thought of having a monastery of the congregation in Changanacherry. Fr. Mathai Mariam Palakunnel, a disciple of Blessed Chavara, had offered his bungalow and estate at Koothrapally for the monastery. But the locality was not found suitable to establish a monastery. Subsequently Blessed Chavara made negotiations with Fr. Cherian Chakkalackal, the then vicar of the cathedral church, Changanacherry to have a monastery of the congregation started at a suitable place in Changanacherry. It was according to the latterâs suggestion that Chethipuzha was finally chosen for the proposed monastery.

The construction was taken up by Frs. Alfonse Mukkatt and Jacob Palakunnel. Fr. Alexander (Sr.), the then-prior of St. Josephâs Monastery Mannanam laid the foundation stone. Fr. Chacko Aykara began the chapel at the present site in the 1940s. In 1918 the monastery became the common study house of the congregation. In 1930 Fr. Placid Podipara, after taking his doctorate from Rome, was appointed professor here for theology and canon law. Providentially Chethipuzha became the cradle of the reunion movement. Mar Ivanios and others lived here to study Catholic theology. Fr. Placid considerably helped them in their Catholic formation.

The chapel as we see it today was partially completed in the 1940s. Mar James Kalacherry, bishop of Changanacherry instructed the prior of the monastery to erect a throne with a canopy permanently in the sanctuary at his expense to confer holy orders to the clerics studying there.

In 1957, when the common study house was established in Bangalore, it ceased to be a scholasticate. From then on it became the novitiate house of the St. Joseph Province. The chapel, as we see it today, was completed in 1966 by Fr. Probus Perumalil, the then-prior of the monastery. This chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart was erected as a parish of the archdiocese of Changanacherry in 1968 and today it works as a model parish.

In 1956, as Archbishop Mathew Kavukatt wished to establish a mission hospital near Chethipzha, the monastery donated 10 acres of land (the present site of the mission hospital) for the project. When the SD Sisters wished to establish a house for the handicapped, Mercy Home the monastery donated another acre of its property.