Bishop Mar Joseph Pallikaparambil invited us to open a convent at Thodanal to render our service in that backward area. Fr.Varghese Parakulangara, a parishioner of Thodanal donated 50 cents of land for a convent with a Home for the Aged. Accordingly a building was completed under the supervision of Rev. Fr.Mathew Vallopilly the Vicar, with the help of the parishioners and well-wishers of the locality. An eight bedded Old Age Home had also been inbuilt. Bishop Mar Pallickaparambil blessed the House on 20 December 1996. Srs. Sibilina (Sup.), Stella Maris, Therese and Merin were the pioneers. Sisters are actively involved in education, pastoral activities and community development programs. Sr. Stella Maris who was serving as the HM of our Palakkattumala School got transferred as HM to the Infant Jesus LP School with the intention of reforming it into a better state. A Nursery School was also started by the Parish and Sr. Merin Kalapurackal was appointed its teacher. We are in charge of the Parish activities, and are zealous to make regular family visit in the Parish and also in the nearby Dalit colony.
Convent Category: Pala Diocese
A retired teacher Thodukayil Mr. Joseph Mani and his wife Annakutty who lost their only son Immanuel at an early age were living lonely and grief stricken in their house at Mevida, with nobody to care for them. The old couple needed a support which they expected would get from us. After proper inquiry into the matter, discussions with the concerned persons, with the Parish Priest and with the Bishop of Pala a contract of mutual consent and conditions was made and signed by the couple and Mother Judit the then Provincial Superior of Changanassery Province. Document was registered as contributing their property of about 3 acres of land with a rather good house in it, as gift to SD on condition that we should take care of them till their death letting them continue to live in the same house. They also expressed their wish to begin a charitable Home there for the poor After making some alterations and arrangements in the settings of the house as needed for the enclosure of a convent we occupied the house while they continued to live in a partitioned portion of the house under our loving care and protection. Bishop Mar Pallickaparambil blessed the house on 1 February 2000 ceremoniously. Sr Patrick Panamthottam was appointed the Superior with Sr. Jesleena as her companion. A chapel was made ready in the house and was consecrated on 6 February 2000.
After the death of the grandma in 2009, the house was rebuilt as a double storey building with a capacity to admit 26 lady psychiatric patients. The Institution is registered as Immanuel Home Psycho Social Rehabilitation Centre for Women in memory of their dear son Immanuel. His Excellency Mar Joseph Pallickaparambil blessed the Institution on 20 January 2012. The Institution is functioning appreciably well.
The Grandpa Mr. Joseph Mani Thodukayil who was a Freedom fighter, bid farewell and left for his Heavenly home on 6 January 2014 at the age of 92, having fulfilled his desire to make his home a home for many other homeless. We have also the fulfillment that we could fulfill his dreams of a happy life and peaceful death for him and for his beloved, and also for many other unhappy and unloved lives, sharing with them the love and compassion of Jesus Christ.
In response to the request of St. Maria Goretti Parish Kavumkandam, and at the initiative of the Vicar Rev. Fr. Sebastian Pattathil Bishop Mar Joseph Pallikaparambil invited us to open a convent aiming at the integral development of the parish community. We bought the land and constructed the convent and it was blessed by the Bishop on 4 January 1994. Srs. Glorista (Superior), Cicil and Pavana were the pioneers. Sisters are actively involved in Parish ministry. It is a happy thing that we have six SD sisters from this Parish.
The house of SD was established at Palakattumala to strengthen the spiritual life of the parish community through effective pastoral work and to revive and run the Parish school handed over to us with its complete ownership along with the 50 cents of land around it, on 5 May 1988. The School and the property had been originally owned by the Thazhathel Family and they handed it over to the Parish Church in its uneconomic state. The convent was built in separate plot of land which we bought from different persons and was blessed on 3 October 1989, by Mar Joseph Pallikaparambil, Bishop of Palai. Srs. Florence (Superior), Thadeus, Jessy, Gracelet and Sherin were the pioneers. It was our Sr Flornce, a retired, experienced and efficient Headmistress, together with the Parish Priest Fr. John Kachiramattam, strained hard to restore and develop the deteriorated School to a dignified status. We have started a Nursery School adjacent to the Convent which thrives well.
Two unmarried sisters, Valiyil Annakutty and Valiyil Mariamma contributed to us a plot of 3.66 acres of their agricultural land. Shri Ouseppachan Valiyil, their brother was helping us a lot in the cultivation affairs. Many other people also extended their support in establishing the convent. Each of them is kept in our thankful heart and is raised to God in prayer.
At the request of CMI Fathers on 26 October 1986 we took over the St. Vincent Providence Home, an Institution for the aged destitute which was under their ownership in their own campus. The plot of 1.5 acres of land around it was also given to us free of cost. Srs. Bibiana (Superior) Catherine and Maria Kochumadam were the pioneer members of the Community of this first SD house in Pala. The Home is an oasis for the poor abandoned people in the desert of rejection and loneliness. Since the building was 60 years old, in 1915 we reconstructed the building more spaciously and with better facilities, restructuring it so as to make a part of it also a retirement home for our own sick and aged sisters. The Providence Home can accommodate 60 persons, both men and women. Situated at the heart of the town near the KSRTC bus stand, this house is also an abode for our Sisters employed in the schools in the vicinity of Pala. We ever remember with gratitude this great generosity of the CMI Fathers that gave SD an access to the Pala diocese.