OUR LEGACY


The Congregation of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) is the first indigenous religious congregation in the Catholic Church of India. Fr. Thomas Palackal, Fr. Thomas Porukara and Fr. Kuriakose Chavara of the Syro-Malabar Church of apostolic origin founded a religious house at Mannanam on 11 May 1831. On 8 December 1855, the religious Congregation was canonically approved and the first eleven fathers made their religious profession. St. Chavara, the only surviving founder, was appointed the first superior of the Congregation. The Congregation was granted pontifical exemption in 1967. In 1871, on January 3rd, Fr. Kuriakose Elias Chavara, after a short but painful illness, passed away at Koonammavu preserving his baptismal innocence unto death. His mortal remains were transferred from Koonammavu to Mannanam in 1889 and have been interred in St. Joseph’s Monastery church.