The parish of Kanankadu was entrusted to the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales in 1996 in perpetuum. Kanankadu is a village panchayat in Villupuram district and comes under the ecclesiastical territory of Pondicherry-Cuddalore Archdiocese. This was the third parish undertaken by the MSFS fathers in Tamilnadu and the first parish in the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore. Most Rev. Dr. Michael Augustine was the archbishop at that time and since he knew the MSFS fathers from Vellore when he was the bishop there, he invited the MSFS fathers to take up mission in his diocese. Fr. Mani Panthalani, MSFS the provincial of Visakhapatnam province responded to the invitation of the archbishop and designated Fr. F. Emmanuel, MSFS and the archbishop, bifurcating Kanankadu from Vichur parish, erected it as independent parish and appointed Fr. F. Emmanuel, MSFS as the parish priest of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception parish, Kanankadu. He took charge as the first parish priest in January 1996. There are about 459 families in the entire village of Kanankadu but there are only 215 Catholic families. The parish consists of 12 substations, namely, Pakkam Pudur, Ravathanallur, Pudupet, Puliyangkottai, Mookanur, Kaduvanur, Pakkam, Athiyur, Tholuvanthangal, Periyakolliyur, Pushpagiri and Ilayanarkuppam. There are only a few Catholic families in all the substations except in Pudur (30 families) and Pushpagiri (60 families).
However, as Ilayanarkuppam was too far from Kanankadu, it was added to Arulambodi parish. Catholic Families, and their faith is very vibrant. The missionaries need to do a lot of groundwork to foster the faith of the people with greater commitment and innovative methods of catechizing the faithful. When Kanankadu was erected as a parish, there was no priest’s house and so Fr. F. Emmanuel, MSFS was coming from Viriyur main parish and as it was tedious travel every day, he decided to stay first in the church sacristy. Then he built a little hut with coconut leaves and this hut served as priest’s bedroom, office, guest room, dining hall and kitchen. He lived there for almost three years. Then, he mobilized funds through the help from the province and the diocese and started to construct a house for priest’s residence. The new house was blessed by His Emminence Cardinal D. S. Lourdu Samy, and inaugurated by Fr. Mani Panthalany MSFS, the Provincial Superior of Visakhapatnam Province in the year 1999. These people are known to live relatively in peace and harmony. Although agriculture is the main occupation for their livelihood, they could not have access to the water resources from the nearby Sathanur dam and hence they depend on the seasonal rain or ground water for their cultivation. The people are very simple, hardworking and very devoted, but they are economically and socially not well off. However, there seems to be a remarkable growth in this regard because of people’s effort in finding jobs in the nearby cities. Though this parish is a remote village, and the people are economically poor, the parish is a fertile ground for religious vocation. There are 12 priests belonging to the diocese and various religious orders, and six of the priests belong to the MSFS religious order and two more brothers are in the formation for the MSFS congregation. Similarly, there are 9 religious nuns belonging to various religious orders. The parishioners are simple and gentle people who love and respect their priests and cooperate with them in their initiatives to develop the parish.
Developments undertaken at various times
Fr. F. Emmanuel MSFS as the first parish priest, he was actively involved in organizing the parish activities, reaching out the people in the villages, in helping the children to have good education, youth formation, and catering to the spiritual and economic needs of the people. He bought 76 cents of land adjacent to the school and later a few more cents of land were bought with the support of the province, and now there is one acre of land near the school. He also was instrumental in bringing the religious nuns to serve the parish. So, he made efforts to contact the Sisters of the Sacred Heart Congregation in Vellore and helped them to establish their community in Kanankadu parish. The sisters are given by the archdiocese a teacher’s post in the school. He also took the initiative to buy 7 acres of land in Sri Devi, Rishivanthiyam with the support of the province and registered the land in the name of the province, and he bought 80 cents of land at Kanangadu parish itself behind Sacred Heart Sister’s Convent with the support of the province. He took the initiative to construct a new church with the help of a project through the diocese at Pakkam Pudur where there are only 15 families. Fr. F. Emmanuel, MSFS was actively involved in providing good education to the children from the rural villages around Kanankadu parish and so he made serious efforts to upgrade the primary school into a middle school in 2000.
Fr. A. Jayaseela Rajan MSFS was appointed to succeed Fr. F. Emmanuel, MSFS as the parish priest. He showed greater interest in his pastoral ministries and developing the parish. He took the initiative to mobilize funds and constructed a grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima in the year 2004 with people’s support and help through Fr. A. Santhiyagu, MSFS. He was very passionate about his pastoral ministry in visiting the houses, organizing the feast day celebration of the patron saints of the parish and the substations, and in guiding and motivating the youth and the children to get involved actively in the parish activities. As the church at Miikanoor substation was in a bad condition, he made efforts to raise the funds and had built a new church in that substation with the help of the people, and the province. He was transferred from here in view of sending him to Italy for taking up new mission there.
Fr. M. Rajkumar MSFS became the parish priest succeeding Fr. G. Arockiyasamy, MSFS and during his time he organized a computer centre to encourage the youth in the parish in 2007, which was closed later due to practical reasons and the computers were given to the school for the students’ use.
Fr. A. Maria Selvan MSFS succeeded Fr. Rajkumar, MSFS as the parish priest and he served the people with kindness and dedication. He guided and motivated the people to grow stronger in their spiritual life. The church at one of the substations, named Ravathanallur was in a very bad condition, he initiated to coordinate the people to raise the funds needed and constructed a new church with the help of the province and the people. The church was inaugurated and blessed in 2010, and he also took the initiative to buy a piece of land in this substation in 2011 with the support of the people.
Fr. B. Francis Xavier MSFS succeeded Fr. A. Maria Selvam, MSFS as the parish priest. As the old church at one of the substations named Pushpagiri was in a very bad condition, he organized the people and mobilized the funds and built a new church that is dedicated to the patronage of St. Therese of Child Jesus in this substation. The new church was blessed in the year 2014. He also secured the financial resource of the parish by keeping some funds in fixed deposits for the use of the parish and the school. After four years of faithful service, he was transferred and sent for studying German language course as a preparation to take up pastoral ministry in Germany.
Fr. Nayaga Jayaseelan MSFS was appointed as the parish priest and he served the parish for one year from 2015-2016. Then, he left the congregation due to his own personal reasons.
Fr. D. Robert MSFS succeeded Fr. Nayaga Jayaseelan, MSFS in the year 2016 and under his leadership, he mobilized the funds needed to renew the Our Lady Fathima Grotto with the generous contribution of the parishioners in the year 2022, and it was blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Francis Kalist, the Archbishop of Pondicherry-Cuddalore Archdiocese. He initiated a lot of work to take care of the needs of the school like getting water pipeline from the village panchayat for the use of the school children, digging borewell to serve the needs of the presbytery and the parish with the support of the province.
Participatory Structures in the Parish: Parish Leaders (Parish Elders).
Associations in the Parish: Legion of Mary, Parish Youth Association, Alter servers Association
Religious in the Parish: Sacred Heart Sisters of Vellore
Institutions under the parish: RC Middle School managed by the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore
Succession of parish priests
Fr. F. Emmanuel MSFS 1996 – 2002
Fr. A. Jayaseela Rajan MSFS 2002 – 2006
Fr. G. Arockia Samy MSFS 2006 – 2007
Fr. M. Rajkumar MSFS 2007 – 2008
Fr. A. Maria Selvan MSFS 2008 – 2011
Fr. B. Francis Xavier MSFS 2011 – 2015
Fr. A. Nayaga Jeyaseelan MSFS 2015 – 2016
Fr. D. Robert MSFS 2016 – 2022
Fr. S. Antony Raj MSFS 2022 – 2024
Fr. D. Francis MSFS 2024
Succession of Asst. parish priests
Rev. Fr. A. Antony Christopher MSFS 2009 – 2010
Rev. Fr. S. Simon Raja MSFS 2010 – 2011
Rev. Fr. William Joe Xavier MSFS 2016 – 2017
Rev. Fr. S. Ashir Johnson MSFS 2017 – 2018
Rev. Fr. L. John Peter MSFS 2018 – 2019
Rev. Fr. M. John Fernandez MSFS 2019 – 2000
Rev. Fr. S. Vanathaiyan MSFS 2022 – 2023
Rev. Fr. S. Alphonse MSFS 2023 – 2024
Rev. Fr. M. Simon Prabu MSFS 2024 – 2025
Succession of Deacons / Regent
Dn. Savari Rajan MSFS 1997
Dn. Visuwasam MSFS 1998
Dn. A. Michael MSFS 1999
Dn. G. Sebastian MSFS 2000
Dn. P. S. Joseph MSFS 2001
Dn. F. Arockiyasamy MSFS 2002
Br. Aloysius, MSFS Regent 2004 – 2005
Dn. L. Arul Sundaram MSFS 2007 – 2008