St. Francis de sales Church is the first church under the patronage of St. Francis de Sales in the diocese of Thanjavur and the second church in the state of Tamil Nadu. The parish is almost 60 km away from the diocese of Thanjavur. The MSFS fathers, namely Fr. Peter Chaculikkal, MSFS and Fr. Jose Puthiaparambil, MSFS as the pioneers came to Pudukkottai bought a piece of land and started the SFS Minor seminary at Kovilpatty village. They availed themselves to serve the nearby parishes as needed, especially serving the people of Annamalpuram as it is closer to the seminary. Br. Xavier Michael, MSFS as the regent at the seminary was a great help for the fathers in their pastoral ministry. They were the MSFS pioneers who began their ministry in Pudukkottai region. Their missionary zeal and fervor attracted the bishop of the diocese of Thanjavur and the diocesan clergy. Therefore, with the support of Pudukkottai Vicar Forane, the MSFS fathers were asked to take care of the spiritual needs of the people at Annamalpuram and Thirugokarnam. Their pastoral service gradually resulted in creating Thirukogarnam as a separate parish. As the bishop of Thanjavur decided to bifurcate Thirugokarnam substation from Pudukkottai parish (Vicariate) and erect it as a separate parish, he dedicated the new parish to the patronage of St. Francis de Sales and entrusted it to the care of the MSFS fathers. Fr. Mani Panthalani, MSFS the provincial in consultation with the fathers at SFS Seminary responded to the bishop’s invitation and designated Fr. A. Arockiyasamy, MSFS to the bishop to be appointed as the parish priest. He took charge as the first parish priest of Thirugokarnam parish on 7th July 1996. As there was no church at the time of erecting the new parish, a temporary arrangement was made in the Minor seminary premises, using the seminary chapel for celebrating all the sacraments. The parish priest himself was staying in the seminary as there was no presbytery in the parish. Now the parish has three substations namely, Annainagar, Sundaranagar, Balan Nagar and Annamalpuram. Thus, the SFS Church at Thirugokarnam has a humble origin of starting from having no parish church to developing into a more vibrant faith community, building a beautiful church with modern-day architectural elegance.
The Faith Story of Annamalpuram
Annamalpuram is a small village located near the railway track in Thiruvapur. Its residents are economically very poor, and they are daily wage earners, especially by engaging in making coconut leaf sheets which are used for building the roof of a simple house or sheds for various temporal purposes. They also find other jobs as daily labourers. They carry a tradition that St. Ann appeared to the people in that area in the year 1940 and people built a small shed with coconut leaves for St. Ann and later changed it with asbestos sheets. People’s devotion to St. Ann grew stronger each day and lived that tradition with annual feast day, beginning with flag hoisting on July 17 and having novena prayers and masses each day. The feast is celebrated every year on July 28 with solemn mass and communal banquet for all the people. Hundreds of people from the surrounding parishes and villages take part in this feast day celebration.
The Faith Story of Annai Nagar
Annai Nagar is a remote village on the way to Ponnamaravathi from Pudukkottai. It is 12 km away from SFS parish, Thirugokarnam. In the beginning, there were only a few Catholic families and the sisters of the daughters of Mary Immaculate started their social ministry, serving the people around this village. Our MSFS father rendered their service to the people there taking care of their spiritual needs with the help of the sisters as it is the substation of SFS parish, Thirugokarnam and there are only 12 families in the village. There was already a small church where mass was celebrated, and since it was too small not sufficient for accommodating the people, when Thirugokarnam was erected as a separate parish, our MSFS fathers made efforts to organize the people, and built a new church. Fr. Joseph Xavier, MSFS as the parish priest played an important role in building up this small faith community.
The Faith Story of Pudugai Pudumai Madha Shrine
The government in allotting housing plots to the people belonging to Ex-service men and they allotted a piece of land for any Christian church and the Catholics of Thirugokarnam parish under the leadership of Fr. N. Arockiyaselvam, MSFS accepted the offer and took care of the land. They wanted to develop a shrine dedicated to Mother Mary, and they already built an altar for Mary’s statue. The parish priest visualized the statue as Mary holding the child Jesus in her hand. When he went to Kanya store in Trichy to buy the statue, he found the statue exactly as he visualized. He brought the statue, and the already built altar was fitting perfectly. This was the first miraculous event that happened in developing the shrine. There was another incident that happened regarding this shrine. There was a faithful Catholic by name Mr. Arockiyaraj, belonging to the Sacred Heart parish, Pudukkottai. He had a statue of Mary which he used to carry to Velankanni shrine during his pilgrimage. When Fr. Arockiyaselvam, MSFS asked for the statue, he refused to give it out. However, Mother Mary appeared to him in his dream on the same night and told him that the place where she must be is not his house, but the new shrine built on the sand heap at ex-service men village. Therefore, the following day Mr. Arockiyaraj himself called Fr. Selvam to come and take the statue from his house. So, Fr. Arockiyaselvam, MSFS brought the statue of Mary and developed the shrine. Today, hundreds of people flock to this little shrine with their prayers and petitions and people witness many miracles happening here through the intercession of Pudugai Pudumai Madha.
Developments undertaken at various times
Fr. A. Arockiyasamy MSFS as the first parish priest initiated quite many activities in organizing the parish activities. As the old little church at Annamalpuram was in a dilapidated condition, he initiated to organize the people and mobilized funds needed. He worked with dedication with the support of the people and started the construction of a new church and completed it. The new church was blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Packiyam Acrokiyasamy, the bishop of Thanjavur on March 15, 1997. He was actively involved in serving the people’s needs with dedication, and he worked hard and made efforts to maintain the parish records like baptism, first communion, confirmation and marriage. He also introduced the family card system and people used to pay annual subscription to the parish.
Fr. S. Joseph Xavier MSFS succeeded Fr. A. Arockiyasamy, MSFS as the second parish priest and he was actively involved in his pastoral ministry with dedication and enthusiasm. He also continued to take care of the parish from the seminary as there was no church for the parish. It was in his time he took the initiative to build a new church in Annainagar. He mobilized funds with the help of the people and project through the diocese and completed the construction of the new church and dedicated it to our Lady of Good Health. It was blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Devadoss Ambrose, the bishop of Thanjavur on June 6, 1999. He served the parish for two years.
Fr. N. Arockiyaselvam MSFS was appointed to succeed Fr. S. Joseph Xavier, MSFS as the third parish priest. He worked hard, taking a lot of initiatives to establish the Pudugai Pudumai Matha church in the Ex-service man colony at Kovilpatty village. Mr. A. Arockiyam, leader of ex-service men organization registered the land allotted for the Christians in the name of the parish and entrusted to the parish priest. He developed the place with the help of Mr. Durai Diviyanathan, ex-president of Thirugokarnam panchayat and built a small chapel with coconut leaves and dedicated to Pudugai Pudumai Madha and it was consecrated and blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Devadoss Ambrose, the bishop of Thanjavur on 03 August 2003. Thus, this special devotion to our blessed Mother Mary is developed with special prayers, novena and mass on every Saturday and it is continued even today. A lot of people are drawn to our blessed Mother from the surrounding places. During his time, the diocese of Thanjavur bought 2 acres of land with a shopping complex with six shops and a temporary chapel with a room for priest’s residence was built in the first floor of the complex which was used as the parish church. Mr. Durai Diviyanathan had an important role to play in purchasing this land. The temporary chapel and priest’s residence was blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Devadoss Ambrose, the bishop of Thnajavur on 29 November 2004. Fr. N. Arockiyasevam, MSFS was the one who appointed the catechist Mr. Rajamanickam in charge of the parish office paying him a salary of Rs. 300 per month. People generously donated new vestments, chalice, and other things needed for the church.
Fr. S. Wilson Fernando MSFS became the fourth parish priest succeeding Fr. N. Arockiyaselvam, MSFS. He reorganized the family cards with Thirugokarnam parish name and started to collect Rs. 1000 as contribution from the parishioners to build a new parish church. He also renovated the Pudugai Puthumai Matha church replacing the coconut leave roof with asbestos sheets and it was blessed by Fr. A. Lawrence, MSFS the Regional Superior on 02 May 2008.
Fr. A. Innaci Muthu MSFS succeeded Fr. S. Wilson Fernando, MSFS as the fifth parish priest. He took the initiative and built the new altar in Pudugai Puthumai Matha church on 01.06.2008. He was actively involved in organizing the pastoral ministry in the parish and guiding the people in deepening their faith.
Rev. Fr. S. Amirthanathan MSFS was appointed as the sixth parish priest and he also was actively involved in animating the parish. He made effort and received the Patta (legal document) for the new church land with many difficulties, and he laid foundation stone on 22 May 2011 for building a new church in Bala Nagar and Thirugokarnam main parish. He also organized the parishioners to raise funds needed for constructing the new parish church. He took the initiative to form and stabilize the ambiyams (BCC) both in the parish and the substations.
Fr. S. Sagaya Wilson MSFS succeeded Fr. S. Amirthanathan, MSFS as the seventh parish priest, and he was actively involved with greater commitment in organizing and developing the parish. He completed the St. Antony’s Church at Balan Nagar, and it was consecrated by Most Rev. Dr. Devadoss Ambrose, the bishop of Thanjavur on 08 August 2015. Then, he started to mobilize the needed funds from various sources with the help of the parishioners, friends, the diocese and the province. He first started the construction of the new church with the help of Rs. 10 lakhs as the initial amount from the South-East Province. He worked hard along with the parishioners and completed the construction of the new parish church, and it was opened by Rev. Fr. K. Ignaci Muthu, MSFS the provincial and blessed by Most Rev. Dr. M. Devadoss Ambrose Bishop of Thanjavur on 15.12.2017. He also organized with the help of Mr. S. Gaberial Charles and G. Lourdu Arockiya Selvi family to erect a new flagpole for the parish and it was consecrated by Most Rev. Dr. Lawrence Pius, the bishop of Dharmapuri on 26 January 2018. Moreover, he worked with the family of Mr. Paul Raj and Mrs. John of Ark came forward to sponsor the construction of a grotto dedicated to Mother of Compassion in honor of their deceased son Jogilat Rosario. The construction of the grotto was initiated by Fr. Sagaya Wilson, MSFS and the work was in progress. As the devotion to Pudugai Pudumai Madha attracted many people and the present church is not spacious enough for many people to attend the services, Fr. Sagaya Wilson, MSFS initiated building a larger multipurpose public hall and it was blessed by Fr. A. Santhiyagu, MSFS, the Councilor in charge of Formation on 03 May 2019.
Fr. P. Johnson Jayapal MSFS succeeded Fr. Sagaya Wilson, MSFS as the parish priest. As there was no presbytery for the priest to reside in the parish, he initiated to organize with the help of the parishioners, the province and the diocese to start the construction of the presbytery and construction work of the grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Compassion in the parish premises. He completed both the grotto, and the presbytery which is named as Mermier Illam. The house was opened by Fr. K. Ignaci Muthu, MSFS the provincial and the grotto was inaugurated by Fr. J. Stephen, MSFS the General Councilor for SAIM. Most Rev. Dr. Devadoss Ambrose, the bishop of Thanjavur blessed the new house and the grotto on 28 November 2020. Fr. P. Johnson MSFS also organized successfully the Silver Jubilee celebration of the parish in cooperation with the parishioners on June 30, 2022. In the same manner, he initiated organizing the people of Annamalpuram to mobilize the needed funds to renovate the church in honor of the Silver Jubilee of the Church and he worked through the province to complete the SFS multipurpose hall at Annamalpuram in memory of the 400-birth anniversary of St. Francis de Sales. The hall was inaugurated by Fr. K. Ignaci Muthu, MSFS the provincial and blessed by Rev. Fr. Abraham Vettuvelil, MSFS, the Superior General of the MSFS on December 1, 2022.
Fr. S. Joseph Henry MSFS followed Fr. Johnson as the parish priest, and he completed the renovation work of Annamalpuram church with the help of the people and support from the province. He is actively involved in animating and motivating the people to be committed to the development of the parish spiritually and pastorally. He is very accessible and available to people in their need.
Participatory Structures in the Parish: Parish Council, Anbiyams
Associations in the Parish: Legion of Mary, Vincent de Paul Society, S.F.S Choir Group, S.F.S youth group, Mermier youth group, Altar Servers
Religious in the Parish: DMI Congregation – Daughters of Mary Immaculate
Succession of Parish Priests
Fr. A. Arockiyasamy MSFS 1996 – 1999
Fr. S. Joseph Xavier MSFS 1999 – 2001
Fr. N. Arockiyaselvam MSFS 2001 – 2007
Fr. S. Wilson Fernando MSFS 2007 – 2008
Fr. A. Innacimuthu MSFS 2008 – 2011
Fr. S. Amirthanathan MSFS 2011 – 2015
Fr. S. Sahaya Wilson MSFS 2015 – 2020
Fr. P. Johnson Jayapal MSFS 2020 – 2024
Fr. S. Joseph Henry MSFS 2024 –
Succession of Assistant Parish Priests / Deacons
Fr. M. Benjamin Sundar MSFS 2011 – 2012
Dn. Desas MSFS 2020 – 2021
Dn. Emmanuel Sathish MSFS 2021 – 2022
Fr. Vincent Sahayaraj MSFS 2024 – 2025