Cheppad
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Cheppad is a scenic village in Karthikapally Taluk of Alleppy District in Kerala State, India. It is about halfway between Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram on the National Highway 47.
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[edit] St George Orthodox Church, Cheppad
The main attraction is the Orthodox Syrian Christian Church popularly known as Cheppad Church. Cheppad is inhabited by a predominantly Hindu community. The Christian community is the second largest religious community. Almost all denominations of Christian faith can be found here. There is no documentary evidence to establish the arrival of Christian community to this place. However, there is evidence that one of the churches visited by Archbishop Menasis in 1599 A.D was Cheppad St George Orthodox Church (Valiyapally)
In 1952 The Ethiopian Emperor, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie visited this church. It is believed that the Ethiopian Kings held a blood line to King Solomon. Haile Selassie gifted the church a couple of gold artefacts , which were recently stolen form the church and have not been recovered. This included a Gold Ethopian Cross, a Holy Bible with gold engravings written in Amharic ( a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara).
Fr Itty Daniel Corepiscopa (1907-1988) of the Evarathukizhekethil family, who was the then Vicar of the church was instrumental in bringing the King to the church. Fr Daniel, who also belongs to Cheppad, was also the author of many books on the history of the church and the split of the Indian church from the Syrian.
[edit] Murals
The 600-year-old Murals (Wall Paintings) in Cheppad St. George Orthodox Church exhibit the Christian traditional paintings. The paintings are on the walls of The Madbaha (altar) of the Church, and show the events in the life of Jesus Christ from birth to ascension. It also illustrates some events from the Old Testament era. The 47 murals are arranged in three lines on three walls. The archaeological department calculates that the murals are approximately 600 years old and were drawn with the extracts of green leaves and fruits.
Even though the old church was rebuilt in 1952, the altar was kept intact because of the Murals. The rare and attractive paintings of St. Paul with a sword, Angels, Jesus bearing the Cross, Jesus is beaten by the soldiers, St. Thomas with a mint, Adam and Eve eating the prohibited fruit, Noah’s Ark etc. shows the mixing of middle eastern Christian painting and Kerala’s mural artwork. By viewing the murals, the visitors of this church get a rare and indescribable experience and travel back through centuries into another world.
[edit] Cheppad Philipose Mar Dionysius
St George Orthodox Church is the resting place of Cheppad Philipose Mar Dionysius, Malankara Metropolitan of The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church during 1825 - 1855. Philipose Mar Dionysius, Malankara Metropolitan of Orthodox Syrian Church was born in 1781 at the Aanjilimootil family in Pallippad (A place near to Cheppad). After the death of Mar Dionysius III in 1825, Philipose Malpan of Aanjilimoottil, Pallipadu was ordained as Metropolitan Mar Dionysius IV for The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The ruler of Travancore issued a Royal Proclamation acknowledging him as Malankara Metropolitan. He was not on good terms with the English missionaries who worked in Malankara Church under the English. The foreign missionaries suggested to reform the 'Qurbana norms' according to the Protestant standards, and to do away with the worship and prayer conducted for the dead, other suggestions included in raising of a fund to increase the salary of the priests, and giving ordination to only those priests who passed out from the Seminary and received the certificate from the Principal. The accounts of the Church every year must be submitted to the Resident for annual auditing the church services were to be conducted in Malayalam. The Metropolitan rejected all these suggestions outright. A meeting of the representatives of the church was convened in Puthiyacavu Church, Mavelikara in 1836 in order to discuss the recommendations of the missionaries. The Mavelikkara Padiola was formulated in order to strongly resist the new reforms of the foreign missionaries. In 1846, the Patriarch sent a Metropolitan Yuyakim Mar Kurilos to Malankara. Later on Mar Donysius gave up the position of Malankara Metropolitan to avoid a split in the church and retired from administrative matters. He died on 9 October 1855. He was laid to rest in St. George Orthodox Church, Cheppad. His Death Anniversary is on October 12.
[edit] see also
Cheppad Mar Dionysios IV of the East
