St. Francis of Assisi Church – Okkur
contact Details
St. Francis of Assisi Church
Okkur
Pudur Via Sivagangai,
Sivagangai Dt.
Pin : 630 557
The parish of St. Francis of Assisi was established in the dioecese of Sivagangai in 1997. It was carved out of the Cathedral parish with 17 substations.The Capuchin friars look after the spiritual needs 300 families in this parish. Fr. R. Charles Ofm.cap., the first parish priest constructed the parish church in 2000. The parish church was built in honour of St. Peter according to the intention of the donour. Anyway, the parish feast is celebrated in hounor of St. Francis of Assisi in the second week of October every year. The Capuchins have constructed churches at the substations of Ariur, Cholapuram, chinnaudaiyanpatty, Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camp and Anamavali. Altogether 9 substations are with the churches and the friars offer Holy Mass once in a week in all these places. The friars run St. Clara home for orphans and poor boys from 2001. They are educated at the expense of the friars around 50 students are benefited every year. The Capuchins came to Okkur-Pudur a non-Christian village near Sivagangai in 1991. They established a friary namely St. Francis Anbagam for the animation of clergy, religious and laity. This friary served as a center of formation for the Post-Novitiate programme from 2002-2008. In 2008, animal husbentary farm was established to promote eco-friendship. When Okkur became a parish, a friary namely Kaviyalaya was built within the friary campus in 2002. Today, there are two Capuchin friaries at Okkur-Pudur.
Asst.Parish Preist
Fr. Thainis Arockiasamy ofm.cap.,