St. Stephen

St. Stephen

Address:

St. Stephen’s Church
kombuthurai
Tuticorin Dt
Pin : 628 204.
Ph.No : 04639-242771,
-246213.

Brief History:

One of the ancient missions of St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of our diocese is Kombuthurai. History has it that St. Xavier used to take rest at Kombuthurai when he visited the missions of Mandpad and Punnaikayal. At that time people called “Karaiyar” lived at Kombuthurai, but they went in course of time to various interior places to find their dwelling places. In a letter written from Manapad on 16-6-1544 by St. Xavier to one of his assistants named Francis Mansilas, it is stated that a church dedicated to St. Stephen was built at Kombuthurai, with the help of one Manuel de Lima. It is known that two miracles by St. Xavier took place at Kombuthurai.
Xavier in his letter to St. Ignatius of Loyola described how a woman suffering during her labor pains for three days was cured. In another letter he explained about a boy, whose dead body was carried to St. Stephen’s church at Kombuthurai just before the mass and his coming back to life with Xavier’s prayers. After the Karaiyars left Kombuthurai, it was practically abandoned. In 1930 a family from Punnaikayal came to live here. After that some families from Veerapandiyanpatnam took care of the church. This is the first phase of its history.
The second phase commenced in 1981 when people from Kadiyapatnam from Kanniyakumari district came here to do fishing work. In 1983 Kombuthurai was accepted as a substation of Veerapandiyanpatnam. In 1991 the church was extended. It became an independent parih on the 20th of August 2003 and St. Stephen is established as the Patron saint. The feast is celebrated on the 2nd of January. People in and around of Punnaikayal, Veerapandiyanpatnam, Thoothukudi and Kurumbur make pilgrimages to this small shrine in the first week of January

Parish Priests:

Fr. William Santhanam 2003-2006
Fr. Dennis Vaiz 2006

Patron Saint : St. Stephen
Fest of the : January 2