St. Francis Xavier’s Church, Sampaloor, Thrissur, Kerala, India

St. Francis Xavier Church at Vynthala is located in an important centre of the Jesuits priests during the reign of the Portuguese – Sampaloor. The place still contains numerous monuments from that era. They include the St. Paul’s Seminary, the St. Paul’s Monastery and the St. Paul’s Press and a church dedicated to St. Francis Xavier.

Sampaloor, the place where the church is located, had a number of missionary visitors in its history, starting with Francis Xavier, who visited the village first in 1542, followed by two more visits in 1544 and 1548. The name of the village, prior to the arrival of Francis Xavier was Ambazhakad, and the concentration of Jesuit population in the village started in 1600s when they had to flee Kochi after the Dutch asserted their supremacy in Kochi. The Jesuits relocated the St. Paul’s Seminary at Kochi to Ambalakkad and called the place, são(n)-paulo(u)-ur, meaning the land of São Paulo (St. Paul), to honour the memory of Paul the Apostle. Another Catholic saint, John de Britto visited the place, estimated to be in 1673-74, followed by Constantine Joseph Beschi, alternatively known as Veera Mamunyar, an Italian missionary and the author of Thembavani, whose resting place is by the church.

Sampaloor is a quiet village in Thrissur district, hardly eight kilometres from Chalakudy. This was once part of the erstwhile Cochin State, and an important one too. The St. Francis Xavier’s church and the remnants of a seminary and printing press here are evidences of the glorious history of this village and a significant phase in the life of Arnos Paathiri. Unfortunately, these ruins – parts of a wall and the foundation of what was once a major centre of learning – need preservation.

The history of Sampaloor is interwoven with the Saints and Scholars who came to Sampaloor through the waterways which start from Musiris to Mararikulam (a river port where houseboats can anchor). The name Sampaloor derived from the name, St. Paul Oor (means the place of St. Paul). Oor in Tamil language means “place”.

The Jesuit Priests (Society of Jesus) of St. Paul came to India for Missionary works settled at Sampaloor and started their Seminary along with printing press in between 1579 and 1600. The Jesuits named their Seminary, Press and Monastery in the name of St. Paul and in the course of history, the Dutch Protestants and Tipu Sultan destroyed the Seminary, Press and the Monastery. The Blood Sand of St. John De Britto is kept here in the Museum. In the Church, the “Altar” of the old Seminary run by the Jesuit Priests is kept as a monument where St. Francis Xavier, St. John De Britto, Fr. Constantine Beschi and other eminent scholars offered the Holy Mass for the praise of God.

The fame of Sampaloor is connected with the visits of St. Francis Xavier to Sampaloor during his visit to Kerala. There were almost 450 Anglo-Indian families in Sampaloor who were strong devotees of St. Francis Xavier. In this connection Sampaloor is also called “Goa of Kerala”.

Sampaloor, along with the St. Paul Seminary and Printing Press, was a cradle for saints, scholars and literary men Joseph Constantine Beschi (Veera Mamunyar), who wrote the masterpiece work “Thembavani”, is equivalent to “Ezhuthachan” in Malayalam Literature. “Thembavani”, which is included in the syllabus of higher studies of Tamil Language even in the present day, proclaims its importance. Moreover, the foster father of Malayalam language, Rev. Fr. Arnospathiri, who wrote the famous work “Puthenpana” in Malayalam, was a student of St. Paul Seminary and he took his priestly ordination from there.

The foot steps of Saints and Scholars had sanctified the soil of the “divine land” and had made the water of the nearby river “holy water” capable of curing diseases. Eventhough, Tippu Sultan had burned the Ancient glory into ashes, as a “Pelican bird”, the present generation had kept its memories alive, through the collected remnants they had kept in the newly built museum.