St. Ignatius Church

Fr. J. B. Trincal SJ in one of his hunting expeditions of souls, met some at Virudhunagar, made them catechumens and baptized them in 1862. This is the origin of Christianity in Virudhunagar. Virudhunagar was bifurcated from Sattur parish and was made an independent parish in the year 1944, and in the year 1989, it became a Vicariate Centre. The parish is situated in the southern side of Madurai, 48 kilometres away. This is the headquarters of Virudhunagar district. The Catholic population amounts to 1363 families. Most of them are daily wagers and load men who earn a meagre wage for a heavy toil every day. Presently Virudunagar has five substations with Chapel namely: 1. Vellur - St. Francis Xavier’s 2. Moolipatti - St. Sebastian's 3. Soolakarai - St. Antony’s 4. Burmacolony - St. Micheal’s 5. Kullursandai – Srilankan refugees’ camp SUCCESSION OF PARISH PRIESTS Rev. Fr. S, Savariraj (1944-1954) Rev. Fr. Y. X. Arulanandam SJ (1954-55) Rev. Fr. Ponnaiah (1955 July – 55 December) Rev. Fr. Maria Dhiraviam (1955-64) Rev. Fr. Miranda SJ (1964-70) Rev. Fr. Arulrayan (1970-76) Rev. Fr. A.S. Kulandaisamy (1976-83) Rev. Fr. D. Gnanapragasam and Fr. Alexis Diamondraj (1983-84) Rev. Fr. M. Gnanapragasam (1984-88) Rev. Fr. Aruldass and Fr. S. Arulrayan as VF (1988-90) Rev. Fr. N.A. Manuel (1990-93) Rev. Fr. N. P. Alphonse (1993-98) Rev. Fr. D. Gnanapragasam (1998-2003) Rev. Fr. M. Dhiviyanandam (2003-2004) Rev. Fr. A. Antony Packiam (2004-2009) Rev. Fr. Y. Arockiam (Present Parish Priest and VF)(2009-2012) Rev. Fr. S. Gnanapragasam (2012- Rev. Fr. A. Sahayaraj Rev. Fr. A. Benedict Ambrose Raj

119 Municipal Office Road, Virudhunagar ? 626 001 India