St. Catherine's Church

As a Christian, Tirupur is one of the more recent ones. We do not hear about the presence of Catholics till the beginning of the 20th century. In secular history, the big, nondescript village Tiruppur started gaining importance in the 1900s as one of the main cotton markets for the whole India with enough weight to determine the stock markets of cotton till 1940. After then a bull of anonymity, it has again regained its importance as the ‘Hosiery City’ of India in recent years. At the beginning of the Second century, a trickle of Catholics began to settle here, from surrounding Catholic villages, with the opening of a Cotton Mill by Benny and Co. In 1902, Fr. Perrein, the then parish priest Karumathampatty bought a portion of the present church premises. Later Molen, the Manager of the adjoining Benny Cotton Mills, donated another portion of the present site. In 1909, a small chapel was built in honour of Our Lady of Presentation, at the location where the previous belfry was standing. Fr A. Ignatius, from Pukkilipalayam, was looking after the few Christians of this town. He constructed the old Church with a donation from the U.S.A., in honour of St. Catherine of Alexandria, according to the donor's wish, and it was blessed on 27-9-1914. He also constructed the fine, well-ventilated and large presbytery. It was created as a separate parish, divided from Pukkilipalayam on 11.01.1934 and Fr. Barron (1934-1935) was the first parish priest. Fr. T.C. Adaikkalam (1935-1936) looked after the new converts of Avinashi, Pappankulam and Naduvacherry as sub-stations. In 1935, he brought the convent of the Presentation Sisters. Fr. Legrand (1936- 1938) converted some Kuravar families, near Avinashi. Fr. Maria Soosai (1938-1950), the real “founder” of this parish, continued the missionary work of conversion at Kannur, Goundampalyam, Nallur, Idugampalaym and Veerapandy where the people converted from Lutheranism bought the Lutherans Church in 1940 for Rs 40/-. He collected money from the local people, Christians and non-Christians to construct a building for the Girls Higher Elementary School for Rs. 50,000/-. With Bishop Ubagarasamys’ encouragement, he bought a large plot of land for Bishop Ubagarasamy Boys’ High School. In those days, the area was a wasteland covered by thorns and thistles. Hence, its nickname is “Kattu Pallikoodam“ (School in the land of the thorny Rushes). Fr. A. Swaminathan (1950–1961) extended the church into a Cruciform shape and erected a new sanctuary and altar. Fr. A. Muthusamy extended the Girls' school and the convent. Then the floodgates of a phenomenal expansion were opened, both about the Catholic population and the church expansion. Fr. Arul Irudaya Raj tirelessly and single-handedly collected funds and constructed the present spacious Church with its unique belfry. Bishop Ambrose consecrated the new church and the altar on 19.6.1996. Fr. John Bosco constructed a new church at Veerapandy and Bishop Thomas Aquinas consecrated it in February 2005. The rows of houses for rental were built by Fr. D. M. Antoninathar from Pukkilipalayam and by Fr. T.C. Adaikalam. In the beginning, the Catholic population comprised emigrants from the surrounding catholic Villages of Pukldipalayam, Pallapalayam, Vettukapalayam, etc. But lately, people from all over Tamil Nadu are pouring in due to the ever-growing demand for workers in the Hosiery industry, which has now reached mammoth proportions of export to foreign countries. Hence, the town was witnessing an unprecedented expansion on all sides, so very soon many more churches would have to be built, even now parishes would have to be created like Kumaran Nagar, which had become a separate parish in 1982. The Sub-Stations 1. Iduvanpalayam 2. Veerapandy

Kumaran Road, Tiruppur - Coimbatore Dt. Tamil Nadu - 641 601 - India