Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara

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• The 150th death anniversary of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara was commemorated on January 3.

Image Courtesy:syro malabar church

Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara

• About:
  • He was born in 1805 at Kainakary, Kerala, India. 
  • He was a social reformer, an educationist, a social entrepreneur, and a prolific poet. 
  • He triggered a renaissance in Kerala in the 19th century.
• Contribution: 
  • Educational Reforms:
    • He was a pioneer of education reforms. 
    • When education was the privilege of the social elites, his Pallikkoodam movement (setting up schools in church premises) enabled universal access to education.
    •  He ordered that schools be set up on all church premises and threatened to close down those that failed to comply.
    • He also started free mid-day meals and provided clothes and books to reduce drop-outs among the poor and Dalit students. 
    • The practice initiated by Saint Chavara in Christian schools influenced the diwan of Travancore, C P Ramaswamy Iyer, to plan mid-day meals in government schools in 1936. 
  • Major Establishments:

• In 1846, Saint Chavara established a Sanskrit school in Mannanam in Kerala, that enabled ordinary people to study the sacred Hindu literature in Sanskrit.
• In 1831, he founded the first indigenous religious congregation for men, now known as the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI).
• In 1846, with the permission of Swathi Thirunal, the maharajah of Travancore, Saint Chavara founded a printing press in Mannanam and published educational materials and books to promote social harmony. 
• The first religious congregation for women (CMC-CTC) he founded in 1866.
• He founded a House of Charity in 1869 in Kainakari, his native village, for the aged, the abandoned and the sick. 

• Literary works: 
  • He was well-versed in Malayalam, Sanskrit, Latin and Syriac.
  • His poem Anasthasyayude Rakthasakshyam (The Martyrdom of Anastasia, 1862) is considered the first minor epic in Malayalam.
  • Atmanutapam (Compunction of Heart) reveals the yogic poet in him exploring the rumblings of the inner self. 
  • Oru Nalla Appante Chavarul (Testament of a Loving Father) is a treatise on the upbringing of children, settling family disputes and the importance of writing wills.

• Legacy: 

• He was an apostle of peace and religious harmony. In his autobiography, Nalagamam (Chronicles), Saint Chavara vividly narrates how Hindus, Muslims and Christians together toiled hard to establish his monastery in Mannanam.
• He realised that God’s glory relies on the greatness of humans. 
• He was a true karma yogi, contemplative in action and working tirelessly to liberate people from the tyrannies of ignorance, poverty, and sickness.

• Death: 
  • He spent the last seven years of his life at Koonammavu, Kerala, where he died on 3 January 1871 and was buried in Saint Philomena’s Church, Koonammavu.

Source: IE