Gheevarghees

MURAL TRADITION of KERALA CHURCHES

Of the 100 odd churches of 1599 atleast a dozen still have large or small collections of Murals. Four of the best examples are Cheppad, Paliekkara, Angamaly, and Akapparambu. (Cf. articles and books by Prof. George Menachery, e.g. The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, Vol. II, 1973; The Nazranies, 1998; Glimpses of Nazraney Heritage, 2005.) Also articles on the site http://www.nazraney.com. Most of the above mentioned murals are as old as or older than the Temple murals of Kerala. There is a slight possibility that the Cheppad murals might be earlier (believed to be of the 14th Century), perhaps due to the residence of the French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani de Severac as the first Bishop of Quilon, who was appointed by the Bull “Venerabili Fratri Jordano”, by Pope John XXII, on 21 August 1329. For a large number of photographs of these murals vide the works mentioned above.