Blessed Kuriakos Elias Chavara

Blessed (Cyriac) Kuriakos Elias Chavara, co-founder and first prior-general of the congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, was born at Kainakary in Kerala, India, on February 10th, 1805. He entered the seminary in 1818, and was ordained priest in 1829. He made his religious profession in 1855, in the congregation he founded. In 1861 he was named vicar-general for the Syro-Malabar church; in this capacity he defended ecclesial unity threatened by schism when mar Tomas Rochos was sent from Mesopotamia to consecrate Nestorian bishops. Throughout his life he worked for the renewal of the church in Malabar. He was also co founder in 1866 of the congregation of the Sisters of the Mother of Carmel. Above all, he was a man of prayer, zealous for the Eucharistic Lord and devoted to the Immaculate Virgin Mary. He died at Koonammavu in 1871. His body was transferred to Mannanam in 1889.