The Diocese of Cochin, now diminutive in size due to successive bifurcations in the course of time, once used to be the Mother Diocese of many a bishopric in the Sub-continent. The erstwhile Mother Diocese extended in the west coast from
Malabar, down south to
Cape Comorin (the present
Kanya Kumari and still further down,
Ceylon ( now,
Sri Lanka ) and stretched along the east coast all the way up, encompassing
Nepal,
Bangladesh and beyond
Burma ( now,
Myanmar ) and still further east to
Hong Kong,
Malacca and
Macau. The early Christian missionaries arrived in India from
Portugal in 1550, pioneering the Portuguese mission in the country. Subsequently, the Christians of Kochi began practicing the
Latin liturgical rite.
St. Francis Xavier often visited the land of Kochi, where he offered holy mass at the St. Francis Church, in which lies the body of
Vasco da Gama buried in 1524. The Order of the Franciscans built a monastery in 1518 and two more, of the Jesuit Order, in 1550 and 1561. In 1553 the Dominicans sisters started a college and Monastery in Kochi, and before 1557, publication began and book printing began in Kochi. The Society of Jesus was then founded by Father Balthazar Gago, S.J. in 1550 and in 1560, the King of Portugal built for the Society of Jesus, the college of Kochi, and in 1562, a novitiate of the Society was established there. Following the rising of the land,
Pope Leo X, in 1514 erected the
Diocese of Funchal, and in 1534, the
Diocese of Goa which was joined by the people in Kochi. The diocese of Cochin was elected by
Pope Paul IV on 4 February 1557, in his decree for the two new
suffragan dioceses (the other being
Diocese of Malacca). After its erection as a diocese, it was the second and preceded southern and eastern India, Burma, and
Ceylon (now
Sri Lanka). It was later reorganized following the Concordat of 23 June 1886, between
Leo XIII and King Luiz of Portugal. Before the missionaries, people of Malabar practiced Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Three out of the eight Franciscan friars, who sailed from
Lisbon to India died in the 1500 masacre in Kozhikode. The survivors then settled at Kochi and from there began the foundation of the Diocese of Cochin. They also received support from other missionaries working from the city which was a centre. Vasco da Gama, a messenger from Portugal who had arrived at Cochin accepted the writings of the early converted Christians for the King of Portugal. The Syrian Bishop of those Christians promised obedience to the pope through the Franciscan missionaries and two Nestorian priests, who later accompanied Gama to Lisbon en route for
Rome. The pioneer priests of the diocese, Franciscans João d'Elvas and Pedro d'Amarante until 1507, preached the Gospel at
Vypin,
Pallippuram, and
Kodungallur. Father Vincent de Lagos established the College of Kodungallur in 1540 to train the Nestorian Christians. The Papal Bull of
Pope Paul IV, which was used earlier in erecting the diocese was also utilised in raising the collegiate church of the Holy Cross, and the parish church of Cochin to a cathedral of the diocese with the first Bishop of Cochin, a Dominican Father Jorge Tremudo. In 1577, Brother João Gonsalves, S.J. was engraved at Cochin for the first time, thus, outlined the first Malealam book
Outlines of Christian Doctrine, which was written in
Portuguese by St. Francis Xavier to aid children. Cochin was taken on 6 January 1663, by the Dutch after a siege of six months. The city was reduced in size; the clergy were expelled; the monasteries and colleges, bishop's palace, etc., were razed to the ground. The church of St. Francis of Assisi, belonging to the Franciscan monastery was spared by the conquerors and converted for their religious use. After the English overthrew the Dutch, they kept the church which was turned into a merchandise to serve as a witness to the past four centuries, as well as an existing oldest church in India. == Administration ==