Carmelite of Mary Immaculate

St. Kuriakose Elias Cahvara

       The Congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate is the first indigenous religious surviving congregation in the Catholic Church of India. It had its humble beginning by the effort of three pious and holy priests Fr. Thomas Palackal, Fr. Thomas Porukara and Fr. Kuriakose Elias Chavara of the Syro-Malabar Church of apostolic origin. The apostolate of the CMI Congregation attained a new momentum and a new dimension when it was entrusted with territories outside Kerala to do mission work. In 1962 Chanda was erected as the first missionary exarchate of the Syro-Malabar Church.Since then New Mission Dioceses and Regions were erected in Central and North India. There are now 6 dioceses in North India that were pioneered by the Congregation, viz, Chanda, Jagdalpur, Sagar, Bijnor, Rajkot and Adilabad. Bastar, was the southernmost district of Madhya Pradesh till 2000 which covered an area of about 39,171 1 sq. kms. Presently Bastar comes under Chattisgarh state. Bastar was made a separate ecclesiastical unit named Jagdalpur in 1972 and was entrusted to St. Joseph’s province, Kottayam. Msgr. Paulinus Jeerakath CMI was appointed Exarch and later in 1977 he was ordained the first Bishop of the diocese. Mar. Simon Stock Palathra CMI succeeded Bp. Paulinus Jeerakath CMI in 1993 and Mar Joseph KollamparampilCMIsucceeded Bp. Simon Stock PalathraCMIin 2013. The CMI region of Jagdalpur was erected in 1976 and the XXX General Chapter in 1978 raised it to the status of a vice-province and the XXXV General Chapter in 2002 raised it to the status of a Province which is called 1 Nirmal Province, Jagdalpur. The inspiring and efficient leadership of the first fathers made the way clear to achieve remarkable progress in various activities in the province.