Most Holy Redeemer Church, Belthangady

The Most Holy Redeemer Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Belthangady under the Diocese of Mangalore, and one of the oldest churches in the town. Its story begins with Catholic families who fled Bardez in Goa when Sambhaji invaded in 1682 and settled at Gaddai, near the Jamalabad rock fort. A chapel built there around 1870 was abandoned in 1890 because the area was prone to malaria, and Fr Pascal Mascarenhas put up a thatched chapel at Belthangady instead.

The first church here dates from about 1885, a new one followed in 1908, and the parish marked its centenary in 1985. The current building, the third, was completed in 2012 under Fr James Dsouza, along with a presbytery and belfry. Archbishop Ambrose Madtha, the papal envoy to Ivory Coast, was buried here in December 2012. The parish also runs St Theresa High School and the Holy Redeemer schools.