Parumala Church

The Orthodox church of Saints Peter and Paul at Parumala, Thiruvalla taluk, Pathanamthitta district, serves the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church as a mausoleum and place of pilgrimage, on a small strip of land beside the Pamba. In 1885 Arikupurathu Mathen Karnavar gave two acres, which already held a temporary church, to the Malankara Metropolitan for a seminary. Chathurithiyil Geevarghese Mar Gregorios used gifts and parish donations to rebuild the church and add a seminary, where church functionaries were taught, including Syriac.

The church holds the tomb of Mar Gregorios, who died on 2 November 1902 aged 54 and was declared a saint in 1947, the first canonised Christian saint from India; since then the church has drawn pilgrims. The present building, designed by Charles Correa, seats more than 2,000 people in a circle 39 m across, split into three by two 16 m chords. A large icon was painted on the altar wall in 2018.