Pattumala Matha Church

Pattumala Matha Church, a Latin Rite Catholic shrine to Our Lady of Good Health, stands among tea plantations at Pattumala, 'the hill draped in silk', 8 km from Peermade and 24 km from Thekkady in Kerala. It is served by the Missionary Brothers of St Francis of Assisi. Devotion to Mary here goes back to the tea estate workers of British times; in the 1980s the Franciscan Brother Hippolitus Thadathil took up the cause, and the present church, designed by the architect J. P. Bright, was blessed in 1998.

Built entirely of granite in the Gothic Revival style, it has the largest dome of any church in India. The entrance has a rock-cut door frame and rock-cut panels of Bible scenes, the altar is of carved wood, and the dome and nave are lined with decorated slabs. Devoted to Mary as Velankanni Matha and nicknamed the 'Kochu Velankanni', it was declared a pilgrim centre by Pope John Paul II and is associated with two reported Marian apparitions.