St. Antony's Forane Church, Pazhuvil

St. Antony's Forane Church serves Syro-Malabar Catholics at Pazhuvil, an old Christian settlement 17 km from Thrissur on the Thrissur-Thriprayar Road. Founded in 883 AD, it was the first in India to take the name of St. Antony and is today a noted pilgrimage centre in Kerala, known for the feast of St. Joseph on 19 March.

Its origin is told through the Thattil family. An army chief of the King of Kochi was killed fighting the Zamorin of Kozhikode at Enamavu, and to honour him the king promised a church where he was buried, at Pazhuvil. It went on to serve Christians in and around Thrissur, and Ollur was once one of its chapels. The graveyard holds the tomb of Thattil Mapila, while the poet Arnos Pathiri, or Johann Ernst Hanxleden, author of the Puthen Pana, was buried here in 1732.