St. George's Church, Aruvithura

Aruvithura Church, formally the St. George's Forane Church of the Syro-Malabar Catholics, stands at Aruvithura in Kottayam district, next to Erattupetta. Tradition holds that St Thomas came here and planted a cross on the bank of the Meenachil River, and that a church was founded in the 1st century; its first building is said to have been of granite, built like a Hindu temple. Dedicated at first to Mary, it took St George as patron in the 16th century, after families from a destroyed church had brought his statue here in the 14th century.

The old church was pulled down in 1951, but the vaulted sanctuary holding the statue was kept within the right transept of the new Gothic, cruciform church, completed in 1952 and facing west. The Aruvithura Thirunal, usually held from 23 to 25 April, brings devotees from across Kerala for a procession of St George through the town and the lighting of the church. St. Alphonsa's Tomb at Bharananganam is about 7 km away.