Thamarachal Valiyapally

St. Mary's Jacobite Valiyapally at Thamarachal, near Kochi, is a Christian pilgrim centre of the Jacobite Syrian Church, in its Angamaly Diocese. It began in 1903, when members of Morakkala St Mary's Cathedral, who had to travel more than 5 km for worship, set up a new church dedicated to St Mary on the hillock of Thamarachal. More than 300 families belonged to it at the start.

Thousands come from across Kerala for Ettu Nombu, the eight-day festival of the birth of St Mary, celebrated here since 1986. A relic of Mor Yacoob and Mor Samavoon was installed in 1907 and St Mary's holy Soonoro in 1988. The church marked its century in 2002-03 and was raised to Valiyapally in 2008, during the second visit of Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I. It now counts 600 families, along with three chapels, five shrines and the large Marian convention centre.