MST Foundation

MST was the result of the farsightedness and missionary vision of Mar Sebastian Vayalil (1906-1986), the first Bishop of Pala (1950-1980). He was a real visionary with a historical mission. He was well aware of the great missionary mandate that the Syro-Malabar Church had inherited. Bishop Vayalil visualized it as an institute of the Church and gave concrete form to it, with the help of his priests.

Bishop Vayalil began to think about the possibility of the formation of a missionary institute of the Syro-Malabar Church while preparing for the Ad Limina visit of 1960. During the visit, Bishop met the Holy Father John XXIII and apprised him of the plan to begin an association to canalize the vocations of the Syro-Malabar Church. He then consulted the matter with the Cardinals of the Oriental Congregation and Propaganda Fide. Back home, he put forward his plan in the Syro-Malabar Bishop’s Conference. The Conference extended its support and encouraged him to go forward with the idea.

The Bishop was in Rome again in 1961 and 1962 and received expert advice from the Congregations about the nature of the Society. The next stage was the consultation with the priests of the diocese. He held different meetings with the likeminded priests of the diocese and discussed with them the future of the Society that he had in mind. A pious union was formed with likeminded priests on 22 January 1965. The Bishop canonically erected the MST on 22 February 1968 at Melampara.

The initiatives taken by him and the co-operation and support extended by other prelates of the Church really paved the way for the foundation of the Society. In the report of the Director General presented at the General Assembly of 1973 we read, “… it is the Bishop of Palai who took initiatives on his own accord and on behalf of the Hierarchy to give shape to this missionary project, encouraged as he was by the Holy Father himself and the Cardinal Prefects of the Sacred Congregations of the Oriental Churches and Propaganda Fide”.

At a time when it was hard for the western missionaries to come to India and when there was a surge in the missionary interest among the St Thomas Christians, Mar Vayalil thought of an association of missionaries of the Church of St Thomas Christians.

Fr Joseph Maliparampil writes, “St Thomas Missionary Society is the fruition of a long cherished vision of the ‘missionary Bishop’, Mar Sebastian Vayalil that the Syro-Malabar Church should have an association of missionaries”.In the words of Cardinal Lourdsamy, it was in 1962 “that the Missionary Society of St Thomas the Apostle began to take shape in the vision of late Mar Sebastian Vayalil, then Bishop of Palai”.

 

 

Fr Maliparampil acknowledged the great role of Bishop Vayalil in these words, “Our Gratitude to His Excellency Bishop Sebastian Vayalil knows no bounds. He was our first superior. He is our founder. …. The forming of the Missionary Society will be hailed as the greatest event of the episcopate of Bishop Sebastian Vayalil by the future historians.”

Brief Bio of  Late Mar Sebastian Vayalil

• Date of Birth: 28-01-1906
• Priestly Ordination : 21-12-1935
• Episcopal Ordination: 09 November 1950
• Enthronement: 04 January 1951
• Retirement: 25 March 1981
• Death: 21-11-1986

Mar Sebastian Vayalil was born on 28 January 1906 at Pala. He had his ecclesiastical studies in the St Joseph's Seminary Mangalapuzha, Alwaye and was ordained priest on 21 December 1935. He was the Headmaster of St Thomas Training School Pala, till he was appointed the Bishop of Palai, on 25 July 1950. He was consecrated Bishop by His Eminence Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, the then Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches, on 09 November, 1950 at St Theresa's Church Rome and was installed in Palai Cathedral by the Most Rev. Dr Leo P. Kierkels, the Apostolic Internuncio, on 04 January 1951. His Excellency attended all the four sessions of Second Vatican Council. Chicago's De Paul University conferred upon him in 1966 the honourary Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) in recognition of his outstanding achievements as an educationist.

His Excellency's Sacerdotal Silver Jubilee was celebrated on 21 December 1960. The Holy Year 1975 was of special significance to the Eparchy and to His Excellency as it coincided with its own Silver Jubilee and the Silver Jubilee of the Episcopal Consecration of the Bishop. After thirty years of strenuous service he handed over the charge of the Eparchy to his successor Mar Joseph Pallikaparampil on 25 March 1981. After a period of five years of active life of retirement, he was called to eternal reward on 21 November 1986. In addition to the various pastoral and missionary achievements, during his tenure the Eparchy stood first in the world with families having the highest rate of priestly, religious and missionary vocation. True to his motto "The Lord is my light" , he placed unbounded trust in divine providence and worked untiringly for the people of God committed to him.