History of christianity in Rajavoor

1. History of Christianity in Rajavoor: Till the 17th century, there were no people living in Rajavoor, but people used to come there for works. Rajavoor is famous for Palm trees. They make toddy out of it. When the people felt that they could get the good amount of toddy in Rajavoor. They started settling in Rajavoor. In the beginning the village was named as ‘Vanji Marthanda Nalloor’ later known as Rajavoor. Since most of the people settled here are Christian, they built a church of St.Roch. This is how Christianity came into the soil of Rajavoor. content

1.1Change of Patron at a glance

The first patron of Rajavoor was St. Roch. But later they had changed and the present patron is St. Michael. Let me now explain the myth behind this historical change. Once there was conflict in the village called Thenkasi, whose patron was St.Michael. in the midst of chaos and conflict situation, there arose woman believed to be possessed by St. Michael told that St. Michael would never be in Thenkasi but would go to Rajavoor. In the beginning people ignored that statement, but after some sign and wonders shown by St. Michael, people began to believe in that statement. Therefore people at Rajavoor changed the patron to St. Michael. Earlier they had only a big size photo of the patron to worship then they bought a statue and started venerating the saint. The worship of st.Michael at Rajavoor became more popular among the people of Rajavoor and around the places. So, many people started coming to Rajavoor. People come with lot of intercessions, and people believed that many of them were fulfilled. Since St.Michael is known for casting out the demons, many who were possessed were brought to the church.

1.2. Story behind taking flower to the feast of Kottar:

Rajavoor comes under the diocese of Kottar. St. Francis Xavier is the patron saint of our diocese and the cathedral. Every year 10 days before 3rd of December, the feast of St. Francis Xavier is celebrated. Usually every year the flower for the flag hosting is taken from 2 villages in our diocese, they are Rajavoor and ‘Aruvilai’. The myth behind this is, once there was a lady in Rajavoor, who was barren for long years, so she went by walk from Rajavoor to Kottar during the feast day of St. Francis Xavier and prayed for a child. As the result of her prayer she got two children. In return she made a vow that every year her children would bring the flowers for the flag hosting during the feast days. Even now it is being continued without fail.

1.3 Stories regarding the statue of St. Michael at Rajavoor:

Once there came a merchant to buy the balance which St. Michael holds in his hand as a religious gift. Since one of the devotees offered a new balance, the parish committee was ready to sell that. So the merchant bought and kept it in his house. But on the same night he had lots of bad dreams in which he was threatened by St. Michael and was asking to return it as soon as possible. The moment he got up, he rushed to Rajavoor and returned the balance.

It is also said that because in Rajavoor people who were possessed brought to the church very often, people started believing in the devils. So the bishop of Kottar took away the statue and kept it in the Bishop’s house. But this made a lot of problems in the bishop house, even Bishop was badly ill. That made bishop to keep it back at Rajavoor.

These Folk Stories might be appealing as though they were created, but we can’t deny the fact that these stories strengthened the faith of the faithful. Folk Stories affected their lives. Due to that many believed in Christ and even now they have similar practices what they had earlier.

Folk Practices in Rajavoor different types of Shrines in Rajavoor

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