A Brief History of the House
The Rogationist Fathers arrived in Attappady in 2010, having already established their presence in the States of Kerala and Telangana. The choice of the place was not a random decision but fruit of a well thought mission and vision-oriented project. Firstly, the congregation started new missionary station in Attappady because of the desire to be inserted among the needy and the abandoned crowd as taught by St. Hannibal Mary Di Francia, our founder. Attappady shares border with the neighbouring state of Tamil Nādu (eight Kilometres from our house) and it is a state where the congregation thought of having future expansion. Being a border region, many people in Attappady are migrated from the state of Tamil Nadu and so speak the language of Tamil and has lot of influence of Tamil culture.
The presence of a community in Attappady would enable the members to learn new language and culture which will help for the future mission expansion in Tamil Nadu state. Attappady belongs to the Syro-Malabar diocese of Palakkad and the current bishop Mar Peter Kochupurakkal was former auxiliary bishop of Palakkad diocese. The former bishop Mar Jacob Manathodath knew very well the Rogationist charism and our apostolate with poor especially the scholastic assistance to the poor children of the area. Thus, bishop assigned Fr. Joseph Mailapparambil as Pro-vicar and Fr. Sabu Paiyadan as assistant vicar of the churches of Karara and Santhitheeram in Attappady region, few kilometres away from the newly bought land of the congregation. They started their apostolic mission on May 19, 2010. After one year of pastoral service in the parish, the fathers were transferred to a small rented house at Kottathara, nearer to the purchased land. On October 20, 2011 the newly built residential building was blessed and the fathers were transferred to the new house. The house is called as Rogationist Ashram. In the gradual development, with the help of CEI, an agro farm is established and renamed as Eden Rogationist Ashram in 2019. On February 22, 2021, Eden Rogationist Ashram was erected as a community and Fr. Deepu Plathottathil RCJ was appointed as the first superior of the community.
Our Apostolate
The Rogationist Fathers were able to quickly enter a multicultural and multi ethnic environment, characterized by the presence of the Irular, Kurumbar, Mudugar tribes, and migrant settlers from Tamil Nadu state. Realizing the importance of education for the integral growth of the person, family and society at large, the Rogationist fathers with the help of the neighbouring parish priests began to identify the poor families who struggle to give better education to the children. With the help of the Missionary office in Rome these children were able to find sponsors for their education and were inserted in the “adoption at a distance program'”. Within two years, almost fifty families were assisted through this program. Financial assistances were given for the educational scholarship, improvement of medical health, partial economic assistance for the construction of small houses and economic self-sustaining projects. Aside from the financial assistance, it was also a means to reach out to the families and to give further spiritual and human development oriented formation classes. As we still continue this program, after twelve years we get satisfaction when we see the smiling faces of the children and families and bringing new hopes and determination in their lives. The fathers used to make frequent visits to their ‘Ooru’ (Hamlets) to talk to them and to listen to their problems and to conduct awareness programs of the various government projects for their development of which they are ignorant.
Support for primary needs, health and nutrition, has allowed the development of an action aimed above all at the health, food and school assistance of the many tribal children of the rural context. In fact, the Rogationist religious house of Attappady, over the years, have been accompanied on a nutritional recovery path, supported in their integration into primary school; assisted many young people of both sexes, especially young women of very poor families, in small human promotion initiatives that have allowed the increase of self-esteem, promoted the cultural growth in the attempt to recover previous activities for early school-leaving, and guided families in social integration in a rural context which, offered few employment opportunities.
In Ecclesial perspective, the community consisting of three priests are actively involved in the pastoral apostolate in the various nearby parishes, religious institutes and at the Sehion Retreat centre of the diocese where there is weekly retreat for over 500 people.
Our project Realization of an agricultural and livestock training project
The Rogationist Mission of Attappady includes a large plot of land, owned by the same Congregation, of some 30 Acres, with a building to be rehabilitated. The idea that has matured over time consists precisely in the use and enhancement of this available resource, with the development of a project that aims to offer young tribal people (adivasis) of both sexes a qualified agricultural and zoo technical training aimed at local potential. Thus, with the help of the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana (CEI) a project named “Formazione agricola, zootecnica ed eco-ambientale per i tribali di Attappady” was realized in 2019. An agricultural and livestock training project reopened the window of hope on the future of “adivasis” young people, not only in relation to an incisive action to combat poverty. It is, in fact, a project realized with an aim of the beneficiaries can turn themselves into trainers to guarantee future project sustainability.
For the realization of the project was after after the untiring work of the Rogationist conferrers especially Frs. Joseph Mailaparambil (Pioneer), Sabu Pariyadan, Cinesh Palthinkal, Samson Koippurath, Dino Pulickathadathil, Shaju Koonathan, Doney Palakkuzhayil, Dileep Karukappallil, Jibin Karakkunnel, Deleep Parackal are praiseworthy. Once looked a desert land is now known as the Garden of Eden, in which there are hundreds of coconut trees, mango trees, and different varieties of fruits.