1855–1872

Twenty-four arches, and no iron in them

It took seventeen years. The work was driven by Fr Joseph Grégoire, whom his chronicler calls the apostle of Vadakenkoulam, and the building was engineered by a Jesuit lay-brother named Joseph Bergenthal, whose office the Society's Roman register for 1872 gives in two words: Ædif. eccl., builder of the church. Between them they turned twenty-four arches that carry their own weight, in lime and palm-toddy mortar, without cement, without iron, and without one wooden beam holding anything up. Halfway through, in 1861, the bishop came again, and three thousand Christians were waiting for him on the road.

DocumentedThis moment rests on 6 sources.

Auguste Jean 1894p. 446

Né en 1815, à Valence en Dauphiné, il entra dans la Compagnie le 28 juin 1840, et arriva au Maduré le er i septembre 1843. Il travailla surtout dans le district du sud, qu'il gouverna de 1849 à 1852. Il administra ensuite, jusqu'en 1863, la chrétienté de Vadakenkoulam. Il y revint encore en 1867, après avoir rempli divers emplois dans le nord, et y passa les dernières années de sa vie. Le P. Joseph Grégoire fut donc surtout l'apôtre de Vadakenkoulajn. C'est à sa persévérante énergie principalement que cette belle chrétienté est redevable de sa grande église. Ce que la construction de ce sanctuaire lui coûta de soucis et de fatigues, Dieu seul le sait. Mais .une peine bien plus sensible l

446

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In English

"Fr Joseph Grégoire was therefore above all the apostle of Vadakenkoulam. It is chiefly to his persevering energy that this fine Christian community owes its great church."

What this source establishes

"The apostle of Vadakenkoulam" — and it is ONE chronicler who says it, not several. Auguste Jean, p.446. The same man supplies "probably without equal in the world"; Dessal's independent hedge is weaker ("unique in the world, perhaps").