1752
A church in the shape of a cross
By 1752 the church stood finished, raised in the form of a cross with its altar facing east toward the rising sun. Like de Britto's chapel before it, it was “dedicated to the Holy Family”. Its great feast was St Francis Xavier's, kept every December with a solemn novena. The parish fixes the year by two inscriptions once set inside the church's walls.
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In English
“…to celebrate the great novena and the solemn feast of St Francis Xavier at Vadakencoulam, and that from there I should betake myself to Palamcottah…”
What this source establishes
The great December feast of the parish in these years — but a devotional feast, not the dedication. Bertrand’s Lettres (vol. II) has him keep “the great novena and the solemn feast of St Francis Xavier at Vadakencoulam”. The church itself was dedicated to the Holy Family (see Besse); Xavier was its patronal feast. Windowed to the feast sentence, away from the caste material elsewhere in this volume.