Arthunkal St. Andrews forane church has been elevated to Basilica. Arthunkal St. Andrews Forane church is a famous pilgrimage center of St. Sebastian. Arthunkal is located at a distance of 22 Km from Alleppey and at a distance of around 8Km from Cherthala. It is a small sea side village. Arthunkal St. Andrews Church celebrates the feast of St. Sebastian in the month of January every year.Sabarimala pilgrims too visit the church during their pilgrimage. The belief is that Loard Ayyappa and St Sebastian are brothers.
Arthunkal Church elevated to the status of Basilica on the 9th of July 2010. It is the first Basilica of Alleppey diocese and the 7th Basilica in Kerala. The upgrade to Basilica is an important mile stone in the history of Arthunkal church. It was the first parish in Alleppey diocese.
SAINT SEBASTIAN (Martyr 304 AD)
St. Sebastian was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, but his parents were of Milan, in Italy, and he was brought up in that city. He was a fervent servant of Christ, and though his natural inclinations gave him an aversion to a military life, yet to be better able, without suspicion, to assist the confessors and martyrs in their sufferings, he went to Rome and entered the army under the emperor Carinus about the year 283.
It happened that the martyrs, Marcus and Marcellianus, under sentence of death, appeared in danger of being shaken in their faith by the tears of their friends: Sebastian-seeing this, steps in and made them a long exhortation to constancy, which he delivered with the holy fire that strongly affected all his hearers.Read more
Martyr
Born-c. 256
Died-c. 288
Venerated in-Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodox Church
Feast-January 20 (Catholic),
December 18 (Eastern Orthodox)
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