The SAGA of the Mission of CMI

In the chequered history of Catholic Church, it is the Religious Communities that are at the beck and call of Christ to carry out the mission in newer pastures. The Carmelites of Mary Immaculate were called to take up such a challenge by the universal Church. His Holiness Pope Paul VI by the decree “Quo Aptius” constituted the Apostolic Exarchate of Sagar on 29 July 1968 with Msgr. Clemens Thottungal CMI as the Exarch. The new Mission Territory was carved out of the erstwhile Bhopal Archdiocese with four Mission Centres in three civil districts of Sagar, Vidisha and Raisen in M.P.

At first it was entrusted to the CMIs directly under the Prior General. Msgr. Clemens Thottungal CMI, was installed as the Exarch by His Grace Archbishop Eugene D'Souza MSFS, on 1 November 1968 in the presence of Fr. Maesters, CMIs Fr. Paul Kozhippatt, Fr. Papias, Fr. Simon Stock, Fr. Antony Ettickal, Fr. Cassius, Fr. Gerald, Bro. Vincent, St. Joseph Sisters and the faithful of Sagar. The formal blessing was officiated by Rt. Rev. Caprio, the Apostolic Nuncio. The Apostolic Nuncio, on his way to Sagar blessed the new church in Intkheri in the morning of 6 January, 1969. On the same day evening, the Pronuncio formally inaugurated the Exarchate in a large gathering of Civil and Military Officials and with a good number of Bishops prominent among them were the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Eugene D'Souza, Bishop Severin SJ of Raigarh-Ambikapur, the Exarch of Chanda Msgr. Januarius, the CMI Prior General V. Rev. Fr. Canisius, General Councillor Fr. Paulinus, Devmatha Provincial Fr. Sampson, Fr. Alipius, Fr. Damascene, Fr. Flavian, Fr. Diego, Fathers, Sisters and laity.

The clarion call of the universal Church to go outside Kerala was a major breakthrough for the Syro-Malabar Church as it was totally restricted to Kerala. The Indigenous Congregation and its vibrant members were enthused with the good news. Like Abraham of the Old Testament, they had to bid goodbye to their native place, language, and culture and undergo a daily Passover for the Kingdom of God. All needed a radical change to respond to the call of the Divine. Many dared to come and a few returned as they could not accommodate themselves to the climate, the extremes of sultry sun and the biting cold. Over the years they transformed themselves learning new language, customs and traditions with an open mind.

The Exarchate was then handed over to the Devamatha Province, Thrissur and was called Sagar Mission. To start with, the Exarch himself was the Religious Superior. The pioneering Fathers toiled and laboured as a united team. They had to start from the scratch; they had to toil day in and day out without waiting for the shine or shower. Where there was need of manual work, they earnestly did; where every type of service, from a cook, driver, mechanic, electrician to that of a teacher, preacher etc. they had to struggle and learn the rope and became a jack-of-all-trades. Buying of land without problems, digging of wells and starting of construction work, running pillar to post to get legal permissions, all these cares have eaten away most of the time, energy and enthusiasm of the pioneers.

In 1972 Fr. Diego Kodankandath CMI, was appointed the first Mission Superior. Carmel Ashram was built in 1972 on a land donated for the purpose by Colonel Diego and his wife Rebecca. Carmel Ashram became the headquarters of CMIs. With the persistent efforts of CMIs the civil district of Guna which belonged to the diocese of Ajmer- Jaipur was added to the Exarchate by a decree “De Bono Animarum” of the Holy See and it was executed on 29 June 1973. Bishop Clemens recruited candidates for the Diocese to solve the shortage of priests. The united efforts of Msgr. Clemens and the Priests and the Religious had resulted in the phenomenal progress in the eyes of the Holy See. From a mere three stations in the beginning, the Exarchate had over thirty new mission stations within a short span of time. As a result of the remarkable progress, the Holy See by the decree “ Divina Verba” of 26 February 1977 raised the Exarchate into a full-fledged Diocese and appointed Msgr. Clemens Thottungal CMI as the first Bishop of Sagar Diocese. He was consecrated on 25 April 1977 by His Grace Eugene D'Souza. Thus Bishop Clemens became the first Bishop of Sagar as well as the first CMI Bishop.
The Sagar Mission was raised to the status of a Region on 4 December 1977 and was named as St. Paul's Region. The insightful, intuitive and resilient leadership of the Regional Superiors paved the way for an impressive and continuous growth of the Region. The St. Paul Region was raised to the status of a Vice-Province by the General Chapter on 3 January 1991. St. Paul Vice-Province was solemnly inaugurated on 29 January 1992, the Feast Day of St. Paul, the heavenly Patron.

St. Paul Vice-Province crossed a very significant milestone when it was accorded the status of a full-fledged Province by the General Synaxis on 29 August 1996 and the Provincial administration was accommodated at the newly constructed Provincial House - CMI Bhavan, Padariya, Bhopal on 7 July 1997. Later VI Provincial Synaxis of 2005 decided to shift the official Provincial Administration to the CMI House at Govind Garden, Bhopal which had already been functioning as the Annex to the Provincial House at Padariya. In the same year the Prior General assigned the whole civil state of Madhya Pradesh as the operational area of St. Paul Province.

At present over seventy of our fathers are working in over thirty of the Institutions and Centres of the Province established in the past fifty years. The Members of St. Paul Province also render their services in various Institutions that come under the Prior General. At the invitation of the neighbouring Bishops, the Province extends its services to Bhopal, Jabalpur, Nagpur and Itanagar dioceses too. The members do pastoral work in Uganda, Germany, USA, South Africa, Australia and Brazil. Recently in 2021 the Province ventured into an epoch making milestone by venturing into Uganda by initiating the first CMI Mission over there and establishing a CMI Residence, Carmelites House, in Kanyanda. The year 2021 also witnessed a major thrust in our missionary endeavours, resulting in the establishing of a few of our houses and Parishes in Arunachal Pradesh.