EcatPalai

The Diocese has an area of 1160 Sq.Km. comprising the Meenachil Taluk and a few villages of the neighbouring Taluks in Kottayam, Ernakulam and Idukki Districts of Central Kerala. The faithful of this diocese numbering 338000 belong to the ancient St. Thomas Christian Community.

H.H. Pope Pius XII of happy memory, by the Bull "Quo Ecclesiarum" issued on 25th July 1950 bifurcated the Diocese of Changanacherry and out of the territory covered by the Foranes of Palai, Muttuchira, Kuravilangad, Anakkallu, (including the present Forane of Aruvithura, Cherpunkal, Elanji Thudanganad, Kadanad, Kaduthuruthy, Kootickal , Pravithanam and Ramapuram erected the Diocese of Palai as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam. Most Rev.Dr.Leo P. Kierkels, the Apostolic Internuncio in India, published the Bull in the St. Thomas Cathedral Palai on 4th January 1951 and installed Rt. Rev.Dr.Sebastian Vayalil, the first Bishop of the new Diocese. On the 22nd of August 1956 when the Holy See by the Ap.Const. ‘Regnum Coelorum’ raised the diocese of Changanacherry to the status of an Archdiocese, and constituted the new ecclesiastical province of Changanacherry, the Diocese of Palai became one of its suffragans.