Mumbai: Annual feast in May keeps alive legacy of Marol Church

One of the oldest worshippers, who has been coming to church for the last 16 years, said it marked the origin of the parish in Marol. According to local lore, some inhabitants of Marol were among the 500 people who were converted when the church at Kondivita was opened for public worship for the feast of St John the Baptist in 1579.

Godfrey Pimenta, a Marol resident who attended the feast last week, said a major portion of the church was still standing. The church escaped the ravages of the Maratha War and continued to have vicars appointed to it from 1739. The church also served the Christian community in Powai. The outbreak of a devastating plague in 1840 prompted Father Jose Paes, the then Vicar of Kondivita, who had built a new church in Marol village, to move the parish.

Pimenta also said before the old church fell into disrepair, the statues, baptismal font, altars and some pillars were transferred to the new church. At the entrance of the church stood a four-foot-tall statue of Mother Mary holding the infant Jesus, known as the statue of Our Lady of Amparo (Help). It was brought to Marol between 1842 and 1853 from the Vicar of Marol for Rs 1,944.10.

One of the baptismal registers of the Church of Our Lady of Amparo for the years between 1804 and 1832, is still preserved at Marol Church. The statue is now believed to be submerged under Vihar Lake. The current parishioners are trying to preserve the heritage structure.