- 28 May, 2025
Kerala, 27 May 2025: In 1962, the faithful of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Thumba, a quiet coastal village in Kerala, gave up their sacred space to support India's nascent space program. The church stood on 600 acres of land near the coast and a railway line—crucially located along the earth’s magnetic equator, where the magnetic field is weakest and ideal for space research. Visionary scientists Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai chose it as the launch site for India’s first rockets, laying the foundation for ISRO. Now, six decades later, the church has finally received the long-promised land title—symbolic recognition of its sacrifice for science.
A Sacred Sacrifice for a Scientific Dream
The scientists made a request and the Latin Church, after getting consent from the fisherfolk who believed in the miraculous powers of the deity, obliged. Nearly 90 acres of the church land, which included a primary school also, were handed over and 183 families, too, had to move out. In all, over 800 acres of land were taken over.
Heavenly Guidance Above the First Rocket Lab
The magnificent church was converted into the first office of the Thumba Space Centre. But the sandalwood statue of Mary Magdalene was kept where it was, above the altar, hovering over young scientists like a guardian angel as they went about assembling the country's first rockets.
The church's prayer room was the scientists' first laboratory and the bishop’s quarters nearby was the first design and drawing office. Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) was thus established, and out of it came, butterfly-like, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The new Mary Magdalene Church came up a few kilometres north in a considerably smaller area, in 4.37 acres in a barren godforsaken land along the coast called Pallithura. The new school was built across the road from the church, on 3.39 acres. The displaced families, too, were rehabilitated in 10 cents each in Pallithura.
A 60-Year Wait for Justice
India’s space mission soared swiftly, but the relocated Mary Magdalene Church waited nearly 60 years to receive the title deed for its compensatory land—finally granted last week. The LDF cabinet approved the title deed for both the church and its now higher secondary school on November 21. Of the 183 families displaced for TERLS, 141 received title deeds in 1996 and 2001, while the remaining 42 were granted them earlier this year.
“Certain rules had prohibited the inclusion of schools and places of worship in rehabilitation, delaying the grant of title deeds. The cabinet finally decided to remove all bureaucratic obstructions,” said devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran, who also represents the area.
The lack of a title deed had stalled church plans. “No development activity was possible,” said Fr. Fernandez. Two years ago, the parish planned a grand shrine for Vailankanni Matha, replacing a modest one at the church’s western entrance. “When people started to speak about the healing powers of the statue, the church decided to construct a large shrine and shift the idol to it,” he said. But construction was halted when a court stay was issued following a claim of encroachment.
Forgotten Promises, Lingering Pain
As the new church was finding it difficult to settle down in its new environs, the old church had a dramatic transformation. From being the first office of Thumba Space Centre, where the likes of A P J Abdul Kalam had worked, it became a Space Museum in 1985, housing old rocket models and breakthrough satellite launchers like SLV-3, the one designed by a young Kalam.
“A good thing about the VSSC is they have retained most of our old church,” the church vicar Fr. Lenin Fernandez said. Besides the Mary Magdalene statue, the facade of the old church, with its Gothic towers that dwarf even the tallest trees around and its arched doors and windows, have also not been touched. The old cemetery, too, is intact. “Every year on All Souls Day on November 2 we conduct a mass at the old cemetery,” the vicar said.
The new Mary Magdalene Church, though unique, does not have the cathedral-like grandeur of the old one. Unlike other churches along the Thiruvananthapuram coast, it does not have mausoleum-like domes or spires or towers. It seems bare, ascetic. Standing face-to-face, the church looks like a set of vertical rectangular structures of various sizes stacked close together. And its position, at the far end of a vast open space filled with beach sand, makes the church seem desolate and lonely.
From ‘Amen’ to Abandonment
Church vicar Fr. Fernandez said even the VSSC had forgotten the sacrifice the church and the laity had made. “Then they had promised jobs for three generations of locals. Now, even contract works are given to outsiders, mostly North Indians,” Fr. Fernandez said.
Abdul Kalam, one of the first scientists to work in the 'church lab', had acknowledged the sacrifice of the local fisherfolk in his inspirational tome Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India.
Here is how, in Kalam's words, Vikram Sarabhai got the consent he so badly needed. “Dr Sarabhai met the Bishop (Rev Fr. Peter Bernard Pereira) on a Saturday and requested transfer of the property. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day. In the Sunday morning service, the Bishop told the congregation, ‘My children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science and research. Science seeks truth that enriches human life. The higher level of religion is spirituality. The spiritual preachers seek the help of the Almighty to bring peace to human minds. In short, what Vikram is doing and what I am doing are the same — both science and spirituality seek the Almighty’s blessings for human prosperity in mind and body. Children, can we give them God’s abode for a scientific mission?’ There was silence for a while followed by a hearty ‘Amen’ from the congregation which made the whole church reverberate.”
A Legend Anchored in the Sea
Even as they said 'Amen' and dedicated their church to the nation, many poor fisherfolk wept at the loss. “We believed our Mary Magdalene was capable of the most wondrous miracles,” said 65-year-old fisherman Peter D'Cruz, whose father and brothers attended the bishop's sermon.
Legend says the sandalwood statue of Mary Magdalene was pulled ashore by fishermen during the church's construction in 1933. It’s believed the figurine had been placed in the sea by Dutch sailors caught in a storm. As drowning seemed inevitable, one sailor was found kneeling before the radiant wooden figure none had seen before. Others gathered, and the sea suddenly calmed.
Grateful, the sailors returned the statue to the sea as an offering. That same figure was later hauled up by Pallithura fishermen and enshrined in the church. “We strongly believed our Mary would keep us safe in the sea,” D'Cruz said. “We feel deprived but we have no regrets. See what she is doing for our space programme.”
Pallithura’s Proud Legacy
The title deed might have been delayed but the Latin Church, like D'Cruz, is mighty proud of what it had done. At the western entrance of the church is a red display board on which is written in white the brief history of the parish. The board is lighted from within so that the words would be unmistakably clear even in pitch dark.
Here is what it says: “In 1962, by the able intervention of Rev Bishop Peter Bernard Pereira, the parishioners of Pallithura unanimously decided to dedicate the whole parish for the national cause of establishing the ISRO in Pallithura. They gave up their homes, church, cemetery and school unconditionally. It was an unprecedented uprooting and monumental exodus in the history of the country.”
Source: Manorama News
Image credit: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Manorama News
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