Vicar's Message

St. Stephen's Church, Thope is one of the parishes of the first diocese of India, Kollam. It is 216 years old and the patron of this parish is St. Stephen, the first Martyr of the Church. The parish was entrusted to the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1975 by Rt. Rev. Dr. Jerome M. Fernandez and his successors Rt. Rev. Dr. Joseph G. Fernandez and the present Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Stanly Roman are supporting and encouraging us to do the ministry. It has got about 2000 families with 12 wards and 70 Basic Christian Communities. The parish has four chapels and one substation. In the parish we have organizations like Don Bosco-KCYM youth, Vincent De Paul," Madyaviruthasamathi", CLC, Legion of Mary, Altar boys and Laura Vicuna girls' group. The old church was renovated in 1941 by J. E. A Pereira and the new church was built and blessed in 2011. Salesian Fathers, Sisters and Capuchins are doing various ministries within the parish area.