Thrissur: Irinjalakuda diocese’s first bishop, Mar James Pazhayattil, passed away due to age-related illnesses on Sunday. He was 82.
Mar James Pazhayattil died in the Jubilee Mission Hospital in Thrissur at 10:50 pm on Sunday. The funeral will be held at the St Thomas Cathedral at Irinjalakuda on Wednesday afternoon.
A long-time English professor at the St Thomas College, Pazhayattil was picked by Pope Paul XI to lead the newly formed Irinjalakuda diocese in 1978. He was selected on June 22, 1978 and ordained as a bishop on September 10. He herded the diocese until 2010.
He was born as the third child of Thomaskutty and Mariyam at Puthanchira on July 26, 1934. He went to the St Mary’s School at Kuzhikkattussery and the RHS at Thumboor before joining the St Mary’s Minor Seminary at Thoppu in Thrissur in 1952. He was later sent to the Papal Seminary at Kandy in Sri Lanka, which was later shifted to Pune.
He was ordained as a priest by Mumbai bishop Cardinal Valerian Gracious on October 3, 1961. He became an assistant to the Syro Malabar Church Major Archbishop on June 7, 1995. He worked with Cardinal Antony Padiyara to lead the church.
He celebrated his jubilee on September 10, 2003 and retired from active duties on April 18, 2010.