Administration

St. Paul Mission- Administration

St. Paul Mission is a dependant Mission under Marymatha Province of Vincentian Congregation. Vincentian missionaries of the Marymatha Province stepped to the Diocese of Kalyan on 27th January 1991, accepting the Ahmednagar Revenue District of Central Maharashtra and ventured into Mission, presently known as St. Paul Mission, Ahmednagar. An agreement signed on 03rd July 1991 between the Bishop of Kalyan Mar Paul Chittilappally and Very Rev Fr. George Kammattil VC, the then Provincial Superior of the Marymatha Province highlighted the purpose of the mission for the intensive and extensive Evangelization of the Ahmednagar District. The missionaries working in this mission wanted to strengthen the communities present by the intensive evangelization and to reach out to the interior, remote and underdeveloped villages of Ahmednagar District through the extensive evangelization.

In the mission area accepted, there were 3 Mass centers, namely Ahmednagar St. Ann’s Church, Shrirampur Loyola Sadan and Kopergaon in one of the families, where Holy Mass was offered once a month on weekdays by Fr. Sebastian Vazhappilly, visiting missionary from Jalgaon. Down the years all those centers were made residential centers with our own infrastructure. Moreover Mass centers were started at Rahuri Factory where the Vincentian house was established in 1993 with an English medium school.

Since July 1992, Fr. Thomas Mullenmadackal was providing spiritual services from De Paul Center, Shrirampur in Kopergaon on every Saturday. In the beginning Holy mass was offered every week in different houses. With the view to concentrate more on intensive and extensive evangelization a new residence was started in Kopergaon. In 2001 a flat was hired as the priest residence and the chapel. A plot of land was purchased in Samata Nagar and parish church was constructed.

The first step in extensive evangelization was undertaken by Rev. Fr. Thomas Mullenmadackal to reach to the very remote, inaccessible and underdeveloped village of Rahuri Taluka, called Vavarath on 8th August 1999 and establishing a centre and a village school there on 03rd December 2001. In a situation where pastoral care was not available from the Nasik Zone which is 85 kms away, the faithful of Yeola requested pastoral care from us as we used to go up to Kopergaon about 20 kms away. We took up the pastoral care of the faithful of Yeola and later started a school there. The members of St. Paul Mission extend pastoral care for the Syro Malabar faithful in Aurangabad from 20th February 2011. To prepare future missionaries for this mission, we started the De Paul Minor Seminary on 25th June 2013. We bought a new land of around 3.5 Acres at Vambori near to the Vincentian House, Rahuri Factory in March 2015, where we started a new center and De Paul Kindergarten was inaugurated on 17th June 2016.

Rev. Fr. Joseph Kavalakkattu was the first Mission Superior of St. Paul Mission. Later Rev. Frs. Thomas Mullenmadackel, Sebastian Pandarathikudiyil, Thomas Neerolickal and Jacob Ethakkattu served as Mission Superiors of the Ahmednagar Mission for different periods of time. Now, the Mission is led by Rev. Fr. John Kizhkkumthala, appinted Mission Superior on March 2009. The following are the Houses and Centers of this Mission:

1. Ahmednagar - Vincentian Mission House, De Paul Nagar, Link Road, Kedgaon, 414005, Maharashtra.

2. Kopergaon - De Paul Centre, P.B. No. 55, Samatha Nagar, 423601, Maharashtra.

3. Rahuri - Vincentian Fathers, Adinath Colony, Rahuri Factory P.O., Ahmednagar, 413706, Maharashtra.

4. Shrirampur - De Paul Centre, P.O. Box 10, 413 709, Maharashtra.

5. Vambori - De Paul Centre, Morewadi Road, Rahuri, Ahmednagar Dt., 413704, Maharashtra.

6. Vavarath - De Paul Centre, 413705, Ahmednagar Dt., Maharashtra.

7. Yeola - De Paul Centre, 423401, Nashik Dt., Maharashtra.

Present Administrative Body

Fr. John Edappally VC

Mission Superior, St. Paul Mission [MM]

Fr. Aby Arackal

Secretary &
Mission Councilor

Fr. Saji Avangatt VC

Vicar & Councillor