Good Shepherd Major Seminary is the third major seminary of the Syro-Malabar Church. It was canonically erected at Kunnoth, Iritty, North Kerala, India, by the Synod of the Church on 1st September 2000 (Synodal Decree no. 2336/2000). The seminary was inaugurated on 16th June 2001. Even though India, particularly Kerala, had been the land of the Syro-Malabar Church, the Muslim invasion of the 18th century and certain actions of the Portuguese missionaries had reduced the area of the church to the southern part of Kerala.
In the 1940s, however, many Christians migrated from the Christian south of the state to the northern part of Kerala in search of a better life. This was followed by the erection of the Diocese of Tellicherry in 1953 for the immigrants of the region; many churches and church-schools were eventually established, and Christian institutions began to play an important role in the social life of the region. The presence of a live and active church immediately led the region to a phenomenal growth in all aspects of its life. Several dioceses were also eventually erected.
By this time several young people of the region, both men and women, were called by God to lead a consecrated life. It is noteworthy that in the last few decades, in the dioceses in Malabar, the Catholic Church could find more young people looking for consecrated life than any other part of the country or even in any other part of the world. The erection of the new major seminary in this region is in fact an ecclesiastical recognition to the region for the role it has been playing in the life of the universal church.
The seminary wishes to train its students in such a way that they will become good pastors and ministers of the word of God.
The Good Shepherd and Preacher Jesus Christ is the model after whom the candidate in the institute has to fashion himself.
This seminary is one of the four major seminaries owned by the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Major Archiepiscopal Church. It was canonically erected at Kunnoth on the 1st day of September 2000 by the Major Archbishop His Beatitude Mar Varkey Vithayathil, through his Decree No. 2336/2000. The seminary is governed and subject to the authority and control of the Major Archbishop and the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church, whose power is exercised by a Synodal Commission constituted for the same.
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