St. Joseph's Cathedral, Trivandrum

St. Joseph's Metropolitan Cathedral
St. Joseph's Metropolitan Cathedral Location of the cathedral in Kerala
8°30′16″N 76°57′06″E / 8.504311°N 76.951571°E / 8.504311; 76.951571
Location	Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram
Country	India
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	www.stjosephmetropolitancathedraltrivandrum.org
History
Status	Cathedral
Founded	4 May 1873 (1873-05-04)
Dedication	St. Joseph
Events	Papal visit, 1986[1]
Architecture
Functional status	active
Style	Gothic
Administration
Province	Archdiocese of Trivandrum
Archdiocese	Archdiocese of Trivandrum
Clergy
Archbishop	Most Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Netto

St. Joseph's Metropolitan Cathedral, also known as Palayam Palli, is the Roman Catholic Latin Rite cathedral of the Archdiocese of Trivandrum. The first church was built here in 1873. The church was intended in the manner of a cross in 1912. The final stage of extension, including the Gothic style facade and the bell-tower was completed in 1927. The three bells were brought from Belgium and were named Joseph, Xavier, and Aloysius in honour of, respectively, St. Joseph, the patron of the church; St. Francis Xavier, the apostle of India; and Bishop Aloysius Maria Benziger, the pioneer missionary-bishop of Quilon. Upon the bifurcation of the Diocese of Quilon, the new Diocese of Trivandrum was formed on 1 July 1937, and St. Joseph's Church became the cathedral of the newly formed diocese. When the diocese was raised to a metropolitan archdiocese in 2004, the cathedral became a metropolitan cathedral. The cathedral has a statue of its patron St. Joseph with the Child Jesus in the middle of the facade and a statue of Jesus with hands raised atop the tower. The church which is white in colour was painted red from 1927 to 2010. It was renovated during the period 2008 to 2010.^[2]