When the Archbishop’s House, the headquarters of the Varapuzha Archdiocese, was built 110 years back, the backwaters reached up to the walls on the western side. The gentle lapping of the backwaters and the occasional boatman’s calls were the only sounds that interrupted the quiet, spiritual life inside the Bishop’s House.
It was in 1904 that the headquarters of the Varapuzha Diocese was shifted from Varapuzha to Ernakulam; and this after long deliberations. Archbishop Bernard Argiunzons OCD, a man of great foresight, was hugely responsible for this decision.
Monsieur Emmanuel Lopez, in a very informative article written just before his death and published in Nooru Varsham Ere Dhanyam : A Biographical Study of Hundred Departed Eminent Personalities of the Archdiocese of Varapuzha in the Last Hundred Years writes about how a Spanish missionary and architect Brother Leo was entrusted with the task of making a plan and supervising the construction.
Emmanuel Lopez records that initially Leo had in mind a grand, ornamental, palatial building, an architectural marvel. But the Archbishop disapproved of this proposal. He insisted that the building be simple and utilitarian.
The entrance to the building was from the east as the backwaters came up to the wall on the west. Since there was no road the architect decided not to have a gate on the west. The present entrance, which is from the west, the car porch and the room above it were all built many years later. The statue of Jesus Christ that one sees at the western entrance was installed only in 1940.
“The eastern entrance that today opens to the road before the St. Francis Assisi Cathedral is used only on special occasions. Today, the Archbishop’s office or Curia functions from this building. The offices of the Vicar General, Chancellor, Procurator and the Vice Chancellor also function from here. It serves as the residence of the Archbishop too. In the past a minor seminary functioned here. I was a student of the seminary and stayed here till I completed my schooling. This seminary was shifted to Kalamasserry in 1965. A little bit of remodelling was done to make it a convenient office space,” says Rev. Fr. Jose Padiyaramparambil, Vicar General.
Ignatius Gosalves, senior journalist, believes that right from the beginning the Bishop’s House has been a symbol of hope for countless number of people who have knocked at its doors. “It also stands as a symbol of the foresightedness of those who took the decision to shift the headquarters of the Archdiocese to Ernakulam. They were perhaps the first ones to realise the possibility and potential of Ernakulam, of a Greater Cochin.”
Ernakulam had no roads and the only modes of transport were by small boats and country crafts. The other mode of transport was being hauled in a palanquin. “It was during Rev. Dr. Archbishop Joseph Attipetty’s time that the present Shanmugham Road was constructed. The Bishop maintained very friendly relations with the then Diwan Sir. R.K. Shanmugham Chetti. On one of the Diwan’s visits to the Bishop’s House the Archbishop enquired about his plans to build a road on the western side of the building. He assured the Diwan that he was ready to forgo land for this project. The road came up very close to the building walls. This is the Shanmugham Road, the distinct landmark of the city,” informs Fr. Jose.
The Bishop’s House has had the privilege of hosting some very distinguished luminaries. “Rev. Pope John Paul II stayed here for a day. And he has gone on record saying that he felt as though he was in Rome. Looking out of the window he could see the backwaters, like the beloved Tiber from his room at the Vatican,” says Ignatius.
Among the others who have graced this building, not withstanding the number of politicians and scholars, were Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger at Adolf Hitler’s Nazi camp in Auschwitz during World War II and Mother Teresa on more than one occasion.
Stepping into the small, quaint chapel inside the Bishop’s House, with its stained glass windows, mosaic flooring, a few wooden pews, Fr. Jose says that the chapel hardly needed any maintenance except a new coat of polish for the mosaic tiles. “The architectural style is semi-Gothic. The lancet windows and the towers, all symbolic of pointing heavenwards, the quadrangle or nadumuttam , woodwork, especially the stairs are all in the classical style,” says Ignatius.
Nothing much has changed here. The two gates at the main entrance have been replaced, sunshades for a few windows, and an elevator installed for the Pope’s visit.
Time seems to stand still inside this solemn structure. There are people working in the offices and waiting outside to meet the officials. But there is a solemn silence, a decorum that is not enforced.
It’s Christmas time. Outside the Bishop’s House workers are busy making a crib. Life goes on around and on the busy Shangmugham Road. The backwaters are at a distance now, but on quiet evenings one can still hear it.
