Charles Hyacinth Valerga

Bishop Charles Hyacinth Valerga OCD

Quilon - Tangasseri , baroque Infant Jesus Cathedral (demolished in 2006); original burial place of Charles Hyacinth Valerga

Tomb slab of Bishop Charles Hyacinth Valerga, in Quilon

Charles Hyacinth Valerga , full name Charles Hyacinth de S. Elias Valerga OCD , secular name Emanuele Valerga (born July 5, 1818 in Ceriale , Liguria , Italy , † December 24, 1864 in Quilon , Kerala ) was a Catholic Titular Bishop and Apostolic Vicar in India.

Live and act

Emanuele Valerga grew up in north-western Italy in a pious family. Two of his brothers also became priests, one of whom, Giuseppe Valerga, was the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem; one sister lived as a nun.

Valerga joined the Order of the Discalced Carmelites , where he was given the order name Charles Hyacinth de S. Elias . He spent the novitiate in the monastery at Loano and made his solemn profession on October 28, 1834.

Father Charles Hyacinth was ordained a priest and sent to serve. In 1843 he went to Palestine, where his brother Giuseppe also worked as a missionary.

Then he was sent to India, where he arrived on January 15, 1849. Since Valerga proved himself here as a missionary, Pope Pius IX appointed him . on May 31, 1854 as Apostolic Pro-Vicar (without episcopal ordination) and on May 26, 1859 as Apostolic Vicar of Quilon in what is now Kerala . Simultaneously with his elevation to the apostolic vicar he was also titular bishop of Myriophytos (also Myriophylensis or Miriofido). He received his episcopal ordination on June 5, 1859 in Rome.

The Vicariate Quilon , which had only been rebuilt as an independent district 9 years earlier - after a long interruption - was further consolidated during his term of office. Bishop Valerga was practically only the second shepherd since the re-establishment in 1845, since two other bishops before him did not come to government at all due to a quick death. Charles Hyacinth Valerga founded the diocesan seminary in Mulagumood, in the far south of the diocese, today part of the diocese of Kottar . His successor Marie Ephrem Garrelon later moved it to Quilon- Tangasseri , where it is still located today.

On August 11, 1862, Bishop Valerga was also appointed administrator of the orphaned Vicariate Colombo ( Sri Lanka ), where he carried out a visit on behalf of the Pope and sent an extremely positive report of the conditions encountered to Rome. In this capacity, on February 13, 1863, he solemnly laid the foundation stone for the local St. Benedict College, which still exists today.

Charles Hyacinth Valerga died on Christmas Eve 1864 in Quilon and was buried in front of the high altar of the old Infant Jesus Cathedral, which was demolished in 2006 and replaced by a new building. Now the grave slab is on the outer back of the church, facing the cemetery.

literature

• B. Barcatta: Carlo Giacinto Valerga, amministratore apostolic di Colombo. In: Inter Fratres. XLIX, 1999, pp. 95-119.
• EP Antony: The Latin Catholics of Kerala. Pellissery Publications, Kottayam, 1993, p. 359.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source on family relationships
2. ↑ Source on entering the order and on profession
3. ↑ On arrival in India
4. ^ Source on the titular bishopric
5. ↑ To order as administrator of Colombo
6. ↑ On the visitation of Colombo by Bishop Valerga
7. ^ Website of St. Benedict College Colombo with mention of Bishop Valerga
8. ↑ Detailed description of the laying of the foundation stone of St. Benedict College Colombo by Bishop Valerga
9. ↑ History of the Infant Jesus Cathedral Quilon, with reference to the tomb of Bishop Charles Hyacinth Valerga ( Memento from January 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )