Celebrating Christmas inside the 100-year-old Medoc Cathedral, built during the famine

Medak Cathedral has completed 100 years to the day it was opened for worship in 1924. Photo credit: Serish Nanisetty

On Christmas Day, Mettu Deva Prakasam will enter the Medak Cathedral for midnight service with a sense of awe and ownership. A hundred years ago, when Reverend Robert H. Posnett and his brother, Reverend Charles Walker Posnett, took the first service and traveled in an elephant-led procession to celebrate the first Christmas, Sri Dev Prakasam’s maternal uncle and paternal grandparents were part of that community. The number that day was about 3,000. They Rev. Heard a Christmas Sermon by Daniel Napoleon. One hundred years later on December 25, 2024, their grandson will attend a service at the Church of South India Cathedral.

“When my paternal grandfather came to Medak in search of food and work, it was a time of great famine. The lakes were dry, there was no rain, there was no food, families started selling their children. At that time Mr. Charles Posnett started building hospitals, schools and hostels to create jobs and my grandfather Lachia from Gopalpet. came to work in Medak,” says Mr. Dev Prakasam.

Rev. People working for Charles Posnett received one meal a day of rice imported from Burma (present-day Myanmar). Food ensured for work saw migration of people from surrounding areas. The number was such that the village became Medak (Methuku or rice paddy) known as Siddhapur during the Kakatiya period and Gulshanabad during the Nizam period. “The land on which the cathedral stands is a gift from the Nizam,” Reverend T. Shantaiya informed.

Work on the cathedral began in 1914 when World War I was raging in Europe and triggering widespread diversion of rations from across the country. Rev. Charles Posnett conceived the grand scheme he had in the service of Messrs. Bradshaw, Gass, and Hope of Bolton, England. By the end of 10 years, the company had shared about 200 plans incorporating various modifications desired by the missionary who landed in India in 1897 and worked for two years at the garrison church in Trimulgheri. “He moved to Medak because he wanted to serve people who were in dire need. It was a time of pestilence and famine and Rev. Charles Posnett wanted to serve the suffering people,” informed Mr. Shantaiah.

It was at this time when Rev. Charles Posnett began planning and building the cathedral, which is considered one of the largest in the country. Among the apocryphal stories is that the height of the cathedral was limited to 173 feet because Nizam Usman Ali Khan did not want the church to be taller than the Charminar. And so it happened.

But inside, no effort was spared to create grandeur. The 200-foot nave is covered with mosaic tiles imported from England and laid by Italian masons from Bombay. It is topped with a roof that takes the breath away with ribbed squares.

With the First Ascension of Jesus Christ installed in 1927 and the Nativity panel added on the east side in 1947. The last crucifixion panel went up in 1958 and bears the words ‘King of the Jews’. ‘ (King of the Jews added in Hindi) crown of thorns and “nenu bhoomi” above meda nundi paiketha badinappudu andarini na yoddaku cherchukondu” (When I go to heaven, I will gather all people in my fold). Lines in Indian languages ​​A tip of the hat to the newly independent nation was

Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma is scheduled to visit the church on December 22 to mark the cathedral’s 100 years and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is likely to visit the church on Christmas.

To mark the occasion, the cathedral has been whitewashed to bring out the granite. Devotees from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have already arrived and are camping on the 297 acres of church land. Some have brought mutton, some chicken and some have brought food from nearby food shops. The open area near the entrance gives a carnival feel as three large ferris wheels are placed for visitors. Inside the church, people of all faiths wander in, some sit and stare in wonder. Others approach priests for service. “It’s a place of faith and belief for all people,” said the Rev. David Richards, who listened to the devotees and prayed for them.

The cathedral held its first service in 1924. Rev. Medak. By the end of Charles Posnett’s 44-year tenure, the community had grown from 4,254 to 121,098. Built during the famine, the cathedral was turned into a place of reward. In 1938, a visitor described how people brought rice, chickens and other products from their fields as thanksgiving.

They also brought a piece of Telangana – Bathukamma. Basil Mathews, writing about his experiences in India in 1938, wonders about his experience in the church: “In the Medak district of Hyderabad State, for example, it is customary to keep cone-shaped at Hindu festivals. Turn the baskets upside down on the ground and fill the interstices with flowers; Then the girls dance around them singing Hindu songs. Among the more than a million Christians in the villages of Medak today, girls in their best saris dance with small lamps in their hands and sing Christian songs to baskets of flowers in the evening.