A poster placed near the now famous grave at St George Orthodox Church at Puthuppally, in Kottayam district, Kerala, reads: “Oommen Chandy; here lies a saint who intercedes”. A massive portrait of the late Congress patriarch, a two-time Chief Minister of Kerala, who died this year, before his 80th birthday, is placed beneath the tomb; the light of half-burnt tapered candles gives the place a yellow glow. Handwritten pleas for intercession and prayers lie scattered around the burial place. Many holding rosaries kneel before the crypt to offer their paeans.
George Thomas, a 63-year-old farmer from Kozhencherry in Pathanamthitta district, is one among those who want the late leader to intercede for him. “Oommen Chandy used to be close to my paternal uncle although I never met him even once. But as a leader who had done so many things for the masses, I believe he can mediate with god,” he says.
After a funeral that witnessed a turnout of thousands, Chandy’s mortal remains were buried in a specially designated crypt only a few steps away from the church here — a centuries-old Syrian Christian pilgrimage centre. Chandy’s tomb is one of only a few burial chambers in the church’s ground reserved for elite Malankara Orthodox Syrian clergy members.
