1861
Two bells cast in France
The parish's twin bells were cast in France in 1861, the gift of a benefactor named Casimir Grégoire — the bell in the tower still bears his name in its bronze. Packed in crates, they came by sea to Madras and up through Tirunelveli, and were finally hung in 1872, one in each of the church's two new towers, their joined ringing giving, the people still say, a sweetness of sound heard nowhere else in this land.
Parish traditionThis moment rests on 4 sources.
What this source establishes
Cited for exactly what it proves and no more: the Lyon municipal archives confirm the Burdin foundry existed and was casting and exporting bells in these years — which makes a bell reaching a mission church in south India entirely credible. It says nothing whatever about Vadakkankulam. It corroborates the story's setting, not the story.