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.