Joseph C. Panjikaran
Mgr. Joseph C. Panjikaran (1888-1949) of Shertallay was a Syro-Malabar Catholic Monsignor, historian, theologian, journalist, and the founder of the Dharmagiri Hospital, Kothamangalam, and the Congregation of the Medical Sisters of St. Joseph (Dharmagiri sisters).[1][2]
The cause of his canonisation was initiated by the Diocese of Kothamangalam in 2010.[3]
Life
Joseph. C. Panjikaran (1888-1949) was born on 10 September 1888 in the village of Uzhuva, in the diocese of Ernakulam as the third child of Chacko Panjikaran and Mariam Kanichattu.
Panjikaran became director of the propagation of faith in the Vicariate of Ernakulam. He believed that the church had responsibility to provide medical services to the poor and the sick. He opened a hospital named Dharmagiri (Charity Mount) at Kothamangalam, Kerala in 1934 and founded the congregation of Medical Sisters of St. Joseph.
He died on 4 November 1949.
