CSI to celebrate bicentenary of missioners' arrival

Benjamin Bailey was a British missionary who stayed in Kerala for 34 years.

Kottayam:  The Madhya Kerala diocese of the Church of South India will organize history-related seminars in various parts of the state as part of the double centenary celebrations of the arrival of Church Mission Society Missionaries in the state.

The diocese will organize a series of seminars on the contributions of the missionaries who reached Kerala. The first seminar will be held on June 1 in Kottayam.

It would be based on missionary Benjamin Bailey’s contributions to Malayalam language, printing and social reformation.

Benjamin Bailey was a British missionary who stayed in Kerala for 34 years. He was ordained 1815 and moved to Kerala in 1816 where he founded a mission station in Kottayam and in 1821 established a printing press.

He translated the Bible into Malayalam and in 1846 published the first English-Malayalam dictionary.

State Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan will release a documentary on Bailey during the seminar.

A history-related exhibition will also be conducted as part of the program where various valuable documents that manifest the transformation of Malayalam language will be exhibited.

Source: New Indian Express