Our Inspiration

Very Rev. Thomas Panatt, the founder of Little Flower Congregation, was born and broughtup in 1891 Panatt family at Chalil, a village near Cherthala in the district of Alappuzha. He became a priest in the Arch diocese of Ernakulum - Angamaly in 1918. He kept a place in his heart for the poor, the down-trodden and the marginalized in the society. He tried to become the voice for the voiceless in our society. He was a Gandhian in his thinking and living. Having been inspired by MahatmaGandhi, he tried to follow the Gandhian principle of “simple living and high thinking”. He, too, like Mahatma Gandhi believed that the soul of India is to be found in the villages where the majority of the Indians live and without the development of the villages, thesadp light of the poor villagers willnevergetimproved. Rev.Fr.Thomas like Mahatma considered the upliftment of the poor people in the villages is possible only through an integral development of our villages. Inorder to materialize his dream plan, Fr.Thomas thought of starting a religious society of men and being an ardent devotee of St Little Flower so he named the newly formed religious society after her name and thus the Little Flower Congregation came to exist. He himself wanted to become a religious and he did so by under going religious training and taking the religious name - Fr. Basilius CST.