The history of St. Mary’s Church, Katukurunda is a disputed one. The earliest traces of a Catholic Church being built in the village of Katukurunda, Moratuwa dates back to the Portuguese colonial missionary times from 1505 to 1658 AD. The Franciscan missionary Priest Rev. Fr. Peter Peiris has arrived to Rathmalana and Moratuwella areas converting many into the Catholic faith during the period between 1519 – 1534 AD. The evidence of the first shelter for a Church dedicated to Mary the Mother of God seems to have been built in Katukurunda dates way back to the year 1558 AD. This could be considered, if at all, as the beginning of the Catholic faith and the building of the first Church in Katukurunda. This and many other Catholic Churches that were built by the Portuguese missionaries in Moratuwa will be destroyed on the one hand either, during the persecution of the commander-in-chief of the Kingdom of Kotte, Veediya Bandara, who was actively persecuting the Christians during the reign of the last king of the Kotte kingdom Dharmapala (1541 – 1597 AD); or on the other hand, most certainly during the Dutch colonial occupation and persecution from 1658 until 1796 AD. This first so call Church building almost most certainly would have been destroyed as there were no Catholic Priests in the Moratuwa area specifically from 1737 to 1795 AD, after Rev. Fr. Jacome Gonsalves last visited Moratuwella in 1698.
During this time thanks to the heroic faith shown by the Catholic laymen Madappuli Arachchige Gabriel Fernando, who secretly in a cadjan hut somewhere near the location of the present Church, surreptitiously carried out some Catholic devotional practices with the few surviving Catholics in the area. For all these devotional practices a carefully hidden ivory statue of Mother Mary was used and it was always kept in his possession for safety. The miraculous ivory statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary became the object of great devotion, prayer, and veneration of the people over time, so much so, that even a pregnant wife of a high ranked Dutch officer who went through complications during childbirth was miraculously able to experience a healthy delivery of their child after they commissioned the prayers of this devout man. Gabriel Fernando was in chains under the Dutch at the moment, yet he always faithfully carried hidden with him the miraculous ivory statue of Virgin Mother Mary which enabled him to keep the Catholic faith alive.
This miraculous intervention of Gabriel Fernando helping the Dutch Lady is believed as the turning point in the history of the Catholics in Katukurunda. The Dutch Anti-Catholic colonial authorities who perhaps would have been instrumental in the demolition of the first Church yet again quite miraculously as one could believe, through the intersession of Mary the Mother of God had to granted humble permission to build the would be second Church and to conduct services therein without restrictions, after having witnessed themselves an undeniable miracle for the truth and power of the Roman Catholic faith.
Even if an exact date for the building of the first and second Churches is impossible to trace, when considering the aforementioned folklore coming down from the oral tradition it can be said that certainly there would have been some kind of a structure used for a Church before 1796, in which year the Dutch rule in Sri Lanka came to a definitive end. The present Church building in Katukurunda is not the first Catholic edifice built in the area. According to the oral tradition even if not in its present location, it must be at least the third such building built in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Katukurunda area. However, the foundation of the present edifice is believed to have been laid probably in the year 1863 AD if not a few years before, and the structure came to its present state of completion in the year 1881 AD which is the year inscribed on the existing Church facade.
The present Church edifice was built during the time of Rev. Fr. Benedict Bondonie, OSB who was the priest in-charge of the Moratuwa region from 1861 to 1867. Under the patronage of Bishop Hilarion Sillani, OSB, 21 pieces of land had been purchased in the years 1863, 1864, 1867, 1882 and 1887 which later would have assimilated into the existing Church land which is 2 acres, 01 rood and 13.02 perches in proportion. The documented Church history of Katukurunda coincidentally begins only with these events surrounding the third and present Church building. It is also recorded that a primary school for Catholic boys and girls in the village was established in the Church land by Fr. Bondonie in 1863, this most certainly suggests the fact that the present Church building by then would have been somewhat most certainly and essentially completed if not an established edifice in its place, prior to the school.
The Messenger, Catholic weekly paper, the oldest paper in Sri Lanka records some events having taken place in Katukurunda Catholic community most likely within the existing Church building during its construction period most probably yet unfinished during the time. It is recorded that during Bishop Sillani’s pastoral visit in 1874 about 500 were given the sacrament of Confirmation. (cf. Messenger, 21st August, 1874) It is clearly mentioned that the work related to the Church building that took place in 1881 is not a construction but a renovation, which is clear evidence to the fact that the structure dates back beyond 1881 AD. (cf. Messenger, 09th September, 1881) The earliest recorded evidence for the celebration of the patronal feast of the Church viz. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8th September is to be found in the Messenger paper of 12th September, 1876.
The earliest recorded celebration of the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to be found in the Messenger paper of 17th September, 1978 which was celebrated under Rev. Fr. Bergeretti who would have been most likely the priest to have completed the construction of the present Church building with the façade in the year 1881. In 1898 under Rev. Fr. P. Bullic, OMI, the first mission house in the Katukurunda Church premises would have been built. It was during this time that the high altar with the processional statue of the Madonna and Child was enthroned. The grand Church Bell manufactured by George and Francis Paccard Foundry at Annecy-le-Vieux, Savoie in France was brought to Sri Lanka and installed in the right bell tower of the Church somewhere between 1906 to 1910 sponsored by Mr. Joseph Fernando who made this gift to Bishop Anthony Coudert, OMI, the governing bishop of the Church of Colombo at the time.
It is recorded in the history annals of Moratuwa that during the Parish Priest of Moratuwa in 1910 who was Rev. Fr. L. P. Ghiro, OMI, the number of Catholics belonging to the Katukurunda Church had been 1475. In the year 1913 under then Parish Priest of Moratuwa Rev. Fr. J. Majoral, OMI the Churches of Kadalana and Katukurunda were considered for an initial division as separate Churches and quasi-parishes. The definitive state of a separate and independent Roman Catholic Parish was granted to Katukurunda only in the month of February in the year 1931. Then the Parish of Katukurunda had three Churches, St. Mary’s Church as the main Church, with St. Michael’s Church, Koralawella and St. Anne’s Church, Sarikkamulla, under the administration of the first ever Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Boniface Peiris, OMI. It was during the tenure of Rev. Fr. Alexander Fonseka, OMI whose time the Church celebrated its 75th Jubilee year (counting from the year 1881) that many notable new additions were made to the Church such as the grand background façade behind the Tridentine high altar bearing the statues of Mother Mary with Child Jesus, St. Anne, St. Joseph and the two Angels, also a spacious sacristy behind the altar, the outdoor statue of Our Lady (Queen of Heaven, Purgatory and Earth) in front of the Church, the Statue of the Infant Mary (Maria Bambina), and the Crucifix inside the Church etc.
The centenary year Jubilee (1881 – 1981) was celebrated under the guidance of Rev. Fr. Cyril Perera who was then the Parish Priest. It was during this time that a half an acre land was purchased by the archbishop from the point Modera side for Rs. 1,25,000/= for the parish and it will be on this land that the present Modera Church dedicated to St. Joseph Vaz will be built in the future which will become the sole substation of the Katukurunda Parish in time to come. The present ceiling of St. Mary’s Church was put up during the centenary jubilee. Three phase electricity was provided to the Church and a sepulcher for the Jesus statue of the passion play was built inside the Church. The most notable development during this time was the restructuring and organization of the Sunday Catechism classes for Children. The Daham Pasala was developed under Rev. Fr. Cyril Perera who was also the archdiocesan catechetical director at that time.
The separation of St. Michael’s Church Koralawella which was built in the year 1860 AD, happened on 15th August, 1991 during the time Rt. Rev. Dr. Nicholas Marcus Fernando who was the archbishop of Colombo and Rev. Fr. Mahesh Ganemulla was the Parish Priest of Katukurunda. At an earlier time, St. Anne’s Church, Sarikkamulla was adjoined to the Panadura Parish, and the Katukurunda Parish was left with a new substation the newly built Church dedicated to St. Joseph Vaz in Modera.
The Church structure in its present form was completed only in view of the 125th Jubilee under the guidance of Rev. Fr. Jude Lakshman in 2006 AD. The two side wings were furnished with pews. The two exterior verandahs annexed to the main Church were adorned with ceilings. The entire Church floor was tiled, and a new sound system was installed in the Church. The cemetery was enlarged by incorporating new land and a boundary wall. A four directional pathway was built with a memorial wall and a new gate with a new entrance from a new direction was given to the cemetery. Two major buildings were constructed during this time firstly the Parish Hall complex with a stage for the purpose of holding Sunday Catechism classes for children, and a new mission house for the Parish Priest was built. The Mission House could not be completed as planned and to this day remains unfinished.
It was during this period subsequent to the quasquicentennial jubilee that a Convent was established in the old mission house building, bringing the presence of the Religious Sisters in the Parish. The building was firstly occupied by the Perpetual Help Sisters and subsequently by the Claretian Missionary Sisters. They would conduct a nursery school for the village children in the convent premises until the time of Rev. Fr. Samantha Kurera. Once the Religious Sisters would leave the Katukurunda mission the convent building will be used solely for the Nursery School which will then be brought under the direct administration of the Parish Priest as its principle to this day.
