Postage Stamp 

The commemorative postage stamp of Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara was released by the then President of India Mr. R. Venkataraman on Sunday, the 20th December 1987, at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The stamp has been designed by India Security Press, Nashik Road.

President R. Venkitaraman spoke at Stamp Release Function:- " …. It is well over a hundred years since Father Chavara lest us. And yet he is a living inspiration for thousands and thousands of persons. He is gratefully remembered as a profound scholar, an educationist, a builder of institutions for the underprivileged, the illiterate, the destitute and the needy.

Few people have been able to combine the contemplation of God with the service of man as naturally and creatively as Father Chavara did. There was in fact no dichotomy in his mind between the world of faith and the world of action. Father Chavara represented both. A mystic, he could also be an engine of activity. Capable of withdrawing in to his innermost being, Father Chavara was at the same time a motive force for the establishment of a social order in which every one could live in dignity and faith. It is only appropriate that His Holiness the Pope declared Fr. Chavara `Blessed' during the Papal visit to India in 1986….."