:Location
Jorhat is situated 140 south west of Dibrugarh in the Jorhat district of upper Assam. The parish is about 4 kms away from the town, in a place called Lichubari.
History of the parish
Jorhat is the first mission opened among the Assamese people. Till then it was part of Golagaht parish and the fathers from there were visiting and offering Mass in the house of a certain Mr. Philip Morera, the Supervisor of Toklai Tea Experimental Station Workshop. There were a good number of Christians (Europeans) working in the Tea Industry then. As Golaghat parish was very extensive, they were looking for a plot of land in Jorhat so that the mission could be divided.
After several attempts, Bishop Hubert D’Rosario of Dibrugarh and Fr. Ignatius Rubio bought a piece of land (about 2 acres) in 1966 on the outskirts of the town in an area called Lichubari. The land belonged to Mr. Indreswor Kalita, an Assamese. By this time the Apostolic Carmel sisters from Mangalore had come to open an English Medium school for the children of the scientists working in the Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), about 10 kms from the town. Fr. Harold Shrieves sdb was appointed Chaplain to the sisters and he came to Jorhat on 09.07.1966. But the quarters of the fathers and the sisters were so bad that they had to leave after a month till further arrangements were made by the Director of RRL and Fr. Harold moved into the new plot of land that was purchased. Soon he went back to Golaghat.
On 12th February 1967 Fr. Robert Pernia sdb and Fr. Zanghelllini sdb reached Jorhat. Fr. Pernia started working among the Assamese with full of zeal and began to publish a two-page monthly leaflet called “Bhakti Marg” (Way of Truth) by June 1967. By August of the same year, there were strong feelings against the foreign missionaries as subversive agents and so no foreign missionary was secure in this place as they could be expelled at any time. By September the two fathers were harassed by Govt. authorities and their stay became very uncertain. Fr. Basil joined them in September 1967 and Fr. Zanghellini was transferred to Golaghat in November 1967. On 19th February 1968 Fr. Pernia left for Spain and so Fr. Basil was alone for some time. On 24th August 1968 Fr. Gerard Mandeville sdb was appointed the new Parish Priest. After two years he was transferred and Fr. Jacob Malayatty sdb was appointed PP on 3rd August 1970. The solemn blessing of the beautiful church took place on 31st October 1971.
Till 1976 Jorhat parish catered to the spiritual needs of the people only and the establishment stood as an island by itself in the town with no Catholics near by and it had no influence on the people around. The Catholic communities were quite far, in the Rajabari and Mariani circles. In 1976 Don Bosco English medium school was started in the parish campus. Due to lack of infrastructure and other problems, it remained up to class VI for many years. Presently it is a proceeding High School, thanks to the efforts of Fr. K.T. Thomas, the Parish Priest.
Jorhat is the mother parish of Rajabari (1984) and Mariani (1991). Today Jorhat has become just a town parish with a small Catholic community of about 300. There are several educational institutions in Jorhat. They are, Don Bosco High School, Carmel High School, Ursuline Girls High School, St. Mary’s M.E. School and the Parish High School (Don Bosco,Lichubari). The Society of St. Paul (SSP)has a publication house within the parish.
