Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Good Death, Colombo – photograph credit MARP/OCP (click the image to go to their website)

The Mar Alvares Research Project (MARP) with Orthodoxy Cognate Page (OCP) has published photographs of the Cathedral of our Patron Mar Julius I Alvares in Colombo, Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). Their article can be read in full at this link: http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2014/12/the-historic-cathedral-of-metropolitan-alvares-julius-in-colombo-rediscovered-by-ocp-marp-initiative

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Good Death (Boa Morte) was the headquarters of the Independent Catholic Church of Ceylon, Goa and India (excluding Malabar) under the Indian Orthodox Malankara Church, led by Mar Julius I Alvares as Metropolitan after his consecration and appointment in 1889. Here, in 1892, Archbishop Joseph René Vilatte (Mar Timotheos) (who would in 1899 become Prince-Abbot Joseph III of San Luigi), was consecrated bishop by Mar Julius I Alvares and appointed as the first Metropolitan of the Old Catholics in the United States. The consecrating bishops and other dignitaries present at the ceremony were honoured with membership in the Order of the Crown of Thorns.

The continuous ministry of the Independent Catholic Church at the Cathedral can be traced until at least 1949. Today, ministry at the Cathedral continues under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church.