Our parish

St. Joseph Church has served Belman and its neighbouring villages since 1894.

Roots in Shirva

The name Belman comes from the Kannada bili mannu, white soil. The village sits between Padubidri and Karkala in Udupi District, among paddy fields, coconut groves, hills and valleys, 48 km north of Mangalore on the State Highway from Padubidri to Kudremukh.

Christianity reached this coast in the 16th century and flourished until Tipu Sultan's captivity at the end of the 18th. Those who survived came home and rebuilt their parishes. Belman's families belonged to Shirva, where two churches then stood: N.S. De Saude under the Padroado, with its bishop in Goa, and St. Francis Xavier's under the Propaganda congregation of Rome, the church most Belman families attended.

A chapel of mud and thatch

On 29 November 1886, Bishop N. M. Pagani, S.J. of Mangalore gave permission for a chapel in Belman. A site called Madkamane, next to where the church stands today, was chosen, and building began in 1887 with the Mathias family meeting the cost. Seven years later, on 10 September 1894, the chapel was blessed, and the same decree made Belman a parish of its own under Fr. Nicholas Carneiro.

It was a humble start: mud walls, a thatched roof, no priest's house and no belfry. Sunday Mass was at 7 a.m., and the parish was cared for from Shirva. Families from N.S. De Saude and from N.S. Remedies, Kirem soon asked to join, and on 12 December 1900 the boundary with Kirem was settled.

The church on the hill

The present church, completed in 1933 under Fr. Denis R. Lewis, stands on a small hillock with its tall art-deco façade. A careful restoration led by Fr. Edwin D'Souza in 2019 renewed the façade, pillars and belfry while preserving the character that generations of parishioners have prayed in.

Today the parish numbers about 2,156 Catholics in 581 families across 21 wards. Its newsletter is San Zuzechi Betkati, and among its sons is the late Bishop Baptist Mudartha, Bishop of Allahabad.

Established: 1894
Families: 581
Wards: 21
Diocese: Udupi

The altar of St. Joseph

The nave

A place of prayer shaped by the parish's long history and restored for present-day worship.

Sunday Mass

7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.; 10:00 a.m. when there is no catechism.

Through the years

16th century

Faith reaches the coast

Christianity took root in the district and grew strong through the 17th and 18th centuries.

1784 to 1789

Captivity and return

Coastal Christians, the Mathias family among them, were taken captive by Tipu Sultan's soldiers. After their release in 1789 the family returned to Belman and settled around Naniltar.

1886

Permission for a chapel

On 29 November, Bishop N. M. Pagani, S.J. of Mangalore sanctioned a chapel for the Christians of Belman, then part of Shirva parish.

1887

Building begins

Work started at Madkamane, beside the present church, with the Mathias family meeting the cost.

1894

A parish is born

On 10 September the chapel, with its mud walls and thatched roof, was blessed, and Belman became a parish in its own right, with Fr. Nicholas Carneiro as its first parish priest.

1896