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As seen in Chapter Three, as a community, the Southists have many
special ceremonies related to various situations of life. The marriage feast is
one of the most important of the household celebrations of the Knānāya
community. The Second Vatican Council accepted and encouraged such
marriage customs and rituals. “If any regions are wont to use other
praiseworthy customs and ceremonies when celebrating the sacrament of
matrimony, the sacred Synod earnestly desires that these by all means be
5
retained”.
The growing consciousness of the ecclesial character of the Christian
family and its identity as a Sanctuary of Life is very clear in these traditions
and ceremonies. They express the Christian family as a place where the
Gospel of Jesus Christ can easily penetrate and radiate through its daily life
of love, service and suffering. From this examination of a cultural living
reality, one can now describe the families of this community as examples of
a Domestic Church and a Sanctuary of Life, because each family takes
seriously the transmission of the faith and Christian values from one
generation to other, by parents, grandparents, and other elders of the
community.

For the Southist community, the Solemn Reception by the Mother of
the Bridegroom and the Most Solemn Blessing by the Mother of the Bride
are the two most important Knānāya family customs that best reflect and
radiate the mission of the Christian family to be the Sanctuary of Life. These
traditions are a catechesis and a moral education. Thus, they witness that the
moral formation of a person does not finish after a certain stage but is a
lifelong process. The Blessing at the Death Bed, from the view of the dying
father, is the final catechesis that he imparts to his descendants. It is the
culmination of the process that he started with the procreation of children.
For the son, it is the final reward for his obedience and “keeping the
commandments” of his father. For the father, it is his final mission, and, for
the son, it is the beginning of the new mission that he takes up from his
father. And thus life is brought to full circle, and the Knānāya family
witnesses as a true Sanctuary of Life, especially for the father and the son,
from the moment of birth until death.

This paper has also recognized the socio-economical and political
factors that have fostered global migration and have thus impacted the
families of the Knānāya community, bringing this particular Indian culture
to other parts of the world. It is generally believed that a Southist family

5
SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM OECUMENICUM VATICANUM II, Constitutio De
Sacra Liturgia, Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 77, 4 December, 1963, in AAS 56, 1964,pp.
97-138.

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