Kurisumala: A hike for the Faithful

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A pilgrimage is always about the journey and its completion, one such pilgrimage is the hike to Kurisumala or the hill of the Cross in Vagamon. The devotees from far & wide come to this hill and endure the walk up the slopes carrying small crosses as a remembrance to the trouble experienced by Christ himself. The pilgrimage has been happening for over 60 years now & it is necessary for people from all faiths to endure such a pilgrimage to understand the divinity of the place. The hike to the top of the mount is performed by the devotees singing, chanting prayers & carrying the cross all while stopping in intervals all to commemorate the journey of  Christ to Golgotha. This way of endurance is to experience the healing touch of God & praying for relief from heart breaking thoughts & emotional crises one may have in their life.

The mount one sees was an infertile rock plateau where humble farmers by the name of George & Esthron resided in a cave and experienced miracles of God & healings by the cross. They lived at the mount from 1940 & it was only after a decade that the actual cross was seen atop the mount. It was in 1956 that the Bishop of Thiruvalla invited a Trappist monk by the name of Fr Francis Mahieu from Belgium to start an ashram in Kerala. The invitation was accepted by the monk & he along with Fr Bede Griffiths started the first ashram in Thiruvalla. Another Belgium missionary by the name of John Baptist is said to have climbed the summit of the mount with some fellow parishes & placed a wooden cross here in the year 1957. The cross placed here was made of wood & it helped all who came to the mount undertake the hike to fulfil their pilgrimage. After acquiring land around the Kurisumala mount, Francis Acharya & two of his seminaries walked to the top of the mount & for the next few months lived life in austerity by sleeping within a hut made of bamboo leaves & mud. They foraged the infertile land for food & travelled down the hill to collect water which was a real scarcity. The centre of their life in living was the prayer of the church. The ashram that one sees here is the place where all monks who came in search of spirituality & learn the ways of life in austerity. 


The Kurisumala Ashram is a place where every individual should spend time as it teaches the way of simple life. The first thing the monks started at the Kurisumala ashram was a dairy farm which reared livestock for milk. The dairy still functions and has been a source of income for the ashram. The ashram teaches people Monastic life which originated in Christianity centuries ago. To achieve monastic life the monk has to seek Christ with an undivided heart by renouncing home, possessions, marriage & worldly desires. The monks while renouncing luxuries in life should also take up the responsibility to make life better for others who seek them. 


The original wooden cross that was placed at the mount is no longer present as the harsh weather eroded parts of it & a new concrete cross is placed here. The flight of stairs to the shrine & the cross now help devotees & visitors feel the need to undertake the hike to Kurisumala. It is a great deed in life to once take this pilgrimage and be part of the way of Christ.


Location: Vagamon, Kerala, India

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