Madura Mission

The Madurai Mission, or Madura Mission, (1606-1773/1937-1952) was a Jesuit mission founded in 1606 encompassing the south-eastern portion of the Indian peninsula around the Coromandel coast stretching from its tip to areas slightly north of the Vellar River although it would later lose parts of its jurisdiction to the Carnatic Mission in 1776. It was taken over by the previously mentioned mission following the dissolution of the Jesuits and was only reconstituted as a Jesuit mission again in 1929 before finally being made an independent Jesuit province in its own right in 1952. These two missions are known as the Old Madurai Mission (1606-1773) and the New Madurai Mission (1937-1952). The mission is distinguished from earlier Christian presence by being those related to and following in the steps of Roberto de Nobili in the city of Madurai itself and spreading out across the south east of the peninsula from that point.