Abel, was an Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic CMI priest, journalist, and lyricist, best known as the founding father of Kalabhavan, a centre for learning performance arts in Kochi, India.

Soon, with the support of Archbishop Joseph Parecattil and the Archdiocese of Eranakulam, the Club was registered as Kalabhavan.

On returning to Kerala, he rejoined the Deepika Daily, where he worked as an assistant managing director, till 1961.

On the request of Joseph Parecattil, Periyappuram moved to Ernakulam to translate Christian prayer books from Syriac to Malayalam.

Kalabhavan was started in 1963 to train young artists in formal music education.