Monte Mariano Church at Farangipet in Mangalore, India, is a church where the Roman Catholic festival Monti Fest was initiated by Joachim Miranda, a Goan Catholic priest at Farangipet in 1763.
The church was built by the Portuguese in 1568 and was then part of the erstwhile South Canara district.
It was mentioned by the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle, who visited Mangalore in 1623,[1] referring to is as the Church of St. Francis of Assisi.
The statue of Maria bambina (Infant Mary) in the chapel was brought by a family in Nelyadi-Kerala from Italy.
[2] Though Tippu Sultan destroyed the churches of Canara, he spared Monte Mariano Church in deference to the friendship of his father Hyder Ali with Father Miranda.