John of Monte Corvino, a member of the Societas Peregrinantium Pro Christo on his way to China, landed in Quilon in 1291 and ministered the Christian community.

The Venetian traveller Marco Polo who visited India in 1292 testified to the presence of a Christian community in Quilon.

In 1329 Pope John XXII, from the Holy See then in Avignon (France), erected Quilon as the first Diocese in the whole of Indies as suffragan to the Archdiocese of Soltaniyeh in Persia through the decree "Romanus Pontifex" dated 9 August 1329 By a separate bull, "Venerabili Fratri Jordano", the same Pope, on 21 August 1329 appointed the French or Catalan Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani as the first Bishop of Quilon.

(Copies of the Orders and the related letters issued by Pope John XXII to Bishop Jordanus Catalani and to the diocese of Quilon are documented and preserved in the diocesan archives.

Also reprinted in the Indian Church History Classics, Vol.I, The Nazranies, South Asia Research Assistance Services, Ed.

The ancient diocese of Quilon had extensive jurisdiction over modern nations of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka.

As the first Latin bishop in India, he was also entrusted with the duty of spiritual nourishment of the Christian community in Calicut, Mangalore, Thane and Baruch (Gujarat).

According to Portuguese sources, written more than two centuries later, he was martyred by Muslims in Bombay in 1336, as much as the four Franciscan friars that he had to bury, fifteen years before, in the very same place (one of them, Thomas of Tolentino, was beatified).

In the year 1348 John De Marignoli, the Papal Legate to China on his way back to Rome sojourned here for 14 months.

It is now settled that Latin Catholicism was brought to Kerala in the early 14th century by this Catalan or Occitan speaking Dominican.

Responding to their request the Pope chose John De Marignolli as his legate to China and he accompanied the ambassadors of Great Khan on their homeward journey.

They departed in March 1339 and after a long and perilous journey reached their destination, Khanbalique in 1342 and were received by the Great Khan, who was the last of the Mongol dynasty in China.

When he recovered he visited Cape Comorin the extremity of Indian Peninsula where he erected a marble pillar mounted by a cross in full view of Ceylon.

It seems that he was an ambitious man and was desirous that the good people of Quilon should never forget him and that was the intention of the erection of the marble pillar.

The column, which was to endure till the world's end soon crumbled under the corroding influence of the elements and the inscriptions, were destroyed.

He established a seminary in Quilon, and his letters to Rome give testimony of a dynamic Christian community there.

The press was attached to the San Salvador Seminary of the diocese established by a Jesuit Priest, Jao de Faria.

Yet another dark period for the Church in Quilon was in 1808 when Velu Thampi Dalava unleashed a fierce persecution on Christians.

The apostolic vicariate of Quilon was extended from Arabian Sea to the 'Sahyan' Mountains and from Cape Comorin to Pamba River, which was provisionally entrusted to the Belgian discalced Carmelite missionaries.

With the establishment of the Hierarchy in India, Quilon again became a Diocese on 1 September 1886 with jurisdiction over the territory from Cape Comerin to Pampa River, in the north.