Cathedral of Saint Vincent de Paul [Syro-Malankara]

The physical building at 1500 De Paul Street in Elmont is a mid-century Roman Catholic church whose construction began in 1952 and was completed in 1953; it was originally built as a parish church of the (Latin-Rite) Diocese of Rockville Centre. For several decades it served Elmont's Roman Catholic community before being shared with the growing Syro-Malankara Catholic faithful from South India. The Syro-Malankara Catholic community itself in North America traces back to the 1960s and 1970s, when Syro-Malankara Catholics — almost all of them Malayalis from Kerala — immigrated to the United States, many settling in the New York metropolitan area. In these early years they organized prayer meetings and celebrated the Syro-Malankara liturgy whenever visiting Malankarite priests came from India. Chorbishop John Melamparampil was appointed as the first Coordinator for the Malankarites in the United States and secured an initial place of worship in the basement of Guardian Angel School at 21st Street and 10th Avenue in Manhattan. On November 7, 1993, the St. John Chrysostom Malankara Catholic Church was formally established as a mission on Long Island. The community rotated among three different Roman Catholic churches for its worship. On November 13, 2011, St. John Chrysostom was elevated to parish status and given its own home at the (then-Roman-Catholic) St. Vincent de Paul Church in Elmont. Two years later, on Sunday, September 8, 2013 — the Feast of the Nativity of Mother Mary — His Excellency the Most Rev. Thomas Mar Eusebius, Bishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Exarchate in the USA, formally established the St. Vincent de Paul Malankara Catholic Cathedral Parish at this Elmont church. The decree of establishment was read out by Bishop Mar Eusebius during a Holy Qurbono (the Syro-Malankara equivalent of the Mass) presided over by His Beatitude Moran Mor Baselios Cardinal Cleemis, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Rev. Fr. Sathyan Antony received the decree as the first cathedral pastor, with Rev. Fr. Abraham Lukose as associate pastor, Johnson Daniel as secretary, and Saji Thomas as treasurer. The new cathedral parish was formed by merging the two prior Syro-Malankara parishes: St. John Chrysostom Malankara Catholic parish on Long Island and St. Basil's Malankara Catholic parish in Queens. On January 4, 2016, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Exarchate in the USA was raised to full eparchial status and renamed the Syro-Malankara Catholic Eparchy of St. Mary, Queen of Peace, of the United States of America and Canada, with this Elmont church as its cathedral. The cathedral was formally dedicated in 2017 (the GCatholic timeline records the dedication as March 25, 2017). On August 5, 2017, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Philippos Mar Stephanos Thottathil — previously Auxiliary Eparch of Tiruvalla — as the second and current Eparch of St. Mary, Queen of Peace; he was installed on October 28, 2017, since when the Elmont cathedral has been his cathedra.