Kuriakose Elias Chavara, C.M.I. (10 February 1805 – 3 January 1871) was an Indian Catholic priest and social reformer. He is the first canonized Catholic male saint of Indian origin and belongs to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church based in the state of Kerala.[3][4] He was the co-founder and first Prior General of the first congregation for men in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, now known as the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (C.M.I.), and of a similar one for women, the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (C.M.C.).Kuriakose Elias Chavara was a social reformer who initiated reforms in the Kerala society much before Narayana Guru(1853) Chattambi Swamikal(1853) and Vakkom Abdul Khadar Maulavi(1854). Though he hailed from a Syriac Christian family, which occupied a higher social status, he played a major role in educating and uplifting people especially of the lower ranks of society.