St. Michael Parish at 609 East Fifth Ave, Flint, MI 48503 US - Our Pastor

The Rev. Santhiyagu Arockiyasamy, MSFS, is pastor of St. Michael Parish and St. Mary in Flint, Michigan.

He was born in Susaiyapparpattanam in Tamil Nadu, South India. He attended the only primary school there until the fifth grade. He then had to walk about 10 miles to get to Government Higher Secondary School at Jayankondam.

After graduation, he joined the minor seminary run by the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales. After eleven years of studies in the seminary (Philosophy, B. A, and Theology), he became a priest on April 19, 1996.

He spent five years working at a parish in India. He learned that more then 100 families lived at the foot of a small mountain. He helped organize them into a small faith community and began to build a church there with the help of many people in India and the United States.

Father Arockiyasamy came to the United States in July 2001. He sserved as associate pastor at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Jackson and then in the same role for four years at St. Mary Cathedral in Lansing.

On a recent trip back to India, he was able to begin work on a "grotto of our Lady of Lourdes" thanks to $1,000 from St. Mary Church of Flint. The Flint church also has decided to help support the mission church in India.

In June 2006, he became pastor of St. Mary Parish. In September 2008, he also became pastor of St. Michael Parish whene DIocese of Lansing announced that the two churches are in a cluster, with the possiblity of merger.

His parents are still living as are his elder sister and two younger sisters. They are all married and have two children each so he has  two nephews and four nieces as of April 2009.

You can learn more about his order, Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, and its role as missionaries in  a July 6, 2008  podcast recorded  at St. Michael in Grand Ledge. 

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