Bharananganam, where St. Alphonsa lived and died, is a quiet village some 33 k.m. to the east of Kottayam, in south central Kerala. Lying as it does in the cultural hinterland of the erstwhile Travancore State, Bharananganam has a distinctive rural charm about it and has a people who have for generations remained rooted to the soil.

                      The crystalline waters of the Meenachil river girdle it on three sides. One of the ancient centres of Christianity in Kerala, Bharananganam is dominated by its millennium old Forane church. The clarist convent where Blessed Alphonsa lived and died is only a stone's throw away from the church; some two hundred metres to the north is the Mortuary Chapel inside which is the Tomb of  Blessed Alphonsa. The Alphonsa Museum, which houses hundreds of exhibits associated with the life of blessed Alphonsa, is situated in the Chapel compound. The  two storey structure in front of the chapel was originally the Papal podium at   Kottayam during the beatification ceremony on 8th Feb.1986. A flight of steps  leads to the stadium below and on either side of these steps one can see a beautifully laid out terraced garden, one of the very best of its kind in Kerala.