Kochi: Rationalist Joseph Pulikunnel, 85, died at Pala in Kottayam in the wee hours of Thursday.

He will be cremated on Friday on his residential premises where he cremated his wife in 2008. A product of Madras Presidency College, Joseph antagonised the Church by opposing its ritualistic traditions.

His revolutionary thoughts cost him his job as a faculty of economics in Devagiri College, Kozhikkode, where he worked from 1958 to 1967. Undeterred, he went on to publish a magazine ‘Oshana’ from a rented room in Pala in 1975 to wage war against the Church.

He was in the forefront of social service and started ‘Good Samaritan Project India’. He also started Word and Deed Hospital, Palliative Cancer Care Home and Juvenile Diabetic Home in Pala to provide relief to the downtrodden.

Coincidentally, Osana downed its shutters early this year after he quit. He also tried his luck in politics first when he became Congress district executive committee member in 1960.

He joined R Balakrishna Pillai’s Kerala Congress in 1964 and unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election from Kalpetta in 1965. He had five children.