At the end of the 9th year, his life in the Seminary reched its destination. That blessed day fell on 21st December 1921. The Bishop raised him to the status of a priest with the power to celebrate the Holy Encharist, preach the word of God, and to administer the sacraments.

Fr. Augustine celebrated his first Holy mass at Sr. Augustine’s Forane Church Ramapuram, with due solemnity. It was a great feast not only for the members of his family but to the parish community as a whole. As he was very small of stature, he came to be called ‘Kunjachan’ (Little priest). The servant of God Kunjachan resided at Ramapuram, for a while, where he could get practical training under Fr. Kokkat.

Fr. Augustine was appointed assistant Vicar at Kadanad Church, in February 1923. The vicar in that church was Fr. Thomas Kuzhumpil, a relative of the S. of God.

Even while a young priest working as assistant, people used to approach him to save their crops from damaging worms and insects. They believed sincerely that if he came to bless and sprinkle Holy water, the worms in the Ginger field and insects destroying the paddy perish and the crops would be saved.

Mathai Sugusthy Nattunilathu from Ramapuram was a farmer, who had a fairly big plot with ginger cultivation, at Manathoor. Once he found that some pernicious worms were destroying the crops and they were growing rapidly. Feeling very sad over the event, the farmer approached our young priest and requested him to pay a visit to his ginger field. Kunjachan went with him immediately and on seeing the destroyed ginger beds, asked him why he did not inform him earlier. Still he encouraged him and asked him to rely on prayer. Then the priest went around the whole field, sprinkling Holy Water. He spent about two hours there. Ever since that event there was no destruction from the worms, and the farmer testified that he got an abundance of crops; more than what was expected.

Kunjachan’s service at Manathoor and Kadanad did not last long. As he got sick, he returned to Ramapuram in March 1926.

It was while convalesceing at Ramapuram that he came across a new field of activity, hitherto unattended by anyone else. He saw at Ramapuram and surrounding villages a class of people Harijans* deprived of all social status ans who lived like slaves at the mercy of the landlords. On studying the sad elight of these poor people, he decided to dedicate himself to their evangelisation and uplifting.