Kumbla had been part of Bela parish. Fr Joseph M Menezes who was the parish  priest of Manjeshwar in 1934, bought a plot at Kumbla along the Kumbla –  Badiyadka road and put up a house with two rooms and a kitchen for himself and his priest brother Fr Jerome (of Poona Diocese) to spend their life of retirement. Both the cottage and a chapel adjacent to it were extremely simple with thatched roof. He got Bishop Victor Fernandes to bless the chapel, dedicated to St Philomena at the time, on November 24, 1934. Everything about the little parish seems to have been poor. The number of Catholic families were just 14. Hardly any of them owned land of their own, toiling as they did under non-Christian landowners. The only reason for the erection of the chapel seems to be the practical inaccessibility of the Bela church which was about ten km away, with hardly any transport available. Mr lgnatius D’Souza, who was, being a copper merchant, relatively well off, offered a plot free to start a church at Kumbla. Then on November 24, 1936 the Sisters of Charity started a convent in the place and the Holy Family Primary School in the following June. After the pioneer Fr J. Menezes, came a long line of parish priests, each doing his share in bringing up and steadying what was on many a count an economically shaky parish. A few notable names might be mentioned: Fr Lawrence Monteiro who started the sodalities to improve the spiritual life of the people. To help them economically he
had a small room built and installed in it two hand looms, which did not outlive his stay at Kumbla. His successor, Fr A.S. D’Silva, sold the looms, added some more amount and extended the church, repairing its roof at the same time. Some of the priests toyed with the idea of making the place a shrine of St Philomena. Even her reputed relics were secured. But then her public cult was disallowed by Rome because of lack of historical proof of her very existence. The result was that during the tenure of Fr Frederick Pinto she was made to yield her place to St Monica, who would be from now on the patroness of the Kumbla Church. Fr Herold G. D’Souza who came in as the parish priest on May 9, 1970 is remembered as the Builder of the new church. He did it in the face of practically impossible odds even going to the extent of contributing his own personal money. Bishop Basil D’Souza blessed the new church on April 8, 1971. Fr Herold’s self-sacrificing life won the hearts of the people, whose grief knew no bounds when he collapsed suddenly with cardiac arrest on August 8, 1975. Fr Gerald I. Lobo was appointed parish priest of Kumbla and Episcopal Vicar of Kasargod zone. His appointment proved a godsend to the Kumbla parish. With the organization SMILE he undertook to re-create the entire parish including the church and the presbytery. But before he could complete some of the works he had taken up he was forced to leave the place as bishop of Shimoga at the beginning of 2000. However the good work was continued and completed by his successor, Fr Alfred J. Pinto. Thus on November 27, 2000 there was the blessing of the new presbytery, renovated church, the arch of the main gate as well as a parish hall. Fr Alfred came to be known also as Jasmine Father as he arranged to get  jasmine shrub from Pangala and encourage its cultivation at Kumbla and thus helped quite a number of poor familias to improve their economic status. With all the work of the parish priests, including that of Fr Alban Rodrigues, who succeeded Fr Alfred on July 1, 2007 as well as the work of the Sisters – both of Charity and St Joseph of Annecy – the entire parish has been showing signs of reinvigoration and revitalization for years to come.