Earlier Neerude was known as budigad, a Tulu work meaning ‘forest without any owner’.  Neerude was at first a part of Pezar and later of Ferar.  Bishop Victor Fernandes  established this as an independent chaplaincy and named it Neerude and Fr James Sequeira, acting parish priest of Ferar, put up a building to serve as a  chapel, which was inaugurated on January 20, 1945.   The place to build the chapel was donated by the grandfather of Fr Ignatius D’Costa.  It also served as a presbytery and school.  Fr Joseph M. Lobo was the first parish priest.  The new church building, the foundation for which was laid in 1953 by Bishop Basil Peres, was constructed by Fr Lawrence V.M. Fernandes (1955-1968).  The church dedicated to St Roque was blessed on April 19, 1960 by Bishop Raymond D’Mello.   Neerude status was raised to the station of a parish on January 9, 1961.  Fr Lawrence Fernandes bought two new bells from Germany and built the belfry, which was inaugurated on September 19, 1962.  Fr Lawrence Martis constructed the presbytery and also built the Golden Jubilee memorial open air state in 1995. 
In 1968, Fr Raymond Moras invited the Bethany Sisters and built a school and a convent.  Mr Diog Fernandes of Mochar was the founder of the Neerude Primary School which was moved to Neerude in 1917 by Fr Reginald Pinto of Ferar.  It is known as St Francis Xavier Higher Primary School.   The new building of St Francis Xavier Higher Primary School was constructed by Frs Joseph Lobo and Lawrence V. Fernandes.  This school celebrated its centenary recently.

Fr Alfred J. Pinto established Mukthi Prakash High School.  Fr Andrew Nazareth built the new primary school building.  He started free noon meal for children, sank a borewell, built a water tank and levelled two play grounds for the school.