He was ordained as a deacon in 1976 and then as a priest in 1978 by Baselios Mathews I.[2] On 30 April 1991 he was consecrated to the order of Episcopos.[5] In 1994, he was consecrated as a metropolitan of the Diocese of Kandanad West. He has also served as the assistant metropolitan of the Diocese of Idukki and is currently serving as the Metropolitan of Idukki since 2019.[6]
He has been a teacher at Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam, since 1984. He has taught Christology in the graduate and post-graduate levels while guiding a number of doctoral theses. He has authored several scholarly books and articles in the field of Theology. He has also served as the Executive Secretary to the Holy Episcopal Synod. The Holy Episcopal synod held at Devalokam Aramana nominated him as the successor to the Catholicos of the East & Malankara Metropolitan on 16 September 2021.[2]
He has organized several charitable projects at the diocesan level.[6][7] Mar Pachomios Charitable Society, formed in the memory of his predecessor Joseph Mar Pachomios, Metropolitan of Kandanad, runs over a dozen charitable projects including; Pratheeksha Bhavan, Prasanthi Bhavan, Prathyasa Bhavan, Pradanam Centre, Pramodam Project, Prasannam Bhavan, Prakasam Institute of Special Education and Prathibha Products.
Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan
In October 2021, the Holy Synod and Managing committee designated him as the new Malankara Metropolitan and Catholicos of Malankara Church, succeeding Baselios Marthoma Paulose II, who died in July 2021. He was enthroned as the 22nd Malankara Metropolitan during the Malankara Association that took place on 14 October 2021 at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Parumala. He was enthroned as Catholicos of the Apostolic Throne of Saint Thomas on 15 October 2021 by the Holy Synod of Malankara Church. The chief celebrant of the enthronement service and Holy Eucharist was Kuriakose Mar Clemis who is the senior metropolitan of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.[8][9][10]
Cardinal Mar George Alenchery inaugurated a meeting held to congratulate the new head of the church. Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, Cardinal Mar Cleemis, Suffragan Metropolitan Euyakim Mar Coorilos, Bishop Selvister Ponnumuthan, Bishop Awgin Kuriakose, Yuhanon Mar Diascoros Metropolitan, minister V N Vasavan, among others spoke during the meeting.[11] Felicitation letters from Patriarch Kirill, the supreme head of Russian Orthodox Church, and other International Ecumenical heads was also read on the occasion. Fr Alexander Kurien also conveyed wishes from the US President Joe Biden and presented a memento from the White House.[12]
Episcopal Consecrations
Mathews III consecrated seven metropolitan bishops[13] at St. Mary’s Orthodox Cathedral, Pazhanji on 28 July, 2022.[14][15] The metropolitans are Abraham Stephanos, Thomas Ivanios, Geevarghese Theophilos, Geevarghese Philoxenos, Geevarghese Pachomios, Geevarghese Barnabas and Zacharias Severios.[16]
This collection of essays on Christology was published in 2017 by the colleagues and students of Mar Severios at the Seminary to mark the 25th year of his Episcopal consecration.
Distinctions
The official form of address of the Catholicos is Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan enthroned on the Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas.[19]
On September 7, 2023, St. Petersburg Theological Academy (formerly known as the Leningrad Theological Academy while he was a student there in the 1970s) awarded him an honorary doctorate.[3]
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. It serves India's Saint Thomas Christian population. According to tradition, these communities originated in the missions of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. It employs the Malankara Rite, an Indian form of the West Syriac liturgical rite.
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, also known as the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic sui iuris particular church in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church possessing self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. It is one of the major archiepiscopal churches of the Catholic Church. It is headed by Major Archbishop Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos of the Major Archdiocese of Trivandrum based in Kerala, India. With more than 1096 parishes, its one of India's biggest church evangelical establishments.
Baselios Marthoma Mathews II was the primate of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He was the 6th Catholicos of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and 19th Malankara Metropolitan.
The Malankara Metropolitan or the Metropolitan of Malabar is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of the Malankara Syrian Church. It evolved from the title of the sixteenth century East Syriac metropolitans of India who were also styled the Metropolitan of Malabar. Since the division among the Saint Thomas Christians following the Synod of Diamper, the title has been mostly employed in association with the West Syriac branch of the community, usually known as the Malankara Church, among whom the office of the Malankara Metropolitan became the continuation of the local dynastic Archdeaconate.
Baselios Marthoma Didymus I born C. T. Thomas was the primate of the Malankara Orthodox Church from 2005 to 2010. He was the 7th Catholicos of the East since the Catholicate of the East was established India and the 20th Malankara Metropolitan. He was the 7th Catholicos of East.
Baselios Geevarghese I of the East popularly known as Vallikkattu Bava, he was the second Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He was installed in the Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas in 1925, and died after a short tenure of three years on 17 December 1928.
Baselios Thomas I is a Syriac Orthodox Catholicos of India (Maphrian) and head of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church in India. He was enthroned on 26 July 2002 by Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East in a ceremony held in Damascus, Syria.
The Calcutta Diocese is one of the 30 dioceses of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.
Baselios Marthoma Mathews I was the primate of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, also known as Indian Orthodox Church. He was the 5th catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and 18th Malankara Metropolitan.
Geevarghese Mar Dionysius of Vattasseril popularly known as Vattasseril Thirumeni was a bishop of the Malankara Church and 15th Malankara Metropolitan. In 2003, the Church declared Mar Dionysius as a saint. He is known as 'The Great Luminary of Malankara Church', a title which the Church bestowed on him in recognition of his contribution to the Church.
Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan are the titles used by the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, which is also called the Indian Orthodox Church, for the same bishop holding two offices of Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. The term "Catholicos" is derived from the Greek word Katholikos (Καθολικός), meaning "Universal Bishop". His Holiness Baselius Marthoma Mathews III is the present Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan.
Baselios Augen I was the 17th Malankara Metropolitan, the fourth Catholicos of the East in the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, and the first Catholicos of India in the Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church. He was the first Catholicos consecrated in a reunified Malankara Church, by the Patriarch of Antioch in 1964 but his tenure saw a second split in the Holy Church.
Geevarghese Mar Osthathios was a senior bishop of the Indian Orthodox Church. He was the metropolitan of the Niranam diocese from1975–2007. He was a theologian, orator and writer.
Baselios Marthoma Paulose II ; 30 August 1946 – 12 July 2021) was the primate of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He was ordained in 1973, consecrated in 1985 and enthroned as the 8th Catholicos of the Malankara Church and the 21st Malankara Metropolitan on 1 November 2010, succeeding Didymos I.
Kandanad West Diocese is one of the 30 dioceses of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
Geevarghese Mar Philoxenos aka Puthencavil Kochu Thirumeni was an administrator, orator and an advocate of Orthodox and the Catholicate of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India. He served as Metropolitan of Thumpamon Diocese from 1930 to 1951.
Kottayam Central Diocese is one of the 30 dioceses of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The diocese was created in 1982. This diocese is in the direct control of Catholicos of the East .The current Metropolitan of the diocese is the Malankara Metropolitan H.H Baselios Marthoma Mathews 3. The head office is located in Devalokam Aramana, Kottayam.
Mavelikkara Diocese is one of the 30 dioceses of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The diocese was created on 10 August 2002. H.G Vattamparambil Dr Abraham Mar Epiphanios is the Metropolitan of the diocese. The head office is located in TheoBhavan Aramana, Thazhakkara, Mavelikkara.
Geevarghese Mar Pachomios is a metropolitan of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.
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