The Catholicate Aramana Chapel in Kottayam, Kerala, India, is the headquarters of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and residence of the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. [1]
Many previous catholicoi including Paulose II (Indian Orthodox Church) are entombed there. [2] [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. The church 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.
Malankara Metropolitan is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of the Malankara Syrian Church.
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 Paulose II (born as Puthusseril Joseph Paulose was the first Maphrian of the erstwhile Patriarchal faction of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church later known as Jacobite Syrian Christian Church.
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.
Moran Mor Baselios Geevarghese II of the Malankara Church. Third Catholicos of the East in Malankara and 16th Malankara Metropolitan, was born to Ulahannan and Naithi of the Kallaserri family in Kurichi, Kottayam India on 16 June 1874.
The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (JSCC), or the Malankara Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church in India the Jacobite Syrian Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church in India, is a catholicate based in Kerala, India, of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and part of the Oriental Orthodox Church. It recognizes the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East as supreme head of the church. It functions autonomously within the church, administered by the Metropolitan Trustee, under the authority of the Maphrian of India, Baselios Thomas I. Following schism with the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, is currently the only church in Malankara that is under Syriac Orthodox Church. The church employs the West Syriac Rite Liturgy of Saint James.
Baselios Paulose I or Murimattathil Bava was the first Catholicos of the East after its reinstatement in India. The First Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church was in power only for seven months and eighteen days. He was 76 years old when he became the Catholiocs and died the following year.
The Catholicos of India, is an ecclesiastical office in the Syriac Orthodox Church. He is the Catholicos, spiritual leader and regional head of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, an Indian archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and functions at an ecclesiastical rank second to the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch within the Church, and his name is commemorated in liturgy throughout the Syriac Orthodox Archdioceses in India. The position was renamed as 'Catholicos of India' in 2002, in accordance with its actual jurisdiction.
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 and fourth Catholicos of the East.
Baselios Marthoma Paulose II ; 30 August 1946 – 12 July 2021) was the primate of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He was enthroned as the 8th Catholicos of the Malankara Church and the 21st Malankara Metropolitan on 1 November 2010, succeeding Didymos I.
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.
The position of Priest Trustee in the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church is of paramount importance in the administration of the Church, together with the Malankara Metropolitan and the lay trustee. The priest trustee is a priest of order Kasheesha or Cor-Episcopa.
Kottayam Diocese is one of the 30 dioceses of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The diocese was created in Mulanthuruthy Synod in 1876.
The Order of St. Thomas is the highest honorary award given by the Indian Orthodox Church and named after St. Thomas the Apostle who founded the Church in India. It is reserved for heads of states and churches and awarded by the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan, who is the primate of the Malankara Orthodox Church. The award is usually presented at large public gatherings held at different locations of importance to the Indian Orthodox Church within India.