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Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Indian Orthodox Church) | |
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Classification | Oriental Orthodox |
Orientation | Eastern Christianity |
Scripture | Peshitta |
Theology | Miaphysitism |
Polity | Episcopal |
Governance | Episcopal Synod |
Primate | Malankara Metropolitan & Catholicos of East Baselios Marthoma Mathews III |
Region | India and the Nasrani Malayali diaspora |
Language | Syriac, Konkani, Malayalam,Hindi, English |
Liturgy | West Syriac Rite (Malankara Rite) |
Headquarters | Catholicate Palace, Kottayam, Kerala, India |
Founder | Thomas the Apostle (according to tradition) Dionysius VI [1] [2] : 285 [3] |
Origin | AD 52, 1912, [4] 1912 [5] |
Independence | 1912 (Establishment of Catholicate) [6] |
Separated from | Syriac Orthodox Church [7] : 197 |
Branched from | Saint Thomas Christians, Malankara Church |
Separations | Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (1930) [7] : 197 |
Members | 0.5 million in Kerala [8] |
Other name(s) | മലങ്കര സഭ (Malankara Church) Indian Orthodox Church |
Official website | mosc.in |
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The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) [9] also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) [10] or simply as the Malankara Church, [11] is an autocephalous [12] [13] [6] Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. It serves India's Saint Thomas Christian (also known as Nasrani) population. According to tradition, these communities originated in the missions of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century (circa 52 AD). [14] It employs the Malankara Rite, an Indian form of the West Syriac liturgical rite.
The MOSC descends from the Malankara Church and its affiliation with the Syriac Orthodox Church. However, between 1909 and 1912, a schism over the authority of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch resulted in the dissolution of the unified Malankara Church and establishment of the overlapping and conflicting MOSC and Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (JSCC). [3] Since 1912, the MOSC has maintained a catholicate, the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan–presently Baselios Marthoma Mathews III–who is the primate of the church.
The MOSC drafted and formally adopted a constitution in 1934, in order to define the relationship it has with the Syriac Orthodox Church and the patriarch, wherein it defined itself a division of the Syriac Orthodox Church with its supreme spiritual leader being the Patriarch of Antioch. However the constitution stipulated that all the spiritual duties of the patriarch in the Malankara Church was entrusted to the Catholicos of the East and reiterated that its administration was the prerogative of the Malankara Metropolitan. The constitution further declared that the positions of the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan are to be held by the same person from then on, who shall henceforth act as the spiritual and administrative head of the church. [15] The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church asserts communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches. However, regular legal and occasional physical confrontations between the MOSC and the Syriac Orthodox JSCC have continued despite multiple efforts to reconcile the churches. [3] [16] [2] : 272
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church accepts miaphysitism, [17] [18] which holds that in the one person of Jesus Christ, divinity and humanity are united in one (μία, mia) nature (φύσις – "physis") without separation, without confusion, without alteration and without mixing [19] where Christ is consubstantial with God the Father. Around 500 bishops within the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem refused to accept the dyophysitism (two natures) doctrine decreed by the 4th ecumenical council, the Council of Chalcedon in 451,[ dubious – discuss ] an incident that resulted in the second major split in the main body of the Christian Church (after the Nestorian schism). While the Oriental Orthodox churches rejected the Chalcedonian definition, the sees that would later become the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church accepted this council. [20]
Self-reporting roughly 2.5 million members (with external estimates of roughly 1 million) [21] across 30 dioceses worldwide, a significant proportion of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church's adherents reside in the southern India state of Kerala with the diaspora communities in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. [22]
According to tradition, Christianity first arrived in India with Thomas the Apostle during the 1st century AD, evolving into Saint Thomas Christianity over several centuries. [23] While isolated and generally independent in administration, Indian Christians maintained contact with the Christian hierarchies of Antioch, Persia, and potentially Alexandria. [24] [25] The Saint Thomas Christians had relationships with the Persian Church of the East from at least the 6th century onward. The Indians inherited its East Syriac dialect for liturgical use and gradually became Syriac Christians in ritual and doctrine. They received clerical support from Persian bishops, who traveled to Kerala in merchant ships on the spice route. [26] For much of this period, Saint Thomas Christians were under the leadership of an archdeacon (a native ecclesiastical head with temporal powers, deriving from the Greek arkhidiākonos).
During the 16th century, efforts by the Portuguese Padroado –an arm of the Catholic Church–to bring the Saint Thomas Christians under the administration of the Latin Church and attempts to Latinize the Malankara Rite led to the first of several rifts in the community. These divisions intensified following the 1599 Synod of Diamper. Saint Thomas Christians who were opposed to the Portuguese Padroado missionaries took the Coonan Cross Oath on 3 January 1653. [27] [28] [29] The Dutch East India Company expulsion of the Portuguese from much of Malabar enabled the reconciliation of some Saint Thomas Christians and the Catholic Church, with this group eventually evolving into the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church that adopted the Chaldean Catholic Church's East Syriac Rite and Diophysite christology.
Many Saint Thomas Christian chose to remain independent from the Catholic Church. Patriarch Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, witnessed the 1665 ordination of Thomas as Bishop Thoma I, who forged a renewed relationship with the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and Saint Thomas Christians, which laid the foundation for adopting West Syrian liturgy and practices over the next two centuries. Those who supported the indigenous church leader of Malankara, Thoma I, and adopted West Syrian liturgies and practices and Miaphysite faith evolved into the Malankara Church. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
The Arthat Padiyola declared that the administration of Malankara Church was independent and the bishops from Rome, Antioch, and Babylon had no role in the Malankara Church hierarchy, despite continued efforts to integrate the remaining independent Saint Thomas Christians into these patriarchates. In 1807, four gospels of Holy Bible in Syriac were translated to Malayalam by Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban. The Malankara Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kottayam was established in 1815 under the leadership of Pulikottil Ittup Ramban (Mar Dionysius II). The Mavelikara Synod (Padiyola) led by Cheppad Mar Dionysius rejected the suggestions put forward by Anglican missioneries and Reformation group and declared the beliefs and theology of Malankara Church were same as the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch.[ citation needed ]
Geevarghese Dionysius of Vattasseril, who became the Malankara metropolitan bishop in 1908, played a significant role with the other clerical and lay leaders of Malankara in re-establishing the Catholicos of the East in India in 1912. In 1909 the relations with the Syrian Orthodox Church soured, when Patriarch Ignatius Abded Aloho II who arrived in India, began demanding registered deeds granting the patriarch temporal authority over the church. Dionysius rejected the request and thus emerged two factions in the church. The faction that supported the Patriarch came to be called as "Bava Kakshi" (Patriarch Faction) and the faction that supported the Malankara Metropolitan came to be known as "Methran Kakshi" (Metropolitan Faction). [35] [36] The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church wanted to retain its autocephaly, and appealed to Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Abdul Masih II. He enthroned Murimattathil Paulose Ivanios as Baselios Paulose I, Catholicos of the East, on the apostolic throne of St. Thomas at St. Mary's Church in Niranam on 15 September 1912. [37]
In 1934, The Malankara Church adopted a constitution for smooth functioning of the church, parishes and institution. In 1947, Saint Gregorios of Parumala was declared as a saint by the Church. In 1952 the Official Residence of the Malankara Metropolitan and the Headquarters of Malankara Church was shifted to Devalokam from Pazhaya Seminary. In 1958, The Supreme Court declared Catholicos Baselios Geevarghese II as the legitimate Malankara Metropolitan. The two factions of the Malankara Orthodox Church rejoined. In 1964, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch participated in the enthronement ceremony of the Catholicos and Malankara Metropolitan, Baselios Augen I. In 1995, the Supreme Court of India declared the MOSC constitution adopted in 1934 was valid.[ citation needed ]
In 2002, fresh elections were conducted in Malankara Association under the observation of Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court declared Catholicos Baselios Marthoma Mathews II is the official and legitimate Malankara Metropolitan and also declared that this decision cannot be disputed in any platform. In 2003, Vattasheril Dionysius VI was declared as a saint. In 2012, the centennial of the establishment of the church and Catholicate were celebrated with history classes and church publications. [38] On 3 July 2017, a major verdict by the Supreme Court of India declared the MOSC legally applicable to all parishes in disputed possession between the MOSC and Jacobite Syrian Christian Church. [39]
The spiritual head of the church is the Catholicos of the East, and its temporal head is the Malankara Metropolitan. Since 1934, both titles have been vested in one person; the official title of the head of the church is "The Catholicos of the Apostolic Throne of Saint Thomas and The Malankara Metropolitan". Baselios Marthoma Mathews III was enthroned as the Malankara Metropolitan and the Catholicos of the East. He is the eighth Catholicose of the East in Malankara and the 21st Malankara Metropolitan.
Oriental Orthodox Churches, including the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, accept only the first three ecumenical councils: the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople, and the Council of Ephesus. The church, like all other Oriental Orthodox Churches, uses the original Nicene Creed [40] without the filioque clause. [41] Like the Syriac Orthodox Church, it primarily uses the liturgy of Saint James in Malayalam, Konkani, Kannada, Hindi, English and other Indian languages.
The church has used the Malankara Rite, part of the Antiochene Rite, since the 17th century. [42] The Jacobite Church and the Maronite Church also belong to the same liturgical family. In the first half of the fifth century, the Antiochene church adopted the Liturgy of Saint James. In the 4th and 5th centuries, The liturgical language of fourth- and fifth-century Jerusalem and Antioch was Greek, and the original liturgy was composed in Greek.
After the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Eastern Church was divided in two; one group accepted the council, and the other opposed it. Both groups continued to use the Greek version of the Saint James liturgy. The Byzantine emperor Justin (518–527) expelled the opponents from Antioch, and they took refuge in the Syriac-speaking Mesopotamia on the Roman–Persian border (modern eastern Syria, Iraq, and southeastern Turkey). The Antiochene liturgical rites were gradually translated into Syriac, and Syriac hymns were introduced.
Gregorios Abdal Jaleel came to Malankara from Jerusalem in 1665 and introduced Syriac Orthodox liturgical rites. The most striking characteristic of the Antiochene liturgy is its large number of anaphoras (celebrations of the Eucharist). About eighty are known, and about a dozen are used in India. All have been composed following the Liturgy of Saint James. [43]
Christians of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church pray the canonical hours of the Shehimo at fixed prayer times seven times a day. [44]
The liturgy of Mor Addai is still in use, in anaphora form, similar to the Maronite Sharar. The anaphora of St. John Chrysostom is sometimes used.
In conformity with other Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and also with the Roman Catholic Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church adheres to the tradition of seeking the intercession of saints. Several have been canonized:
The temporal, ecclesiastical and spiritual administration of the church is vested in the Malankara Metropolitan, subject to the church constitution which was adopted in 1934. [47] The Malankara Metropolitan is president of the Malankara Syrian Christian Association (Malankara Association) and its managing committee, and trustee of community properties. He is the custodian of the Pazhaya Seminary and other common properties of Malankara Syrian Community. He is also the custodian of vattipanam interest which was deposited in Travancore Government by Marthoma VII. He is elected by the Malankara association.
"Catholicos" means "the general head", and can be considered equivalent to "universal bishop." [55] The early church had three priestly ranks: episcopos (bishop), priest and deacon. By the end of the third century, bishops of important cities in the Roman Empire became known as metropolitans. The fourth-century ecumenical councils recognized the authority of the metropolitan. By the fifth century, the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch gained control of the churches in surrounding cities. [56] They gradually became the heads of the regional churches, and were known as patriarchs (common father).
Outside the Roman Empire, patriarchs were known as catholicos. There were four catholicates before the fifth century: the Catholicate of the East, the Catholicate of Armenia, the Catholicate of Georgia and the Catholicate of Albania. The archdeacons reigned from the fourth to the 16th centuries; in 1653, the archdeacon was elevated to bishop by the community as Mar Thoma I.
The Catholicate of the East was relocated to India in 1912, and Baselios Paulose I was seated on the apostolic throne of St. Thomas as the Catholicos of the East by the disposed Patriarch of Antioch Abdul Masih. The headquarters of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Catholicos of the East is the Catholicate Palace at Devalokam, Kottayam, Kerala, which was consecrated on 31 December 1951. The new palace, built in 1961, was dedicated by visiting Armenian Catholicos Vazgen I.
The Holy Synod and Managing committee designated H.G.Dr. Mathews Mor Severios to the new Malankara Metropolitan and Catholicos of Malankara Church succeeding Baselios Marthoma Paulose II. He was consecrated 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 and enthroned as the 9th Catholicos of Malankara Church on 15 October 2021. [57] Relics of St. Thomas are kept in the catholicate chapel, and Geevarghese II, Augen I, Mathews I and Paulose II are interred there.
The list of Catholicos of the East of Malankara Church:
Until the 17th century, the church was administered by the archdeacon (Malankara Moopan). [58] The elected archdeacon was in charge of day-to-day affairs, including the ordination of deacons to the priesthood. Ordinations were performed by Persian bishops visiting India. The Malankara Palliyogam (a forerunner of the Malankara Association) consisted of elected representatives from individual parishes. The isolation of the Malankara church from the rest of Christendom preserved the apostolic age's democratic nature through interactions with Portuguese (Roman Catholic) and British (Anglican) colonialists. From the 17th to the 20th centuries, the church had five pillars of administration:
Envisioned by Dionysius VI, the church's general and day-to-day administration was codified in its 1934 constitution. The constitution [61] was presented at the 26 December 1934 Malankara Christian Association meeting at M. D. Seminary, [62] adopted and enacted. It has been amended three times. Although the constitution was challenged in court by dissident supporters of the Patriarch of Antioch, Supreme Court rulings in 1958, 1995, 2017 and 2018 upheld its validity. [63]
The constitution's first article asserts the relationship between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Malankara Church. The second article addresses the establishment of the Malankara Church by St. Thomas and ascribes primacy to the Catholicos. The third article regards the church's name. The fourth article describes the faith and its traditions. The fifth article examines church governance canon law. [64]
The elected Malankara Association, consisting of parish members, manages the church's religious and social concerns. Formerly the Malankara Palli-yogam (മലങ്കര പള്ളി യോഗം; Malankara Parish Assembly, its modern form is believed to have been founded in 1873 as the Mulanthuruthy Synod, a gathering of parish representatives in Parumala. In 1876, the Malankara Association began. [65]
The church constitution outlines the association's powers and responsibilities. The Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan is the president, and the diocesan metropolitan bishops are vice-presidents. All positions are elected. Each parish is represented in the association by an elected priest and laypeople, proportional to parish-membership size.
This is a list of co-trustees (priest trustee & lay trustee) elected by the Malankara Association of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church: [66] [67]
Year of Election | Clergy Trustee | Duration | Lay Trustee | Duration |
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1869 | Punnathra Chacko Chandapilla Kathanar | 21 Oct 1869 – 13 Sep 1886 | Kulangara Ittychan Pailey | 12 Oct 1869 – ? |
1886 | Konat Kora Yohannan Kathanar | 13 Sep 1886 – 9 Mar 1890 | Kunnumpurath Kora Ulahannan, Kottayam | 13 Sep 1886 & 31 Mar 1892 – 24 Feb 1901 |
1892 | Konat Kora Mathan Malpan | 31 Mar 1892 & 23 Nov 1895 – 7 Sep 1911 | - | |
1901 | - | C. J. Kurien (Kunnumpurath Ulahannan Kora), Kottayam | 25 Apr 1901 – 7 Sep 1911 | |
1911 | Palappalil Mani Paulose Kathanar Pampakuda | 7 Sep 1911 – 21 Dec 1955 | Chirakadavil Kora Kochu Korula, Kottayam (d. 1931) | 07 Sep 1911 – 31 May 1931 |
1931 | - | E. I Joseph, Kottayam | 10 Jul 1931 – 15 Jul 1946 | |
1958 | Manalil Jacob Kathanar | 26 Dec 1958 – 28 Dec 1965 | Ooppoottil Kurien Abraham, Kottayam | 26 Dec 1958 – 12 Dec 1978 |
1965 | Thengumthottathil T. S. Abraham Cor Episcopa | 28 Dec 1965 – 28 Dec 1982 | - | |
1980 | - | Padinjarekkara P. C. Abraham, Kottayam | 1 May 1980 – 21 Mar 2007 | |
1982 | Konat Abraham Malpan | 28 Dec 1982 – 3 Mar 1987 | - | |
1987 | Fr. Mathai Nooranal | 29 Dec 1987 – 29 Nov 2002 | - | |
2004 | Fr. Dr. O. Thomas | 10 Jun 2004 – 21 Mar 2007 | - | |
2007 | Fr. Johns Abraham Konat | 21 Mar 2007 – 7 Mar 2012 | M.G. George Muthoot | 21 Mar 2007 – 7 Mar 2012 |
2012 | Fr. Johns Abraham Konat | 7 Mar 2012 – 1 Mar 2017 | M.G. George Muthoot | 7 Mar 2012 – 1 Mar 2017 |
2017 | Fr. Dr. M.O. John | 1 Mar 2017 – 4 Aug 2022 | George Paul (d. 2019) | 1 Mar 2017 – 26 Nov 2019 |
2022 | Fr. Dr. Thomas Varghese Amayil | 4 Aug 2022 – present | Ronny Varghese Abraham | 4 Aug 2022 – present |
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Dioceses [68]
The church's episcopal synod has the following diocesan bishops: [71] [72] [73]
Puthuppady, Kozhikode
The church has a number of spiritual organizations:
The two seminaries which offers bachelor's and master's degrees in theology are Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam [84] and St. Thomas Orthodox Theological Seminary, Nagpur. [85] The Malankara Orthodox Seminary at Kottayam is the first Orthodox Seminary in Asia established in year 1815.
Kottakkunnu, S. Battery
Thoothukkudy, (T.N.)
Kolencherry
Kunnamkulam
Kolencherry
The church was a founding member of the World Council of Churches. [86] Catholicos Geevarghese II and other metropolitan participated in the 1937 Conference on Faith and Order in Edinburgh; a church delegation participated in the 1948 WCC meeting in Amsterdam in 1948, and the church played a role in the 1961 WCC conference in New Delhi. Metropolitan Paulos Gregorios was president of the WCC from 1983 to 1991.
The church participated in the 1965 Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches in Addis Ababa. [87] It is a member of the Faith and Order Commission, the Christian Conference of Asia and the Global Christian Forum. A number of primates of sister churches have visited, including Patriarch Justinian of Romania in February 1957 and in January 1969; Catholicos of All Armenians Vazgen I in December 1963; Armenian Patriarch Derderian of Jerusalem in December 1972; Patriarch Pimen I of Moscow in January 1977; Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II in September 1982; Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie in 1986, Patriarch Teoctist Arăpașu of Romania in 1989; Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I in November 2000; Metropolitan (later Patriarch) Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in December 2006; Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II in November 2008, Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Paulos in December 2008; the Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I Keshishian in February 2010, and Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Mathias in November 2016.
The Order of St. Thomas, the church's highest award is presented to heads of state and churches by the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. Recipients include Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Paulos, Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I, and Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Mathias. [88]
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.
Gregorios of Parumala, also known as Parumala Thirumeni and Geevarghese Mar Gregorios, was a Metropolitan of the Malankara Church. Parumala Thirumeni became the first person of Indian origin to be canonised as saint. In 1947, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church declared Mar Gregorios as a saint, making him the first saint from India canonized by that church. In November 1987, the Syriac Orthodox Church canonized him as a saint.
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.
Mor Baselios Thomas I was a Syriac Orthodox prelate who served as the Catholicos of India (Maphrian) and head of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Church. Enthroned on 26 July 2002 by Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas in Damascus, Syria, he led the church through periods of ecclesiastical and social challenge until his death in 2024.
The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church, the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church or the Syriac Orthodox Church in India, is an autonomous Maphrianate of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch based in Kerala, India and a part of the Oriental Orthodox Communion. It is administered by the Malankara Metropolitan and Catholicos-Elect, Gregorios Joseph, under the spiritual authority of the Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Aphrem II the supreme hierarch of the Syriac Orthodox 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 Dionysius Vattasseril, also Dionysius VI, Dionysius Geevarghese II or, popularly, Vattasseril Thirumeni, was a bishop of the Malankara Church and 15th Malankara Metropolitan. In 2003, Dionysius was canonized as a saint by the Malankara Orthodox Church, and his feast day is celebrated on February 23 each year. 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.
The leader of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church uses the title Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. The incumbent 'Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan' is Baselios Marthoma Mathews III.
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 the East in the Malankara 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.
Baselios Marthoma Paulose II 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.
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.
Dr. Geevarghese Mor Gregorios was a bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church, President of the Episcopal Synod of the Church in India, President of the Synod of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church and the Metropolitan of Cochin, Kottayam, Kollam, Niranam and Thumpamon Dioceses.
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.
St. Dionysius Orthodox Church is an Indian Orthodox church in the city of Al Ain, Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It is the first church dedicated to the sacred memory of Saint Geevarghese Dionysius of Vattasseril, the third proclaimed saint of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. It is the largest Indian Orthodox church in the Arab region.
The Kollam Orthodox Diocese, one of the 32 dioceses of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, was created after the Mulanthuruthy Synod in 1876. H.G. Dr. Joseph Mar Dionysius is the Metropolitan of the diocese, whose head office is in Bishop's House, Cross Junction, Kadappakada, Kollam, Kerala, India.
Kottayam Diocese is one of the 32 dioceses of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The diocese was created in Mulanthuruthy Synod in 1876.
Kottayam Central Diocese is one of the 32 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 32 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.
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.
The Malankara Orthodox Church of India(also called by a variety of names, such as the Malankara Church). It is located in Kerala, India.
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, also known as Indian Orthodox Church also Malankara Church, is one of the major and oldest churches in the world.
The autocephalous Malankara Orthodox Church is governed by Holy Episcopal Synod of 24 Bishops presided over by His Holiness Moran Mar Baselios Mar Thoma Didimos Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan.
The Malankara Church is a division of the Orthodox Syrian Church. The Primate of the Orthodox Syrian Church is the Patriarch of Antioch.
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