Catholicos of India
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Catholicos of India sometimes also called Maphrian of India Maphrian of the East, Catholicos of the East, is the title of primates of various denominations currently or historically associated with the Syriac Orthodox Church, one among the group of Oriental Orthodox churches.
The Universal Syriac Orthodox Church is a mother Church in Christendom. (Syriac here refers to the language of Aramaic, a dialect of which was spoken by Jesus Christ.) The ancient seat of its Patriarchate, Antioch, was the third city in the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus. As Acts records, Christians were first so labelled in Antioch and the Apostles Peter, Paul, Barnabas, etc. invested considerable time teaching there. The great church historian Eusebius details how Peter consecrated a successor in Antioch before travelling to Rome. This succession continues in the present Patriarchate, though the Patriarchal seat has been moved several times. The Church prospered through the time of Constantine and beyond, sending missionaries into Asia Minor, Persia, India, and even to the border of China. Syriac Christianity has had direct, verifiable influence in Southern India from at least the 4th century, supported by missionary activity and jurisdiction over "all the East" granted by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325). St. Thomas the Apostle, an Aramaic Jew, martyr, and first missionary to India, is venerated as India's Patron Saint.
As outlined below, the term Catholicos began to be employed in the church for a local hierarch with expanded territorial authority. "Catholicos" means "universalist" or "generalist."
Over time, eastern and western Syriac traditions developed. East Syriac Churches which continue to employ the title "Catholicos of the East" include the Assyrian Churches of Persia and the Chaldean Church.
Two factions of the Oriental Orthodox Church in India, the Orthodox Syrian Church of India (which is also known as the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church or the Indian Orthodox Church) and the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church (Jacobites) also employ the term "Catholicos" for their top heads.
Both these groups are West Syriac in liturgy and ethos. The Indian Orthodox faction believes it is autocephalous. The Jacobite faction continues in close hierarchical association with the Patriarch of Antioch, the supreme head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church.
[edit] Origins and Development of the Catholicate in India
The political rivalries being great between the Roman and Persian Empires, the Syriac Church thought it wise to create a local head in Persia to facilitate communication from Christians under Roman rule. A "Catholicate of the East" was established in AD 410 by the Patriarch of Antioch and the Persian Synod under the auspices of Mar Marutha of Muipharqat, the Patriarchal delegate. Earlier, at least one other Persian bishop, Mar Papa, tried to create a Catholicate but was not heeded. Mar Issac, bishop of Seleucia, became the first canonical Catholicos, empowered to exercise authority over the Universal Church's Persian jurisdictions (excluding India). As the Persian church embraced Nestorian beliefs (after A.D.431), the association between the majority of Persian Christians and the main body of Christendom was broken. Known now as the Assyrian Church, these Christians sought to better establish themselves by claiming that the Apostle Thomas not only evangelized their territories and ordained presbyters, but gave authority to specific successors to govern the Church. This teaching contradicted the teachings of Nicaea. To maintain Orthodoxy, patriarchs continued to ordain local Orthodox catholicoi. For more details visit this exposition. The office of the Syriac Orthodox Catholicate was officially abolished in the 1860s by the Universal Bishop's Synod presided over by Patriarch H.H. Ignatius Jacob II. The title and concept was resurrected, re-located from Persia, and established in India by the then deposed Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Abdul Masih II in 1912. The Persian Christians were not consulted, nor was the Synod of the Universal Church. At this time, Basileus Paulose I was consecrated the first Catholicos of what has become the Indian Orthodox Church at St. Mary's Orthodox Syrian Church, Niranam (Niranam Valiyapally).
Understandably, this ordination and subsequent ecclesiastical succession was not accepted by the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, although some Malankara faithful chose to become "Indian Orthodox" over time. A reconciliation movement gathered momentum in the 1950s and culminated in the consecration of Mar Augen I by the Universal Bishop's Synod presided over by the Patriarch H.H. Ignatius Jacob III, canonically establishing the Catholicate as the spiritual and temporal head of the Church in India under the Holy See of Antioch(1964) as it had been. The camps later split again in 1975 with Augen I favoring autocephaly and "Thomasine" hierarchical succession. See Mar Augen's oath of office along with pictures of his ordination below.
The Catholicate of the East was continued with the consecration of H.B. Mor Baselios Paulose II by H.H. Patriarch Jacob III in 1975. After H.B. Mor Baselios Paulose II's demise in 1996 the office remained vacant for several years to accommodate reconciliation attempts, which were unsuccessful.
In 2002 His Beatitude Baselios Thomas I was consecrated by Patriarch H.H. Ignatius Zakka I Iwas to be the local head of all Syriac Christians in India. Though most often called Catholicos of the East, his official title was made Catholicos of India. due to the region of his jurisdiction. He functions at an ecclesiastical rank second only to the Patriarch, having the privilege to preside over the consecration of new patriarchs. His Beatitude is welcomed brotherly alongside the Patriarch at ecclesiastical and ecumenical functions, and hosted His Holiness during a state visit to India in 2005.
This Catholicate is headquartered at Puthencruz, Kerala, India and functions in a similar manner to the Indian Orthodox Catholicate within India. His Beatitude presides over the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Association, the legal entity of Malankara parishes that unequivocally supports remaining within the Antiochian Patriarchate. This entity, fully recognized by the High Court of Kerala, was formed in 2002 to guard against Indian Orthodox hierarchs claiming the property of parishes where Jacobite parishioners are the overwhelming majority.
His Beatitude is not authorized to consecrate Holy Mooron independently. The jurisdiction of the Jacobite Catholicos is limited to India only, although he is often invited to preside over Jacobite functions abroad.
The Syriac Orthodox Church believes it is the mother Christian church in South India and that the Indian Orthodox Church is a schismatic faction. The Indian Orthodox Catholicate remains under excommunication for dividing the church - leading to numerous legal actions, boarded churches, and broken faith experiences. See the consequences here. The claim of autocephaly and Thomasine succession is especially onerous since both camps accept that Jacobite Petrine Patriarchs were involved in maintaining Indian ecclesiastical leadership, and as noted in both "viewpoints," it was a deposed Antiochian Patriarch that initially established the non-canonical Catholicate. To underscore the point, the Supreme Court of India unequivocally declared that the Indian Orthodox Catholicate is part of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church and is not autocephalous in 1995. The current constitution of the Indian Orthodox Church (1934) continues to acknowledge the Patriarch of Antioch as that group's supreme head.
