| Father Placid J Podipara CMI | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joseph October 3, 1899 Mannanam, India |
| Died | April 27, 1985 (aged 85) Chethipuzha, India |
| Resting place | Chethipuzha, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Ethnicity | Marthoma Nazrani |
| Citizenship | Indian |
| Education | Ph D in Theology, Canon Law and Philosophy |
| Occupation | Teacher, Writer |
| Years active | 55 |
| Known for | Love of Church |
| Notable works | De Fontibus Juris Canonici Syro-Malankarensium, Die Thomas-Christen, The Thomas Christians, The Mariology of the East, Reflections on Liturgy |
| Title | Father of Syro-Malabar Church |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Parents | Chacko and Rosa |
Father Placid J Podipara or Placidachan (Malayalam: പ്ലാസിഡച്ചന് ; October 3, 1899-April 27, 1985) is considered to be one of the greatest ecclesiastical luminaries of the 20th century in India.[1] He was a member of the Syro Malabar Church and was ordained a priest from the Eastern Catholic religious order- Carmelites of Mary Immaculate. He was an eminent theologian, liturgist, orator, professor, ecumenist, prolific author and a caring pastor. He worked hard to remove the rampant liturgical latinisation of Syro Malabar Church and also was instrumental in bringing the Syro Malankara Church to the Catholic fold.
He has authored more than thirty seven books and numerous articles on Saint Thomas Christians in many languages such as English, Malayalam, German and Latin.
Some of the important offices which he held include Member of the Pontifical commission for codifying Canon Law, Syriac Language examiner of Kerala University, Consultant to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Member of Pontifical commission for restoring the Holy Qurbana of Syro Malabar Church, Professor of Pontifical Oriental Institute and Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome, Consultant for preparing the agenda of Second Vatican Council. He also had doctorates in Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law which he acquired during his first stint in Rome.[2]
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Placid was born Joseph(Kochauseppachan) into the Podipara family as the fifth and last child of Chacko and Rosamma in the village, Arpookara, near Kottayam in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. He lost his mother at the age of four and his father at the age of seven. He completed his schooling from St. Ephrem's High School, Mannanam which was run by Syrian Carmelite fathers which would later become CMI. Inspired by the lifestyle of the monks he entered the novitiate in 1918 and was given a new name, Placid of St. Joseph. Later he was sent to St. Joseph's Seminary, Mangalore run by the Italian Jesuits, for his ecclesiastical studies where he did two years of Philosophy and four years of Theology course. He was ordained priest on the 3rd of December 1927 at Mangalore and celebrated his first Holy Qurbana in St. Joseph's Monastery chapel, Mannanam. As his superiors needed someone highly qualified to teach in the major seminary, he was sent to Rome for further studies. During his first stint in Rome, which lasted only two years, he acquired multiple doctorates in the field of Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law.[3]
After his return from Rome in 1930, he was appointed to teach Dogmatic Theology and Canon Law in the Congregation's Study House which was at Chethipuzha in Changanacherry. He turned out to be an erudite professor and spiritual teacher during the years that followed.
During the same year the movement to reunite the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church was started under the leadership of Mar Ivanios. This movement was staunchly supported by Placid and he traveled the length and breadth of Kerala to give support by giving lectures, holding debates, giving pastoral and intellectual advices to the clergy and laypeople and confronting those who were opposed to the ecumenical movement. He was also deputed by the Bishop of Changanacherry Diocese with the task of examining all the Syriac liturgical texts of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church before and after the reunion. This enabled him to realize that their liturgical books contained passages which support the Catholic Dogmas like the infallibility of the Pope and Immaculate Conception.
The fame of Placid's scholarship, his deep grasp of spiritual and ecclesiastical matters, his simplicity of manners and easy accessibility and availability won him many friends and admirers among all ranks of people right from the bishops, scholars, to the simple, ordinary folk.
Placid was again called to Rome by the insistence of Cardinal Tisserant who was very fond of Syro Malabar Church. Placid was asked to be readily available to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in its deliberations and projects for the development of the Syro Malabar Church. His Roman days (1954–1980) were a period of boost and expansion for the Syro Malabar Church and these 26 years of Placid's life in Rome were as passionately devoted to the service of the Church as were his first 25 years in Kerala.[1] [3] [4]
He met with an accident in 1960 which left him with a limping leg till the end of his life. He came back from Rome in 1980 and continued his studies from Chethipuzha. Towards the last days he was fully bed-ridden by partial paralysis which affected his power of speech. He breathed his last on April 27, 1985.[4]
Father Placid's formulation of the St. Thomas Christians as "Hindu in Culture, Christian in Religion and Oriental in Worship" has been quoted by orators even today. Mar Joseph Powathil referred to Placid in his funeral oration as one worthy to be counted among the Great Fathers of the Church. Without Placid's influence and support for Cardinal Tisserrant, the Syro Malabar Church might not have re-emerged from the Latinized oblivion. The pivotal role he played in giving shape to important decrees of Second Vatican Council, especially those dealing with Eastern Churches and the oriental code of canon law, his capacity for hard work and his intellectual acumen and his prodigious memory, the numerous scholarly books and articles he has published, his deep devotion to the Church and to the See of Peter, his love for his Church of the St. Thomas Christians of India, the truly human and transcendent values he always cherished at the cost of heroic personal sacrifices, above all his life of prayer and asceticism as a humble CMI religious, have left to posterity a record of achievements which very few in any age or country have bequeathed.[1][4] It was said about him, "He is punctual like morning, serene as night, innocent as a child, harmless as a meadow lark, frank as a mirror, fresh as the dawn, calm as an iceberg, modest as a violet and happy as day light."
1. The Syrian Church of Malabar: Its Catholic Communion
2. The Church of Seleucia and its Catholic Roman Communion
3. The South Indian Apostolate of St. Thomas
4. The Efforts for Reunion in Malankara, South India
5. Portuguese Religious Conquests in Malabar under the Diocese of Cochin during the Sixteenth Century.
6. A Short History of the Malabar Church
7. The Malabarians
8. The Malankarians
9. The Thomas Christians
10. The Varthamanappusthakam (Translation)
11. The Malabar Christians
12. The Hierarchy of the Syro-Malabar Church
13. Four Essays on the Pre-Seventeenth Century Church of St. Thomas Christians of India
14. The Rise and Decline of the Indian Church of the St. Thomas Christians
15. The Latin Rite Christians of Malabar
16. De Fontibus Iuris Ecclesiastici Syro-Malankarensium (Latin)
17. Fontes Iuris Canonici Syro-Malankarensium (Latin)
18. The Social and Socio-Ecclesiastical Customs of the Syrian Christians of India
19. The Catholic Syrians of Malabar and the Motu Proprio Crebrae Allatae
20. Oriental Marriage Legislation
21. The Syro-Malabarians, their life and their Activities
22. Hindu in Culture, Christian in Religion, Oriental in Worship
23. The Thomas Christians and Adaptation
24. The Individuality of the Malabar Church
25. The Canonical Sources of the Syro-Malabar Church.
26. Memorandum to His Eminence Eugene Cardinal Tisserant
27. The Present Syro-Malabar Liturgy: Menezian or Rozian?
28. Notes on some Clerical and Liturgical Matters
29. Further Extension of the Malabar Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in India
30. The Thomas Christians and their Syriac Treasures
31. The Thomas Christians of Malabar and the Chaldean Liturgy
32. Reflections on Liturgy
33. The Christology of Babai the Great and the Non-Catholic East Syrians or Nestorians
34. Mariology of the Church of the East
35. Malayalam and Syriac and the Syro-Malabarians
36. Eugene Cardinal Tisserant - Reminiscences
37. നവംബർ മാസത്തിലും തോമ്മാശ്ലീഹാ (The Remembrance of Apostle St. Thomas in November too)
38. മാർത്തോമ്മാശ്ലീഹായും പാലയൂർ പള്ളിയും (Mar Toma Sliha and the Church at Palayoor)
39. കേരള നസ്രാണികളും ദേശസഞ്ചാരികളും (Kerala Nazranees and the World Travellers)
40. ഉദയമ്പേരൂർ സൂനഹദോസ് (Synod of Diamper)
41. മൈലാപ്പൂർ (Mylapore)
42. കേരളത്തിലെ മാർത്തോമ്മാ ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികൾ (St. Thomas Christians of Kerala)
43. മാർത്തോമ്മാ ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികളുടെ വളർച്ചയും തളർച്ചയും (The Rise and Decline of the Indian Church of the St. Thomas Christians)
44. മാർത്തോമ്മാ ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികളും അനുരൂപണവും (St. Thomas Christians and Adaptation)
45. കേരളസഭയുടെ വ്യക്തിത്വം (The Individuality of the Church of Kerala)
46. നമ്മുടെ റീത്ത് (Our Rite)
47. പുരാതനമായ ഒരു കൈയെഴുത്തു പുസ്തകം (An Ancient Manuscript in Syriac dated 1708)
48. അന്ത്യോക്യാ പാത്രിയർക്കീസ് (The Patriarch of Antioch)
49. ദൈവമാതാവും യാക്കോബായ വിശ്വാസവും (The Mother of God and the Jacobite Faith)
50. പൗരസ്ത്യസഭകൾ (Oriental Churches)
51. അകത്തോലിക്കു വാദങ്ങൾക്ക് കത്തോലിക്കു പ്രത്യുത്തരം (Catholic Responses to the arguments of non-Catholics)
52. യാക്കോബായക്കാരുടെ പുനരൈക്യം (The Reunion of the Jacobites)
53. എഫേസൂസ് സൂനഹദോസും റോമാമാർപ്പാപ്പായും (The Council of Ephesus and the Roman Pontiff)
54. ഏകസ്വഭാവവാദം (Monophysitism)
55. മാർപ്പാപ്പായുടെ പരമാധികാരവും അപ്രമാദിത്വവും (The Primacy and the Infallibility of Pope)
56. തിരുസഭയും മാർപ്പാപ്പായും (The Church and Pope)
57. ഓർത്തഡോക്സ് സഭയും പരമാധികാരവും (The Orthodox Church and Primacy)
58. കൂനൻ കുരിശിനു മുൻപ് (Before Coonan Cross)
59. നമ്മുടെ കണ്ണുകൾ ഭാഗ്യമുള്ളവ (Blessed are Our Eyes!)
60. അന്ത്യോക്യായിൽ എന്തുണ്ട് ? (What is there in Antioch ?)
61. കേരളസഭയൂം ഇതരസഭകളും (Church of Kerala and other Churches)
62. ചെങ്കടലിലെ സ്മരണകൾ (Reminiscences of Read Sea)
63. ഗുരുപ്പട്ട സുവർണ്ണ ജൂബിലി (Sacerdotal Golden Jubilee of His Holiness Pope Pius XI in 1929)
64. ഇന്നത്തെ ബേസ്ലഹം (Bethlehem today)
65. ലൂതറിനു മുമ്പുണ്ടായിരുന്ന വേദപുസ്തകം (Holy Bible before Luther)
66. തത്വപ്രകാശിക (An Aid to Reasonable Thinking)
67. മിശിഹായുടെ രാജത്വം (Kingship of Christ)
68. കത്തോലിക്കാ മതപഠനം (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
69. പരിശുദ്ധ ത്രിത്വം (Holy Trinity)
70. കത്തോലിക്കാ വിദ്യാലയങ്ങളിലെ പണിമുടക്ക് (Problem of Strike by Catholic Students of Catholic Educational Institutions)
71. രണ്ട് അവിഭാജ്യ ഘടകങ്ങൾ (Two Inseparable Factors: Clergy and Laity)
72. പ്രാർത്ഥന (Prayer)
73. വി. ഫ്രാൻസിസ്കോസിന്റെ മൂന്നാം സഭ (Franciscan Third order)
74. പ. കന്യാമറിയത്തിന്റെ സ്വർഗ്ഗാരോഹണം (The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
75. മരിയഭക്തിയും കേരള സുറിയാനി കത്തോലിക്കരും (Marian Devotion and the Syrian Catholics of Kerala)
76. സ്വകാര്യസ്വത്ത് (Private Property)
77. കാല്പാടുകൾ (Footprints (of St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Francis Xavier))
78. കുടമാളൂർ ചരിത്രത്തിലൂടെ (Kudamaloor through history)
79. കുർബാന: ബലിയും ദിവ്യഭോജനവും (Qurbana: Sacrifice and Divine Meal)
80. Die Thomas-Christen (German)