There was a fire in downtown Plymouth about a week ago. It left a family homeless. This video is of the fire.
Ryan Liedtky came to me and said we should do something to help the family. You can read about what we are doing at the following: http://stmaryprotectress.blogspot.com/2009/04/plymouth-family-needs-your-help-please.html You can help.
Ryan is a young man who believes as we do that we can make a difference in the lives of our friends and neighbors.
When 16th century European priests arrived in southern India to introduce Christianity, they were told that a more famed Christian missionary had been there first. In the districts of Travancore and Cochin, there was already a community of Indian Christians with a tradition of loose communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The man who first converted them, the Indians said, was none other than St. Thomas the Apostle (the "Doubting Thomas"), who reputedly arrived in India aboard a Roman trading vessel in 52 A.D.
Whether St. Thomas actually preached under the palm trees of Travancore and Cochin is a point that historians have neither proved nor disproved. But nowadays there are 2,357,000 Indian Christians in the area, and for the past month, giving St. Thomas the benefit of the doubt, they have been celebrating the 1900th anniversary of his landing.
Three Drops of Honey. According to tradition, St. Thomas made his first conversions by a miracle. At the village of Palur, he found some Brahman priests throwing handfuls of water into the air as they performed their purification prayers. Thomas threw some water into the air himself, and it hung suspended in the form of sparkling flowers. Tradition continues that most of the Brahmans embraced Christianity on the spot, and that the rest fled. To this day, no orthodox Brahman will take a bath in Palur.
Although St. Thomas was later killed (one legend says he was pierced by spears), the religion founded by him or later missionaries took firm hold. By the sixth century there were Indian churches in contact with the Christian bishops of Syria. In 883, King Alfred the Great sent an English bishop to make an offering for him at St. Thomas' shrine in Mylapore. But contact with the West was precarious, and by the end of the Middle Ages the Indian church was practically forgotten.
In their isolation, the Indians developed surprisingly few originalities of dogma. But they did intersperse their religious rites with local Hindu practices. Like Hindus, Indian Christian women have always worn large gold earrings in the upper part of their ears. The Christians preserve Hindu-style observances for birth, marriage and death, e.g., when a child is born, its father pours into its mouth three drops of honey in which gold has been dipped.
Festive Coconuts. The Portuguese, during their rule in India, tried to stamp out native Christian practices and enforce strict conformity to Latin rituals. In reaction, many Indian Christians broke away from Rome. Called "Jacobites," after Jacob al-Baradai, a 6th century Syrian bishop, they now number 800,000. Another group, the St. Thomas Christians (membership: 200,000), broke away in turn from the Jacobites, under Protestant influence, in 1837. About 1,000,000 "Romo-Syrians" have remained faithful to the Roman Catholic Church, although they use Syriac and their native language in their liturgy.
For the last month, each of the Christian groups has been having a separate celebration for St. Thomas. Jacobites and St. Thomas Christians held observances at Kottayam and Trichur. Last week the Romo-Syrians held the biggest celebration. Led by a special papal delegate, Australia's Norman Cardinal Gilroy, 50 archbishops and bishops gathered at Ernakulam, the old capital of Cochin. After the cardinal's special train, decorated with festive bunches of coconuts and bananas, pulled into the station, a crowd of 100,000 led the visiting clergy to Christnagar (Christ town). As the cardinal passed through the streets, fireworks were set off and Christian youths sang long recitatives, to the accompaniment of harmonicas and cymbals, about the mission of St. Thomas the Apostle to their country 1900 years ago.
source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817710,00.html
Libertarian leader Ryan Liedtky and Father Theodosius of St. Mary the
Protectress Syriac Orthodox Church have teamed up to help bring some relief
to this family, but they need the public¹s help. A box will be placed at the
church, located at 1000 S. Michigan Street in Plymouth, right across the
street from Webster Elementary school, for donated items, such as clothing.
Also, monetary donations will be accepted.
The box will be made available to the general public starting Monday and
lasting through Friday, May 1st. Saturday morning, May 2nd, at 10:00 a.m.
Father Theodosius will present the donated items and money to the family in
a ceremony to be held at the church.
³We can make a difference in the lives of our friends and neighbors,² Father
Theodosius said Saturday. ³We have a community center (at the church), and
people who need help are there helping others as well,² he continued, citing
a need for the community to come together and lend a hand to those who are
suffering.
Ryan Liedtky requested that anyone who can afford to make even the smallest
of donations should do so. ³If my house caught fire,² Ryan said, ³I¹d need
the help of caring members of the community. Likewise, when one of them
suffers, I should step up and offer my assistance however I can.²
Liedtky has asked that clothing for young teens, as well as infants, be
donated. ³They have an infant as well,² Liedtky noted. ³They have enough
monetary worries now, so they¹ll need diapers and baby food as well.²
All donations can be dropped off at St. Mary the Protectress Syrian Orthodox
Church, 1000 S. Michigan Street, Plymouth, Indiana. Anyone with any
questions is asked to contact Ryan Liedtky by phone at 574-952-8409, or to
stop by the church.
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: In southern India, in Kerala, there are millions of people known as St. Thomas Christians. Their ancestors, many believe, were converted by the Apostle Thomas in the first century. Portuguese missionaries later destroyed most of the ancient church writings, replacing them with their own. But now Benedictine monks at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota are rediscovering the surviving texts. Fred de Sam Lazaro has a close-up view of all this. He is both our correspondent and journalist-in-residence at St. John’s University.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota may be best known in the world of biblical manuscripts for its illuminated, hand-written Bible.
Reverend COLUMBA STEWART, OSB (St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN, handing over manuscripts): Ethiopian manuscript, Latin manuscript.
DE SAM LAZARO: But also here, in the subterranean Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, is one of the most extensive records of sacred texts from around the world.
Reverend STEWART: This project of preserving manuscripts photographically was started out of our Benedictine tradition of being guardians of culture. The monasteries have been places where texts particularly have been treasured.
DE SAM LAZARO: Father Columba Stewart’s quest to record church history, to fill in its blanks, has taken him to the farthest trails of early Christianity — Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and, perhaps the least well-known destination, Kerala, a province in southwestern India where he recently brought a delegation of his museum’s benefactors.
Rev. STEWART: We got to India through the Middle East, and of course that’s how Christianity got to India in the first place. There’s an assumption that there were no Christians in India until the Western missionaries brought the Gospel to this land of pagans, and that’s not the truth at all.
DE SAM LAZARO: Long before it reached many parts of Europe, Christianity came across the Arabian Sea to Kerala along the thriving spice trade routes. Today about seven million people, a fifth of Kerala’s population, call themselves St. Thomas Christians after Jesus’ apostle, who many here believe arrived in India in 52 A.D. Even today, parts of some liturgies are sung in Syriac, close to the Aramaic language spoken by Christ.
Professor ISTVAN PERCZEL (Department of Medieval Studies, CEU): They claim to have been converted by St. Thomas the Apostle. This we cannot prove either or disprove. But from the, I don’t know, third, perhaps fourth century onwards we have testimony to their existence here.
DE SAM LAZARO: Professor Istvan Perczel, a Hungarian scholar of medieval Christianity, has championed the effort to document Kerala’s church history, bringing together the Minnesota monastery and local Indian scholars
Prof. PERCZEL (looking at manuscript): Hmmm. We have never seen this.
DE SAM LAZARO: He’s spent months in Kerala scouring dusty church closets for old texts and records.
Prof. PERCZEL (pointing at page in manuscript): Can we come back to digitize this?
DE SAM LAZARO: Most of these go back only as far as the beginning of colonization around the 15th century, when the first European colonists — the Portuguese — arrived to find both spices and the St. Thomas Christians who, they discovered, were a distant branch of Middle Eastern Orthodox churches
Rev. STEWART: By their lights, viewing it through the lens of the 15th- and 16th-century European perspective, these people were heretics. They were concerned that their liturgies and their other writings be purified and corrected on the basis of what a Portuguese Latin-Rite Roman Catholic would expect to be normative. So there is very, very little manuscript evidence from before the Portuguese era, because the Portuguese were very good at collecting these manuscripts that they’d already found, destroying them, and issuing corrected copies of them.
(speaking to Father Ignatius): So, Father Ignatius, this is your oldest Syriac manuscript?
Reverend IGNATIUS PAYYAPPILLY (Director, Catholic Art Museum of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, India): This is the oldest Syriac manuscript which I have here in these archives. It is written in 1563.
Rev. STEWART: It’s a Syriac manuscript, but there’s a Latin note that this manuscript belonged to the Carmelites, and it’s interesting that they write it in Latin. It, again, tells you something about the religious situation.
DE SAM LAZARO: Latin or Roman Catholic were introduced or imposed on the St. Thomas Christians, though Syriac continued in use in their liturgies. But many outlawed rites survived, as did factions that resisted pledging loyalty to a Syriac patriarch instead of the pope. Scribes from Kerala were later sent to the Middle East to recover texts destroyed by the Portuguese. The only surviving copies of many are now in Kerala.
Rev. STEWART: Those are treasures, because we can find manuscripts that may have disappeared in Middle Eastern libraries, some collections of East Syrian canon law, for example, preserved in unique manuscripts in Kerala, which haven’t survived because of the later persecution of these Christians in the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries.
DE SAM LAZARO: The Kerala church, meanwhile, has seen schisms both between and within the Western and Eastern branches. But through it all the St. Thomas Christians have maintained a distinctly Indian — that is non-European — character.
Rev. PAYYAPILLY: We are Christians in faith, and we are Indian in citizenship, and we are Hindus in culture.
DE SAM LAZARO: Father Ignatius Payyapilly started this museum a few years ago, collecting relics and statues mostly from demolished church buildings.
Rev. PAYYAPILLY: See the halo of Jesus around his head, Jesus, and see the long ears and his hair. These are all typical resemblance of the statue of Buddha.
DE SAM LAZARO: Although the Western scholars first came in search of Syriac manuscripts, they’ve also discovered a rich local history inscribed on palm leaves and in Malayalam, the local language, and tongues that preceded it. Much of it is everyday church accounts and records. Valuable history to scholars — just clutter to most priests in the local churches
SUSAN THOMAS (Church Scholar): And most of these palm leaves were, you know, either put in somewhere where you have them exposed to termites and mice, or just put up with the logs and water wells or the waste material. Sometimes they burn it up.
DE SAM LAZARO: The palm leaves reveal a community that could serve as a model of interfaith harmony in a larger region that’s often seen sectarian violence. The churches employed Hindu scribes, for example, and bishops enjoyed warm relations with the local kings who reigned in the area
Rev. PAYYAPILLY: I have seen here in these archives a beautiful document written by the bishop — handwritten together with the printed one — requesting all the churches belonging to the Cochin Kingdom — they should celebrate the 60th birthday of the king.
DE SAM LAZARO: There’s still much to be analyzed, much to be discovered. All of it will be digitized — rescued from moisture, termites, and neglect and stored here for scholars and for posterity. There will also be back-up copies in an unlikely safe haven: a monastery in central Minnesota.
For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro.
source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/april-24-2009/ancient-christians-in-india/2754/
‘Brahmavar’ is term by which each and every Orthodox Christian in
| Dispute over Syriac monastery turns into international row | |||
| A long-standing land dispute between the Syriacs of Midyat, a district in the southeastern province of Mardin, and the local village heads has finally turned into a legal battle attracting international attention. | |||
 The disagreement has been closely monitored by the European Union for some time, and US President Barack Obama also got involved in the dispute after he received a letter from the German Syriac diaspora on the matter and assigned one of his aides to follow the developments, effectively making the small district's land dispute a matter of international concern. The opposing sides, the Syriacs and the local Muslim village heads, are battling over the land on which the Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery stands. Sources say Interior Minister Beşir Atalay will visit Mardin on March 24 to mediate between the two sides. The source of the conflict over the monastery, between the Syriacs and three villages in the region, started in 2008, when the Land Registry General Directorate redrew the boundaries of the land around Mor Gabriel and the surrounding villages. At the end of the re-demarcation, the General Directorate established that 244 out of the 1,227 hectares of land on which Mor Gabriel stands belong to the Treasury, while 285 hectares qualify as "woodland." The Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation built walls around the land and the forested area years ago.
The three villages, on the other hand, would like to see the monastery’s five-kilometer wall brought down as they say their animals used to graze on the land. The village heads consequently applied to court, but observers say their action was manipulated by some to appear as a Muslim-Christian conflict. The Syriac priests also filed complaints against the villagers, saying that the monastery’s vast lands have been their property for centuries and have been illegally added to village land by the villagers. The first session of the court proceedings was heard in Mardin on April 4. The EU sent a delegation to investigate the situation, and representives from the Swiss Embassy in Ankara attended the court session on April 4. Realizing the international dimension the issue has now taken on, the government has decided to re-examine all the historical land registry records of the area; however, the process will be lengthy, which makes it unlikely that the court, which adjourned until April 22, can make a ruling any time soon. Although the EU has a number of representatives following the case, they are avoiding making statements until the court issues a ruling.
The government also has plans to send a representative to the region at the ministerial level and issue title to the Syriacs for the Treasury land, as historically, they have not held title to it. This move aims to send out the message to foreign observers that the Turkish state has nothing against the Syriacs. Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy from Mardin Cüneyt Yüksel says this will be the first time in history that title to property will be issued to a Syriac community. “This has now become a judicial issue. The judiciary in Turkey is independent. The court ruling will now decide who the 285 hectares of land belongs to. Each side will present the information and documents they have. The existence of the 1,600-year-old monastery is extremely important for Turkey. Our only aim is to make sure that this conflict is resolved peacefully. The ceremony at which we’ll turn over title to the land will be an opportunity for us to mediate between the two sides. We are not taking sides, but we will do whatever we can for the villagers and the Mor Gabriel Foundation to reconcile this issue.” Syriac legacyThe Syriacs, whose numbers today are in the 20,000s, are a Christian group who speak Aramaic. However, they are also Turkey’s only Christian group who were not given minority status in the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. This is why they weren’t able to continue their own religious education after the establishment of the republic; many of them had to migrate to Europe. In addition to the land dispute, the villagers accuse the monastery of conducting missionary work in the area. There are groups in the area who are trying to manipulate the initial disagreement, which started out as a land dispute over grazing rights and has turned into a Muslim-Christian conflict. The monastery’s priests say, however, that the villagers, by claiming even the land on which their monastery stands, are trying to completely destroy the country’s Syriacs, whose numbers have already greatly decreased. Speaking to Today’s Zaman about the conflict, the head of the Mor Gabriel Foundation, Kuryakos Ergün, said the villagers were being manipulated by some circles. Highlighting the fact that they had never had any disputes with the local villages over the centuries they have lived together, Ergün also said the demarcation in the area giving 244 hectares to the Treasury was also very unfair. “We have been here for 1,600 years. There are tax records from the Ottoman era. We have paid taxes for this land, but there is no document showing that the land belongs to those villagers. Documents and tax statements from 1937 and 1938 clearly show that this land was within the boundaries of the monastery. We have always had a friendly relationship with the Muslims here; we want this problem to be solved peacefully. But if it doesn’t work, we’ll appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.” Currently, 35 Syriac students are being trained at the Mor Gabriel Monastery, which was restored in the 1920s. The monastery teaches Aramaic classes as well as general courses about Syriac beliefs. Mor Gabriel annually hosts 100,000 visitors from the Turkish-Syriac diaspora, most of whom live in Germany and Sweden. In the neighborhood of 50,000 Syriacs from Syria also visit the monastery annually. Info note from Mardin deputyThe AK Party’s depurty from Mardin Yüksel, who recently prepared an information note for the European Parliament on the dispute, told Today’s Zaman that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was also closely following any developments. “We are trying to convince the villagers to take back their case. This will certainly be resolved peacefully.” Yüksel continued, “We should keep this from turning into an international crisis. The government and the state are not on the side of anyone in this fight -- this should be clearly understood -- which is why we want the sides to withdraw their complaints following the minister’s visit to Mardin.” The information note Yüksel submitted to the European Parliament as well as to the US administration about the monastery states the following: “There are four pending lawsuits regarding the Mor Gabriel Monastery in Midyat County of the city of Mardin. The first pending lawsuit is a public case brought by the surrounding villages on the grounds that walls were built around the Monastery incorporating the forest area. The second lawsuit has been brought by the people of the village where the Monastery is located against the surrounding two villages in order to determine the administrative borders of the village concerned. The third lawsuit has been brought by the Monastery against the Treasury to object to the forest land registry. The forth lawsuit has been brought by the Treasury lawyers of the Midyat Revenue Department against the Monastery Foundation at the Cadastre Court. It has been determined that Mor Gabriel Monastery has violated 285,000 square meters of public area. The legal proceedings concerning the four lawsuits continue. Nobody may interfere in the affairs of the Turkish independent court; therefore, waiting for the decision of the courts concerned will serve the best interests of all parties. The lawsuit is concerned with the problem of determining the ownership of the land located around the Monastery. Hence, allegations stating that the Monastery will be closed by the Turkish authorities or it will be turned into a museum are groundless and do not reflect the realities of this case. We sincerely regret the allegations stating that the lawsuits have been brought in order to put pressure on the Christian minorities and terminate the activities of the Monastery. All of these allegations are baseless.” | |||
| 18.04.2009 | |||
| News source: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=172789&bolum=100# | |||
God, our Father, I turn to You seeking Your Divine help and guidance for those served by the Mor Gregorios Community Center look for suitable employment. They need Your wisdom to guide their footsteps along the right path, and to lead them to find the proper things to say and do in this quest. Let them wish to use the gifts and talents You have given mthem but they need the opportunity to do so with gainful employment. Do not abandon them dear Father, in this search, but rather grant them this favor I seek so that I may return to You with praise and thanksgiving for your gracious assistance. Grant this through Christ, our Lord.
We entreat Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God and all saints to pray for these our brethren. We will together raise up glory and thanksgiving to You, Your Father and Your Holy Spirit, now and for ever.Almighty Father, I pray that you would release financial blessings upon the Mor Gregorios Community Center which helps to restore lost souls, In Jesus Name , Amen. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for Your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. (2 Cor. 8:9) If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.(Matt.21:22)
Amen
An executive's salary for working with paper
beats the wage in a metal shop operating shears
which beats what a gardener earns arranging stone.
But the pay for a surgeon's use of scissors
is larger than that of a heavy equipment driver removing stone
which in turn beats a secretary's cheque for handling paper.
And, a geologist's hours with stone
nets more than a teacher's with paper
and definitely beats someone's time in a garment factory with scissors.
In addition: to manufacture paper
you need stone to extract metal to fabricate scissors
to cut the product to size.
To make scissors you must have paper to write out the specs
and a whetstone to sharpen the new edges.
Creating gravel, you require the scissor-blades of the crusher
and lots of order forms and invoices at the office.
Thus I believe there is a connection
between things
and not at all like the hierarchy of winners
of a child's game.
When a man starts insisting
he should be paid more than me
because he's more important to the task at hand,
I keep seeing how the whole process collapses
if almost any one of us is missing.
When a woman claims she deserves more money
because she went to school longer,
I remember the taxes I paid to support her education.
Should she benefit twice?
Then there's the guy who demands extra
because he has so much seniority
and understands his work so well
he has ceased to care, does as little as possible,
or refuses to master the latest techniques
the new-hires are required to know.
Even if he's helpful and somehow still curious
after his many years—
Without a machine to precisely measure
how much sweat we each provide
or a contraption hooked up to electrodes in the brain
to record the amount we think,
my getting less than him
and more than her
makes no sense to me.
Surely whatever we do at the job
for our eight hours—as long as it contributes—
has to be worth the same.
And if anyone mentions
this is a nice idea but isn't possible,
consider what we have now:
everybody dissatisfied, continually grumbling and disputing.
No, I'm afraid it's the wage system that doesn't function
except it goes on
and will
until we set to work to stop it
with paper, with scissors, and with stone.
Heavenly Father, I know that I have sinned against you and that my sins separate me from you. I am truly sorry. I now want to turn away from my past sinful life and turn to you for forgiveness. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life.
We entreat Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God and all saints to pray for these our brethren. We will together raise up glory and thanksgiving to You, Your Father and Your Holy Spirit, now and for ever.Introduction
'CATHOLICOS OF THE EAST' was originally the title conferred to the ecclesiastical head of the Christian congregation in the erstwhile Persian Empire that extended from Mesopotamia in the west, to the boundaries of the present day Afghanistan and Northern India in the east. In the beginning the bishop who assumed this title was known as MAJOR METROPOLITAN / CATHOLICOS OF SELEUCIA; Seleucia being the capital city of Persian Empire. This institution was initially set up to serve as a link between the Patriarch of Antioch, and the Syrian Christian Community in Persia who found the journey to the Patriarchate at Antioch, hazardous because of the bitter political rivalry between the Roman and Persian empires.
The Church in Persia was known in different names: Persian Church, Babylonian Church, East Syrian Church, Church of East, Chaldean Church etc. Though the jurisdiction of the Seleucian Catholicate was initially within the Persian Empire only, it later extended to few other regions outside the empire in Asia in the further East, through missionary activities.
Catholicos/Maphryono (Maphrian)
The term ‘Catholicos’ (Katholikos) is derived from the Greek words ‘Kath-Holikos’, meaning ‘General Primate’ or ‘General Vicar’. Even before the primates of the Church adopted this title, it existed in the Roman Empire where its Government representative who was in charge of a large area was called ‘Catholicos’. The Government servant, who was in charge of State treasury, too was known by that name. In due course, the secular administrative heads in Persian Empire also adopted this title.
The Churches (mainly outside the Roman Empire) started to use this term for their Chief Bishops much later, probably by 4th or 5th centuries. Now the primates of the Orthodox Churches in Armenia, Georgia, Iraq and India, use the title ‘Catholicos’.
‘Maphryono’ (Maphrian) is derived from the Syriac word afri, “to make fruitful’, or "one who gives fecundity". This title came to be used exclusively for the head of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the East (Persia) after the prelates who occupied the office of the Catholicate since late 5th century adopted Nestorian Christology and separated from the mother Church. From the mid 13th century onwards, a few occupants of the Maphrianate were referred also as ‘Catholicos’, but the title never came into extensive usage. However in the 20th century when this office of the Maphrianate under the Holy See of Antioch was established in India, the chief of the local church assumed the title ‘Catholicos’. It is this title that is being used in India today, while the title ‘Maphryono’ (Maphrian) is no longer used.
Evolution of the historic office of Catholicos of the East
At the dawn of Christianity in the 1st century, there were two great political powers that stood against each other in the Near and the Middle East; the Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the Empire of the Parthians (or Sassanaid Persians since the early 3rd century), the traditional enmity of which has a determining influence on the history of that area for centuries. The border line between these rival empires divided the landscape of Mesopotamia with the Syriac speaking population on either side. The great city of Antioch where a Christian presence appeared for the first time outside Palestine, was the capital of the Syrian Province, in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. The bishoprics of the city of Antioch have special importance in the history of Christianity as it was here St. Peter, the chief of the Apostles, established his Apostolic See in AD 37. Antioch and regions east of it were placed under the care of the Bishop/Patriarch of Antioch and all the East. (The Christian church laws that took shape in the early era through regional and ecumenical councils reaffirmed the ecclesiastical jurisdictions of the Patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria and Rome).
But the political barriers between the Persian and Roman Empires and the bitter rivalry of its rulers made intercommunications between the two regions much more difficult and dangerous. There were instances where clergy from Persia who were ordained by the Patriarch of Antioch were put to death alleging to be spies. It therefore, became necessary for the Patriarch to vest authority in an ecclesiastical dignitary to carry on the administration in the Persian region. Thus evolved the historic office of the Catholicate in Seleucia (Persian capital). The Bishop/Catholicos of Seleucia acted as the deputy of the Patriarch of Antioch, in the Persian Empire, with some exclusive privileges to consecrate bishops on behalf of the Patriarch. Though attempts to bring the Church under this single authority (Seleucian bishop) started in early 4th century itself, it became fruitful only a century later. Initially the other prelates of Persia were opposed to the idea of vesting powers in this Catholicate, but the support from the Antiochean Patriarchate helped to shed all barriers.
The First Catholicos of the Syrian Church
It was around the year 300, an attempt was made for the first time to establish the Church in the Persian Empire in an organised form. The initiative for this was taken by Bishop Papa (Baba, AD.267-329) of the Persian royal capital at Seleucia-Ctesiphon with the consent of the Patriarch of Antioch. In AD 315, the Bishop convened a Synod of the Persian prelates at Seleucia in which he tried to organize the local churches, with himself as a head. But the other prelates, especially those of Persia proper resisted and even deposed Bishop Papa. At this crucial juncture, the Bishops of Antioch, Edessa and Nisibis came to his rescue and reinstated him as prelate of the prime city.
It is believed that the title 'CATHOLICOS' was first used by this Bishop Papa. Anyhow, neither this Seleucian bishop nor his successors, until 410, never had any authority over other bishoprics in Persian empire and hence the title Catholicose, if ever used by Bishop Papa, does not mean in the same sense as it was known later.
About a century after, another serious attempt was made to unite all the bishoprics in the Persian Empire. In AD 410, an historic Synod of the churches in Persia was held under the auspices of Bishop Mor Marutha of Muipharqat (delegate of the Antiochean Patriarch), which recognized the primacy of the Metropolitan of Seleucia for the first time. Thus MOR ISHAQ (Issac), the bishop of Seleucia becomes the head of the Persian Church. He is the one who is acknowledged as the first "CATHOLICOS", with jurisdiction over the entire Persian Empire. He assumed this title at the Synod of Seleucia held in AD 410. The primate at that time, was also conferred with the title "Great Metropolitan and Chief of All Bishops". (In some other records the title is mentioned as "Great Metropolitan of All the East and Major Metropolitan of Seleucia-Ctesiphon".)
Churches that claim the succession from the Catholicate of the East
From the days of establishment of Christianity in Persia, the Church there had to face severe persecutions; first from the Parthian and Persian kingdoms that considered the Christians as their adversaries, then due to the dissidence grown within their congregations and because of crusades, finally on account of the Moslem and Mongolian aggressions. Thus the Syrian Church in Persia/East separated into three main stream Churches with two more sub-divisions in the last century. The lists of the Syriac Churches in the East that are under separate Catholicates are given below.
| Orthodox | |
| 1. | Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) Church of Antioch & all the East |
| 2. | Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Sect separated from the Syrian Orthodox Church in 1912) |
| Nestorian | |
| 3. | Assyrian Church of the East |
| 4. | The Ancient Church of the East (Sect separated from the Assyrian Church in 1968) |
| Roman Catholic | |
| 5. | Chaldean Church of the East (Sect separated from the Nestorians in 1445) |
{1} CATHOLICATE OF THE SYRIAN ORTHODOX (JACOBITE) CHURCH
In the early centuries the Christians in the Persian and the Roman Empires were subject to religious persecutions, so the Church spread its wings without the help of any of the imperial authorities. After the Roman Emperor accepted Christianity in 315, the church in Rome was spared from atrocities, but from then onwards the Persian rulers adopted a much more hostile attitude towards those Christians in Persia as they were considered as agents of the former. It was during this period that the office of the Great Metropolitan, which later came to be known as the Catholicate of East, was established in Persia. As the enmity between the empires increased, the leaders of the Church in Persia found it nearly impossible to continue ecclesiastical commune with the universal Church. Meanwhile some in the Catholicate of Persia found it more convenient to adopt the Nestorian Christology which was earlier officially rejected by the universal Christian councils for its remarks on the Mother of God; thus they tried to convince the Persian rulers that they distance themselves from the mother Church and the Roman (Byzantine) Empire. By this act, the Christians in Persia who accepted Nestorian Christology could easily win the favour of the Persian rulers while those of non-Nestorian faith suffered severe persecution. As the office of the Catholicate fell into heresy, the Orthodox faithful were wandering in wilderness. The Catholicos of Seleucia meanwhile took over the title 'Patriarch', thus trying to be equal in status with the Patriarch of Antioch.
Even though the Church in Persia had officially accepted Nestorius as a Church father, a substantial group of Christians in Mosul, Niniveh and Tigris (Tagrit) continued to keep their loyalty to the old faith. A few decades later the Orthodox wing of the
Church in Persia that continued to be under the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch & all the East, got reorganized under St. Ya`qub Burdono and installed St. Ahudemmeh as 'The Great Metropolitan of the East', but he too found it difficult to discharge his ecclesiastical duties smoothly. However by the 7th century the situation changed for better which finally led to the formation of an office of the 'Maphrianate of the East’ at Tigrit (Tagrit).
In AD 629, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East elevated St. Marutha (Marooso) as the first MAPHRIYONO OF THE EAST for the rejuvenated Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) Church in Persia. Later the centre of the Maphrianate was shifted to St. Mathew’s Dayro in the city of Mosul in Iraq and continued there till the middle of the 19th century.
Catholicate in Malankara (India)
In 1860 the office of Maphrianate was abolished as per the decision of the Syrian Orthodox Church Synod held at Deyrul' al Zafran Monastery (Kurkkumo Dayro) under Patriarch Ignatius Ya`qub II. The same was re-established in India in 1964 by the Universal Synod held at Kottayam, presided by Patriarch Mor Ignatius Ya`qub III. From the days of the establishment of this Maphrianate in India, the Church started to officially use the title ‘Catholicos of the East’, with his jurisdiction limited to India in the East. In 2002 the office of the Maphrianate was renamed ‘Catholicos of India’ in accordance with its actual jurisdiction. Present headquarters of this ancient Catholicate (Maphrianate) of the Syrian Orthodox Church is at Puthencuriz, Cochin, with Catholicos Aboon Mor Baselios Thomas I as the Chief of the Church in India.
In Episcopal dignity the Catholicos ranks second to the Patriarch. As His Holiness’s deputy, the Catholicos preside over the provincial Holy Synod. He and all the clergy of the faithful in India pledge loyalty to the Patriarch of Antioch, the supreme spiritual authority of the Syriac Orthodox Church throughout the world. In its long history there are many instances when a Maphrian (Catholicos) was elevated to the position of the Patriarch in the Syrian Orthodox Church.
The Maphryono's (Catholicos') from the Middle East who died in India
1. St. Baselios Yeldo (d. 1685) [entombed at the Marthoma Church, Kothamangalam ]
2. Mor Baselios Sakralla III (d. 1764) [entombed at the Marth Mariam Church, Kandanad]
The Catholicos' of the Indian Church
1. Mor Baselios Augen I (1964-1975)
2. Mor Baselios Paulose II (1975-1996) [entombed at the Malecuriz St. George Dayro]
3. Mor Baselios Thomas I (2002- )
{2} CATHOLICATE OF MALANKARA ORTHODOX SYRIAN CHURCH
This wing of the Orthodox Church in Kerala, India, originated in 1912 with the establishment of an autonomous Maphrianate/Catholicate for the section separated from the ancient Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Christian Community of Malabar. The Chief of this Church since then assumed the title ‘Catholicos of the East’. In 1934, this independent group got organised itself under the banner ‘Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church’ with headquarters in the town of Kottayam in southern Kerala. Though in 1964 the group reunited with the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church following the consecration of a Catholicos by the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, they once again separated from the Holy Church in mid-1970's. The present Catholicos of the Church is Mar Baselios Marthoma Didymos I.
{3} CATHOLICATE (PATRIARCHATE) OF THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF EAST
At present there are two independent Patriarchates for the Assyrian Church of East. It was in the middle of the 20th century, a split happened in the Church which resulted in the formation of two independent factions. The dispute was triggered off in the Church after the reigning Patriarch Mar Simon decided to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1964. But the actual reason behind the controversy was over the hereditary succession of the Patriarchs that started in 1450. The office of the Patriarch and some other Episcopal sees had since then become hereditary within one family, usually being passed down from uncle to nephew. Opposing this practice, a section under a Metropolitan separated in 1968 and this led to the formation of a parallel Catholicate/Patriarchate. However in 1973, the age old practice of hereditic succession came to end with the retirement of the Patriarch Mar Simon in 1973, who had himself become the prelate at a young age of 12. But the division that occurred in 1964 still continues and two parallel Patriarchates are functioning in the Church of the East.
Mar Dinkha IV with his residence in Chicago USA, is the current Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East; the official name of the Church is 'Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East'. They follow the Gregorian calendar since 1964. This Church has about 30,000 faithful in Kerala (India). In India the Assyrian Church is also referred to as Chaldean Syrian Church which must not be mistaken for the Church in Roman Catholic communion).
{4}
CATHOLICATE OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE EAST(Nestorian)
The Ancient Church of the East was formed in 1968 following certain disputes with the Assyrian Church. Even after the split they stick to the Julian calendar whereas the other sect is now using the Gregorian calendar. The Primate of the Church is called, the 'Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East'. The present Patriarch is Mar Adai II, residing in Baghdad.
{5} CATHOLICATE (PATRIARCHATE) OF THE CHALDEAN CHURCH OF EAST
More recently, in 2005, the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church of India which separated from the Malankara Orthodox Church to join the Roman Catholic Communion in 1930’s has also created a Catholicate. The first Catholicos who adopts this title is Cyril Mar Baselios, the head of the Malankara Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Trivandrum diocese. He is the fourth successor to Mar Ivanios, the founder of the Church. It was this Mar Ivanios, along with Mar Dionysius Wattasseril, was instrumental in the formation of the Malankara Orthodox Church in India towards the beginning of the 20th century.
