Abraham of Angamaly

Mar Abraham Metropolitan and Gate of All India
Metropolitan and Gate of All India
Church	Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church
Diocese	India
See	Angamaly
Installed	31 January 1565
Term ended	1597
Predecessor	Mar Iousep Sulaqa
Successor	none (See latinised by Roman Catholic Church in 1599)
Opposed to	Portuguese Padroado and Mar Shemon Metropolitan
Orders
Ordination	1565
Personal details
Died	1597 (1598) Angamaly
Buried	Mar Hormiz Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Angamaly

Abraham of Angamaly (Template:Lang-syr, died c. 1597) (Mar Abraham) was the last bishop in the long line of East Syriac bishops sent from the Church of the East to the Malankara Christians. He first came to India in 1556 from the traditionalist patriarchate. Deposed from his position in 1558, he was taken to Lisbon by the Portuguese, escaped at Mozambique and left for his mother church in Mesopotamia, entered into communion with the Chaldean patriarchate and Rome in 1565, received his episcopal ordination from the Latin patriarch of Venice as arranged by the pope in Rome. In spite of the express approbation by Pope Pius IV (1565), he was not welcomed by the Portuguese viceroy in India and was arrested a second time.

Introduction

The last two East Syriac bishops of Malabar were Joseph Sulaqa and Mar Abraham; both arrived in Malabar after the arrival of the Portuguese.

There is no doubt that Joseph Sulaqa's appointment was canonical, for he, the brother of the first Chaldean patriarch Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa, was appointed by his successor Abdisho IV Maron and sent out to Malabar. Mar Joseph was sent to India with letters of introduction from the Pope to the Portuguese authorities; he was besides accompanied by Bishop Ambrose, a Dominican and papal commissary to the first patriarch, by his socius Father Anthony, and by Mar Elias Hormaz, Archbishop of Diarbekir. They arrived at Goa about 1563, and were detained at Goa for eighteen months before being allowed to enter the diocese. Proceeding to Cochin they lost Bishop Ambrose; the others travelled through Malabar for two and a half years on foot, visiting every church and detached settlement.

Mar Abraham in India

Patriarch Abdisho IV Maron

Escaped from the Portuguese detention, Mar Abraham reached Angamaly in disguise in 1569 and his faithful received him and protected him; he at once set about holding episcopal functions and conferring holy orders, and quietly established himself in the diocese. Later, the Portuguese captured him and sent him to Portugal, but during the journey he escaped at Mozambique, found his way back to Mesopotamia, and went straight to Mar Abdisho IV Maron, the Chaldean Patriarch, having realized from his Indian experience that, unless he secured a nomination from him, it would be difficult to establish himself in Malabar. He succeeded admirably, obtained nomination, consecration, and a letter from the patriarch to the pope. With this he proceeded to Rome, and in an audience with the Pope disclosed his position. The Pope ordered the Bishop of San Severino to give him orders from tonsure to priesthood, and a Brief was sent to the Patriarch of Venice to consecrate him a bishop. The facts are attested, both as to the minor orders and the episcopal consecration, by the original letters found in the archives of the Church of Angamaly, where he resided and where he died.

Metropolitan of Angamaly (1568-1597)

Abraham succeeded also in obtaining his nomination as Archbishop of Angamaly from Pope Pius IV, with letters to the Archbishop of Goa and the Bishop of Cochin dated 27 February 1565.

On arrival at Goa, he was detained in a convent, but escaped and entered Malabar. His arrival was a surprise and a joy to the people. He kept out of the reach of the Portuguese, living among the churches in the hilly parts of the country. In time he was left in peaceful occupation. As is usual in such cases the old tendencies assumed once more their ascendency, and he returned to his teaching and practices, Complaints were made by Jesuits; Rome sent warnings to Abraham to allow Catholic doctrine to be preached and taught to his people. At one time he took the warning seriously to his heart. In 1583 Father Valignano, then Superior of the Jesuit Missions, devised a means of forcing a reform. He persuaded Mar Abraham to assemble a synod, convening the clergy and the chiefs of the laity. He also prepared a profession of faith which was to be made publicly by the bishop and all present. Moreover, urgent reforms were sanctioned and agreed to. A letter was sent by Pope Gregory XIII on 28 November 1578, laying down what Abraham had to do for the improvement of his diocese; after the synod, Abraham sent a long letter to the pope in reply, specifying all that he had been able to do by the aid of the Fathers. This is called the first reconciliation of the Syrians to the Church. It was formal and public, but left no improvement on the general body, the liturgical books were not corrected nor was Catholic teaching introduced in the Church.

Rabban Hormizd Church, built by Mar Abraham

Mar Hormizd Syro-Malabar Church (Old Cathedral), Cathedral of Mar Abraham.

File:Qanke Angamaly Hormis Church.jpg

Qanke (Sanctum sanctorum) of the church

After his escape from Portuguese detention in Goa, Mar Abraham returned to Angamaly in 1570. In the same year, he established his cathedral church dedicated to Rabban Hormizd, a seventh century Abbot of the East Syriac Church, as its patron. In 1578, as a response to the requests made by Jesuit missionaries who had been working in Angamaly and in the other centres of the Saint Thomas Christians, the pope granted plenary indulgences to the Church of Rabban Hormizd, which the faithful could obtain four times a year for 25 years from the year of the election of Metropolitan Mar Abraham. The indulgences covered two feasts of the Patron Rabban Hormizd that fell on the fifteenth day after Easter (Monday) and on the first of September. On 15 August 1579, as requested by Mar Abraham, the Jesuits laid the foundation stone of a new cathedral namely "Rabban Hormizd" in the same place chosen by the Metropolitan. The Synod of Diamper of the year 1599, prohibited the Christians from commemorating the feast of Rabban Hormizd, since Rabban Hormizd was considered a Nestorian heretic by the Latin missionaries. Session 3, Canon 14 of the Synod severely condemned Rabban Hormizd. According to the new regulations, the Synod commanded as planned by Archbishop Menezes that the Christians celebrate the feast of St. Hormizd, the Martyr (according to the Roman Martyrology published from Rome in 1583), a Persian Catholic saint who lived in the fifth century, suppressing the memory of Rabban Hormizd. The Feast was fixed on 8 August according to the Canon 10 of the Session 2 of the Synod of Diamper.

The efforts of Archbishop Menezes and the Portuguese missionaries to replace Rabban Hormizd as patron of St. Hormizd church with St. Hormizd the martyr is an instance of sixteenth-century attempts at forced Latinization. It is doubtful whether the Christians immediately accepted this change of patronage. Bishop Francis Ros, the first Latin bishop of the Saint Thomas Christians, attempted to resolve the conflicts created by the coervive Synod of Diamper and convoked the Second Synod of Angamaly in December 1603. St. Hormizd, the Martyr of Persia, is a historical person who lived in the fifth century in Persia.

Later years and death

In 1595, Mar Abraham fell dangerously ill but recovered. In 1597 he again became dangerously ill. He would not even avail himself of the exhortations of the Fathers who surrounded his bed, nor did he receive the last sacraments. Thus he died in January 1597. The viceroy made known his death to Archbishop Menezes, then absent on a visitation tour, by letter of 6 Feb. 1597. The Archdeacon during the first part of the reign of Mar Abraham was George of Christ, who was on friendly terms with the Latin missionaries and was to be appointed the successor of Mar Abraham as Metropolitan of India. Thus he should have become, according to the plans of Mar Abraham, supported by the Jesuits, the first indigenous Chaldaean Metropolitan of the St Thomas Christians. However, the last letter of Mar Abraham, in which he requests the Pope to confirm George's ordination as Bishop of Palur and his successor, is dated 13 January 1584, while from another letter of the same Mar Abraham we learn that the consecration of George failed because of the latter's death.

The tomb of Mar Abraham

Tomb of last East Syriac Metropolitan Mar Abraham inside the Madbaha of Mar Hormizd Syro-Malabar Church, Angamaly

The tomb of Mar Abraham was discovered in September 2015, in the sanctuary of St. Hormizd Church in Angamaly on the occasion of the renovation of the church. This church has witnessed many of the revolutions of the Christians of St. Thomas in the past against the new Latin hierarchy imposed upon them after the Synod of Diamper. The Christians used to assemble around the tomb in order to discuss important matters and to adopt resolutions concerning their future proceedings. One of the resolutions at the tomb of Mar Abraham was made by all the Christians, immediately after his death in 1597. The second resolution was made in 1601, by about 200 Christians who withdrew their obedience to Francis Ros, S.J, the first Latin bishop of Angamaly.

See also

• Synod of Diamper
• Christianity in India
• Church of the East
• Syrian Malabar Nasrani
• Hormizd, the Martyr
• Rabban Hormizd