Catholicos of the East
Catholicose of the East is the title of distinct primates of various Orthodox and Nestorian Churches.
In Malankara (Kerala, India), two prominent Catholicoi exist, each with a relationship to the Oriental Orthodox Communion, specifically to the supreme head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East. It is important to note that recently the nature and standing of these Indian offices, and the churches they represent, have become topics of intense debate within local circles.
There are several viewpoints on a Catholicate within India; the two most prominent are presented in this article. The first portion states the view of the Indian Orthodox Church. The second portion states the view of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church and its local branch, the Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church (also known simply as the Jacobites).
Orthodox Christianity has had a signficant presence in Malankara since one Thomas of Cana arrived with a Syriac bishop in the AD 300s. Syriac here refers to the language of Aramaic, a dialect of which was spoken by Jesus Christ. Church tradition holds that Jesus' disciple St. Thomas initially brought Christianity to South India in AD 52 and was martyred in Tamil Nadu. Tradition holds that priests were ordained in seven localities, though no extant records detail an ecclesiastical succession.
The viewpoint of the Indian Orthodox Church on the present Catholicate is as follows:
The chief primate of the Indian Orthodox Church is called the Catholicose of the East and Malankara Metropolitan: two titles with separate responsibilities, but always held by the same individual.
As Catholicose of the East, he consecrates bishops for the Indian Orthodox Church, presides over the synod, declares and implements its decisions, conducts the administration on behalf of the synod, and consecrates the Holy Mooron (oil).
As Malankara Metropolitan, he is the head of the Malankara Archdiocese, the President of the Malankara Syrian Christian Association and the Managing Committee. The prime jurisdiction regarding the temporal, ecclesiastical, and spiritual administration of the Indian Orthodox Church is vested in the Malankara Metropolitan subject to the provisions of the Church constitution.
The Indian Orthodox Church holds that the Catholicate was originally instituted by St. Thomas the Apostle, en route to India. The church does recognize that the Catholicate was briefly brought under the Patriarchate of Antioch, during the Nestorian Persecution, but believes that this Catholicate was re-located to India in 1912 by His Holiness Mar Abded Messiah and His Beatitude Vattaserill Mar Dionysius. There have been six Catholicoi in direct succession since.
The current Catholicose of the Indian Orthodox Church is His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Didymos I. The former Catholicose, His Holiness Baselious Mar Thoma Mathews II, is in retirement at the age of 91.
The Indian Orthodox Church view is that this Catholicate is autocephalous and is the legitimate successor of St. Thomas.
The Universal Syriac Orthodox Church's view on the present Catholicate in India is as follows:
The Universal Syraic Orthodox Church is one of the mother Christian Churches. The ancient seat of itsPatriarchate, Antioch, was the third city in the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus. As the book of Acts records, Christians were first so labeled in Antioch and the Apostles Peter, Paul, and Barnabas lived and taught there for a considerable time. 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 influence in Southern India directly since the 4th century, supported by missionary activity and jurisdiction over "all the East" derived from the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325).
The political rivalries being great between the Roman and Persian Empires, at the time the Antiochian Church thought it wise to create a local head in Persia to facilitate communications 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 Mor Marutha of Muipharqat, the Patriarchal delegate. Earlier, at least one other Persian bishop, Mor Papa, tried to create a Catholicate but was not heeded. Mor Issac, bishop of Seleucia, became the first canonical Catholicose, empowered to exercise authority over the Universal Church's Persian jurisdictions (excluding India). As the Persian church became Nestorian, the close association between the majority of Persian Christians and the main body of Christendom was broken and the original ecclesiastical line fell into heresy. The Nestorian church sought to better establish itself after excommunication by claiming that St. Thomas the Apostle not only evangelized their territories, but gave authority to successors to govern the Church. Patriarchs, however, continued to ordain local Orthodox Catholicoi. For more details visit this excellent exposition.
The office of the Oriental Orthodox Catholicate was officially abolished in 1860 by the Universal Synod held under Patriarch Mor Ignatius Ya`qub 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, Baselious Paulose I was consecrated the first Catholicose 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 many Malankara faithful chose to become Indian Orthodox over time. A reconciliation movement gathered momentum in the 1950s and culminated in the consecration of Mor Augen I by Patriarch Yaqub III and the Universal Church's Synod (1964), canonically establishing the Catholicate as the spiritual and temporal head of the Church in India under the Patriarch's ultimate jurisdiction. The camps later split again in 1975 with Augen I favoring autocephaly and non-Petrine hierarchical succession. See Mor Augen's oath of office along with pictures of his ordination below.
After the schism created by Mor Augen I a Jacobite Catholicate was continued with the consecration of Baselious Paulose II by Patriarch Yaqub III in 1975. After Mor Paulose II's demise in 1996 the office remained vacant for several years to accomodate reconciliation attempts.
The effort being in vain, in 2002 His Beatitude Baselious Thomas I was consecrated canonically by Patriarch Ignatious Zakka I to be the local head of all Syriac Christians in India. Though most often called Catholicose of the East, his official title was made Catholicose of India. He functions at an ecclesiastical rank second only to the Patriarch, having the right to preside over the consecration of new patriarchs. His Beatitude is welcomed alongside the Patriarch in a brotherly fashion at ecclesiastical and ecumenical functions, and hosted His Holiness during a triumphal 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 Syriac Christian Association, the Jacobite association of Malankara parishes. His Beatitude is not authorized to consecrate Holy Mooron independently. The jurisdiction of the Jacobite Catholicose is limited to India only, though he is often invited to preside over Jacobite functions abroad.
The Jacobite 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 succesion 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 an 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.
Concluding Points
Each of these primates administer approximately 1 million faithful. The Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, including the Indian Orthodox Church, includes perhaps 4 million members worldwide.
Other churches employ the title "Catholicose" (universalist or generalist), most notably the Armenian Orthodox Church. Two Nestorian Catholicoi (arguably the direct successors of the Catholicate created in Seleucia) exist, one based in Baghdad, Iraq and one in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Also note that the factional fight in Malankara is quite hot and that many on both sides seek to distort each others positions and suppress relevant facts.
