Kottayam Archepark
Kottayam Archepark | |
Basic data | |
---|---|
Rite church | Syro-Malabar Church |
Country | India |
Diocesan bishop | Mathew Moolakkattu OSB |
Auxiliary bishop |
Jose Pandarassery Gheevarghese Mar Aprem (appointed) |
surface | 560,665 km² |
Parishes | 148 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
Residents | 3,595,650 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
Catholics | 170.200 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
proportion of | 4.7% |
Diocesan priest | 150 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
Religious priest | 64 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
Catholics per priest | 795 |
Permanent deacons | 5 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
Friars | 36 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
Religious sisters | 115 ( 12/31/2007 / AP2009 ) |
rite | Chaldean rite |
Liturgical language | Syrian |
cathedral | Christ the King Cathedral |
Website | www.kottayamad.org |
The Archeparchy Kottayam ( Latin : Archieparchia Kottayamensis ) is a Knananite personnel diacee located in India within the Syro-Malabar Church with its seat in Kottayam , Kerala .
history
Around 350, 72 families of Jewish Christians moved with their leader, the rich merchant Thomas von Kynai (also Thomas von Kana), a bishop named Uraha Mar Yousef and several clerics from their Persian homeland to the Malabar coast in southern India. Kynai or Kana was about 70 km south of today's Baghdad .
In Malabar, the current Kerala , lived at this time stemming from apostolic times, in the missionary activities of the apostle Thomas declining Thomas Christians . They also had strong Jewish-Christian traditions, as the apostle had initially proselytized among his compatriots who were resident there as spice dealers. However, the Jewish Christians quickly mingled with new Christians from the Indian population.
The immigrants under Thomas von Cana, the "Southists" or Knananites , were, however, strongly endogamous . As an ethnic-religious group, they cut themselves off from the local Thomas Christians, the “Northernists” , were only allowed to marry one another, had their own parishes and mostly only socialized with their own kind. So it remained under the Portuguese colonial rule and with the later split of the entire Thomas Christians into a larger Catholic and a smaller autocephalous part. In both camps the Knananites lived separately and endogamously; they only accepted clergymen from their ethnic group as pastors.
From 1887 onwards, all Thomas Christians in India were generally removed from the Latin jurisdiction and the two Apostolic Vicariates Trichur and Kottayam were created for them (under Latin titular bishops ) , which were converted into the three vicariats Trichur, Ernakulam and Changanacherry in 1896 . That year, for the first time, Syro-Malabar titular bishops came to head the district as Apostolic Vicars.
The vicariate of Kottayam, which was dissolved in 1896, was re-established on August 29, 1911 by Pope Pius X with the Apostolic Constitution In universi christiani , but now as a purely personal vicariate for the group of Knananites among the Catholic Thomas Christians ; these had previously only had their own parishes in various dioceses, with the area around Kottayam being most strongly represented.
On December 21, 1923, Pope Pius XI. this vicariate through the Apostolic Constitution Romani Pontifices to the regular diocese (eparchy); Pope Benedict XVI elevated it to an archparchy on May 12, 2005.
It is a personal diocese which - regardless of where you live - is responsible for all Knananites within the Syro-Malabar Church; however, the majority of them live in the area around Kottayam.
Ordinaries
Vicars Apostolic of Kottayam
- Charles Lavigne SJ, 1887-1896
- Mathew Makil , 1911-1914
- Alexander Chulaparambil , 1914-1923
Bishops of the Kottayam Eparchy
- Alexander Chulaparambil , 1923–1951
- Thomas Tharayil , 1951–1974
- Kuriakose Kunnacherry , 1974-2005
Archbishops of the Kottayam Archeparchy
- Kuriakose Kunnacherry, 2005-2006
- Mathew Moolakkattu OSB , since 2006
See also
Web links
- Homepage of the Archeparchy Kottayam (English)
- On the history of the Thomas Christians and their Jewish roots on the Malabar coast
- Entry for Archeparchy Kottayam on catholic-hierarchy.org
- Entry on Archeparchy Kottayam on gcatholic.org (English)