Geevarghese Mar Ivanios Panicker

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Archbishop Geevarghese Mar Ivanios Panicker (painting on the outside of the Archbishop's Curia, Trivandrum, Kerala)
Geevarghese Mar Ivanios as a young Orthodox clergyman

Geevarghese Mar Ivanios Panicker OIC (born September 8, 1882 in Mavelikkara near Alappuzha , India ; † July 15, 1953 in Trivandrum ) was a founder of the order, founder of the Syro-Malankar Catholic Church and the first Malankar Catholic Archbishop of Trivandrum .

Live and act

Jacobite

He was born as Geevarghese Panicker (also Paniker or Panickerveetil); his parents were the Thomas Christians Thomas Panicker and his wife Annamma. The family belonged to the autocephalous Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church , which arose after the so-called Oath of the Leaning Cross (1653) and its original East Syrian rite (also Chaldean rite ) of the Thomas Christians against the West Syrian rite (also Antioch rite ) had exchanged. Its members are mostly called "Jacobites" in South India .

From the age of 15, the boy attended the Jacobite Orthodox MD Seminary School in Kottayam . On April 20, 1898, he received minor orders and was sent to Madras to the Christian College there to complete his studies. Here he obtained a Master of Arts degree in history and economics. He then became a deacon and principal (rector) of his previous school, MD Seminary School, Kottayam. On August 15, 1908, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Vattaseril Mar Divannasios in Parumala seminary.

Panicker became known as the "MA Pastor" because he was the only Syrian Orthodox priest in South India to hold a Master of Arts (MA) title. From 1913 to 1919 he taught history, politics and economics at the University of Serampore, near Calcutta . Finally he gave up this position, returned to his southern Indian homeland, today's Kerala , and on August 15, 1919 founded the orthodox male order “Imitation of Christ” and its first monastery “Bethany Ashram” . In 1925 a female branch of the order also joined, the "Bethany Sisters" .

On May 1, 1925, Geevarghese Panicker received the episcopal ordination and was Jacobite Orthodox Shepherd of Bethany, on February 13, 1929 he was promoted to metropolitan . At the episcopal ordination he took the name "Mar Ivanios" .

Catholic Archbishop

Quilon Bishop's Chapel, memorial stone in memory of the conversion of Mar Ivanios to Catholicism and the founding of the Syro-Malankan Church, 1930
St. Mary's Cathedral Trivandrum, tomb of Archbishop Mar Ivanios (center)

In the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church there were many unpleasant quarrels and quarrels at that time. Regardless of this, in large parts there was always an effort to return to the unity with Rome, which was lost in 1653.

Mar Ivanios was friends with Alois Benziger , the Catholic bishop of Quilon , a connoisseur of oriental liturgies. Through him union negotiations with Rome got under way and finally led on September 20, 1930, in Kollam (Quilon), to the conversion of the metropolitan and his suffragan bishop Jacob Mar Theophilos (1891-1956) into the Catholic Church, while fully maintaining their West Syrian church Liturgy and its spiritual offices. They founded the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, an oriental branch of the Catholic Church, which currently (2013) has around 500,000 members. The order of the "Imitation of Christ" (OIC) was also transferred to the Catholic Church, many of its nuns are now active in Germany.

On June 11, 1932, Pope Pius XI founded the Syro-Malankar Archdiocese of Trivandrum and appointed Mar Ivanios as the first archbishop and head of the Syro-Malankar Catholics. In the same year he traveled to Rome to receive the pallium . In Dublin he attended the 32nd World Eucharistic Congress , where he a. a. met with Gilbert Keith Chesterton , who referred to him as the " Cardinal Newman of India" . In 1947 Mar Ivanios visited Australia and Canada. In 1953 he died at the age of 70 and was buried in the crypt of St. Mary's Cathedral Trivandrum - seated as is the custom among Jacobite metropolitans. His burial chamber is therefore higher than it is wide.

Mar Ivanios was of deep personal piety and had built up the Malankar Catholic Church in the spirit of his Syro-Indian spirituality. As a founder of the order and the Catholic Church, he enjoyed great veneration; pilgrimages began to his grave. Therefore, the beatification process was opened, during which Archbishop Geevarghese Mar Ivanios was proclaimed Venerable Servant of God on July 14, 2007 . In Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, the Mar Ivanios College is named after him.

literature

Web links

Commons : Geevarghese Mar Ivanios  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Group photo of Indian bishops. In the far right, Archbishop Mar Ivanios Panicker; far left Bishop Alois Benziger , with whom he had achieved the church union in 1930.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of the MD Seminary School Kottayam
  2. ^ Homepage of the Christian College Madras
  3. ^ Homepage of the University of Serampore
  4. ^ Franz Pilhatsch: History of the world mission. An overview . Ludwig Mission Association, Munich 1966, p. 81.
  5. ^ Branches of the Bethany Sisters in Germany
  6. ^ Homepage of the Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum

gallery

  • Mosaic of Archbishop Mar Ivanios, exterior of St. Mary`s Cathedral, Trivandrum

  • Relief of Archbishop Mar Ivanios, exterior of the Grand Archbishop's Curia, Trivandrum

  • Memorial stone for Archbishop Mar Ivanios, St. Mary`s Cathedral, Trivandrum, entrance to the crypt

  • Monument to the conversion of Archbishop Mar Ivanios to the Catholic Church, Kollam Bishop's House

  • Syro-Malankan Pontifical Mass for Mar Ivanios, with his decorated picture in the foreground (2008)

personal data
SURNAME Panicker, Geevarghese Mar Ivanios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Panicker, Geevarghese
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian Archbishop, founder of the Syro-Malankar Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Mavelikkara near Alappuzha , India
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1953
Place of death Thiruvananthapuram , Kerala, India