Historical Relavence
As the Catholicate in India reached the historical land mark of 100 years,it is time to take a hard look at the historical relevance of this establishment.I intent to write 3 postings,one looking at the past second in relation to the current realities,and third from a futuristic point of view.this posting is from a historical point of view.
Origin of Catholicate was in Persia,in the early centuries of Christianity.St.Thomas,one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ was the founder of Christianity in India and Persia.The Church developed in Persia more or less on the same lines as in the Roman empire,only difference being that unlike in the Roman empire,the Church in Persia did not undergo persecution during the early phase.The Persian rulers were tolerant up to a point in time,to be precise,till Emporer Constantine accepted Christianity and made it the official relegion of the Empire.Persian rulers suspected that the Christians of the Persian Empire will become loyal to Rome due to this devolopement.
The local congregations had leaders who were called Episcopas or Kassisas(both the terms at that point in time were of the same meaning-leaders of the local Church).But with the spread of Christianity in many locations,Episcopas in the main Cities and towns gained administrative control over the Churches in nearby villages and Diocese set ups came into being.At that time also,there was no central authority/administrator for the Church for the whole empire.Any contact with the Church in the Roman empire was not possible due to the hostility between the two empires.The Persian Church used Chaldean dialect of Syriac language.
Over a period of time,Christianity was recognised as the second religion of the empire(first being Zoroastrianism,the religion of Sun worshippers,now followed by Parsi community in India).Importance of the Episcopa at the Capital city of the Empire increased due to this prelate being the authorised Church leader to deal with the Empire on religious issues.Slowly the Prelate at the Capital City became the defacto head of Persian Church.This was followed by the prelate being designated as Catholicose,meaning "of the whole world".(each empire at that time used to refer to themselves as the "world".)
As St.Thomas is the founder of the Church in Persia and India,the Bishops deputed from Persian Church were the spiritual heads of the Church in India.The Christians in India regarded the Catholicose of Persia as their spiritual and titular head ,although they never had an oppertunity to see their spiritual and titular head in flesh and blood.The Bishops deputed by the Catholicose administered such of those sacraments which needed a Bishop(Episcopa).However such discharging of duties by the Episcopa was only at the suggestion of Archdiackhon,who was the real administrator of the Church,althoug in the hirarchy of priesthood he was only a KASSISA.Malankara Nazranis held the Archadiackhon in high esteem. One of the causes for the revolt of Koonan Cruz was the attempts by the Roman Church to belittle the Arckhadiackhon to the point of extinction.One of the reasons why the Church had to submit to the Roman rule was the difficulty faced in getting across to India Bishops from Persia.
The start of relations with Syrian Church in the 18th Centuary was aftar exhausting all efforts to get the continuity of High preasthood from other Orthodox Churches in the Middle East.The authority of Bishops from outside further weakened as the position of Arckhadiakhon was elivated to that of a Bishop as a result of Koonan Cruz.Situation changed with Palakkunnathu Mar Athanasios got himself ordained as a Bishop ,without the mandate of the Parish Church representatives(PallyPrathip urusha Yogam).The royal prclamation issed by the Maharaja of Travancore in favour of Mar Athanasiose stated that the claim of this bishop to be the head of Malankara Church as his being ordained by the Patriarch of Antioch.This possibly could have been due to the influence of British Resident in Travancore who was more powerful than the King himself.The Rsident had a vested interest in making Mar athanasius as the Head of malankara Church ,the hidden aganda being Prtestanisation of MOC
Events subsequent to this devolopement saw attempts by sucessive Patriarchs of Antioch to colonise the Malankara Church.The need for establishment of Catholicate in India became more and more necessary due tio subesquent devolopements.I will deal with those devolopement in the next post.
It is in this background that the entity of Catholicose in India needs to be viewed.It is a symbol ofthe Historic relatioship with the Persian Churchwhich was also founded by St.Thomas.The Bishops from Syrian Orthodox Church tried to portray Persian Church as Nestorians and hence heritics.MOC at that time didnot have the theological or historical understanding on the issue.Hence the relationship became something they prefered to underplay.But the fact is that the Theological hairsplitting debates in the middle east didnot trouble MOC which followed the teachings of St.Thomas which they termed as Marthomayude Margavum Vazhipadum Even after the Bishops from SOC started their work in Maklankara,it took a couple of Centuries for them to force the west syrian forms of worship on MOC.If one goes through the liturgical changes in MOC it will become clear that the MOC faithfuls were exteremely reluctant to give up the Chaldian Syriac Liturgy.
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