Kochi: The funeral of Catholicos Aboon Mor Baselios Thomas-I the spiritual leader of the country's Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, will be held at the Mar Athanasius Cathedral in Patriarchal Centre in Ernakulam's Puthencruz - the headquarters of the Jacobite church on Saturday.
The funeral mass commenced at 8 am at the Patriarchal Centre where his mortal remains were kept for the public to pay homage and the concluding prayers will be held from 3 pm to 5 pm, during which time the body will be laid to rest, church sources said.
Union Minister of State for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Tourism Suresh Gopi and Malayalam actor Mammootty were among the hundreds who turned up in the morning to pay homage to the Catholicos. As thousands are expected to attend the funeral, traffic regulations have been put in place on the Puthencruz-Kolenchery stretch of the Kochi-Madurai national highway, police said.
Archbishops from the US and UK will attend the funeral services as representatives of Ignatius Aphrem II, the Patriarch of Antioch, church sources said. On Friday, thousands had gathered in Kothamangalam to bid a heartfelt farewell to the Catholicos of the Jacobite Syrian Church, who died on Thursday, October 31, at 5:21 pm in a private hospital in Kochi after a prolonged illness. He was 95.
On Thursday night, his mortal remains were brought to the Mar Thoma Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Cheriyapally in Kothamangalam, where the public paid their last respects. Following the funeral mass, a procession was held on Friday morning to Kothamangalam Valiya Palli.
Later, his remains were taken to the Patriarchal Centre at Puthencruz, allowing more people to pay homage, church sources said. The Catholicos had led the church's followers through a period of turmoil after a Supreme Court ruling stripped the Jacobite faction of control over its churches.
Amidst the dispute between the Jacobite and Orthodox factions of the Malankara Church, he led the former's faction after they lost control of their churches and properties following the 2017 SC verdict.
The apex court had ruled that the 1,100 parishes and their churches under the Malankara Church should be controlled by the Orthodox faction, in accordance with the 1934 Malankara Church guidelines. Known as C M Thomas, he was born in the Cheruvillil family of Vadayambadi, Puthencruz, near here on July 22, 1929.
He was enthroned on July 26, 2002, by Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, in a ceremony held in Damascus, Syria. In 2019, he stepped down from his administrative duties and resigned from the role of Metropolitan Trustee.
Although he had offered to retire from both positions due to his old age, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II requested him to continue serving as Catholicos. He had been hospitalised for several months before his passing on Thursday evening. In 1959, he was appointed as the vicar of St. Peter's church, Puthencruz.
Later, he served the churches at Vellathooval, Kizhumuri, Fort Kochi, Valamboor, Kolkata and Thrissur. He also served as the chief organiser of the North Indian mission at Bhilai in the 1970s and as the secretary of the Pourasthaya Suvishesha Samajam in 1974.
He was well-known as a great revivalist preacher. In January 1974, Fr. Thomas was elected to the episcopate by the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Association convened at the Karingachira St. George Church and was consecrated Metropolitan with the title ‘Mor Dionysius’ by Mor Ignatius Ya`qub-III on February 24, 1974 at Damascus, Syria. He was entrusted with the charge of Angamali diocese, the largest of all the Syrian Orthodox dioceses.
