A Brief look at the life of Our Beloved Catholicos
Baselios Mar Thoma Mathews II who passed away on 26th
Jan 2006.
Facing
death with honesty and courage
His
Holiness Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Mathews II born January
30, 1915 was Catholicos of the East, Malankara Metropolitan,
and 89th successor to the Holy Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas.
His Holiness was born at Perinad in Kollam District of Kerala,
and had his religious training at Old Seminary Kottayam and
also at Basil Dayara, Pathanamthitta. Later he joined Bishop's
College, Calcutta for his B. D. Degree, and studied Theology
at the General Theological Seminary, New York. H
 He
was ordained as Deacon in 1938 then as Priest in 1941. It
was during his stay at St. George Dayara Othara that Father
Mathews made a mark as a devoted and an able priest of the
Indian Orthodox Church. On May 15, 1953 he was ordained as
a Bishop of Orthodox Church at the age of thirty eight. As
Metropolitan of the Diocese of Kollam, he was responsible
for its growth and progress and the number of parishes almost
doubled within a short period. Several monasteries and convents
were started. A large number of educational institutions and
hospitals were established. Several Colleges, Schools, Hospitals
and other service institutions were established and administered
under his direct control and leadership.
It
was in 1980 that he was unanimously elected by the Malankara
Syrian Christian Association as successor to the throne of
Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. Due to
ill health and old age His Holiness voluntarily resigned his
position as the Supreme Head of the Indian Orthodox Church
on 29 October 2005.
Our
departed beloved Bava Thirumeni's life had been a demonstration
of faith lived out. We must praise the way in which the Bava
Thirumeni had approached his own death with courage and acceptance.
I
believe in these past few months, we've seen an extraordinary
'lived sermon' for Christians all over the world, about facing
death with honesty and courage; facing death in the hope of
a relationship which is not broken by death but continues
beyond it.
Bava
Thirumeni showed his character in the way in which he met
his death; clearly frustrated, clearly suffering and yet at
every point accepting; facing his frailties and remaining
courageous and hopeful. I feel there's certain appropriateness
about the fact that he died between the Christmas season and
Great Lent - a time of the Church's year which meant so much
to him. It has been a season in which he was able to convey
his message to the whole world describing God's love by sending
His only begotten son to save us and that a Christian must
lead a sacrificial life as Christ died on the cross for redeeming
us.
It
was due to his excelling virtue, his teaching, and his most
vigilant zeal as shepherd of his people, that he won the title
Great. In expounding the deeper mysteries of our faith, the
excellence of his teaching is so radiant with the majestic
richness of priestly eloquence. His passionate devotion, in
thought and feeling, word and action, truth, harmony, and
peace for the welfare of the Orthodox Church must be noted.
 He
was a true theologian and a diplomat. His experiences greatly
strengthened our Church when he came into office. He was a
man who had lived through the toughest and most testing times
of the modern age. He was fully aware of the fact that the
Church has to be something different from simply being an
institution of the modern secular society; that it has to
offer different values, virtues, and different hopes to the
believers. He was a defender of Church unity. His passion
for unification of the churches, ecumenism, maintaining harmony
and peace among Christians should not be forgotten. In doing
these he showed something fundamental, something distinctive
about being a Christian which is of huge authority.
The
wisdom, the wealth and scope of his teaching, the loftiness
of his mind, his unfailing charity-these are the things which
our Bava Thirumeni brought to enhance the church and our faith
in our Almighty God. We feel it incumbent upon us to highlight
his high moral and ethical values and his immortal merits.
I am confident that his blessed life in this world can be
of great spiritual value to us all, and increase the prestige
and promote the spread of our Faith.
Visit Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Mathews II
's Profile in SocialPulse.com
Courtesy:
Rev. Fr. Alexander J. Kurien
Vicar, St. Gregorios Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Church
Of Greater Washington
Courtesy:
Wikipedia, Web Media |
