CHANGANACHERRY, Travancore: The Most Reverend Mar Ivanios, Archbishop of Trivandrum, recently had the happiness of reconciling to the Holy See the Jacobite Metropolitan of the Syrian Kuanaya Diocese of Malabar, Mar Thoma Dioscoros. Mar Ivanios is himself a convert Jacobite prelate and the initiator of the Malabar Reunion Movement among the Syrian Schismatics, which has won back to Rome, besides a considerable number of Schismatic clergy and two other Jacobite Bishops, Mar Theophilos and Mar Severios.

Details: The new convert prelate, Mar Thoma Dioscoros, is the erstwhile head of the Suddist section of the Malabar Schismatics, who claim to be descended from Syrians who came to this part of India in the fourth century of the Christian era.

Copyright: The Newcastle And Maitland Catholic Sentinel. March 1, 1940

The first step taken by Mar Ivanios and Mar Theophilos to ensure the success of the Jacobite Reunion Movement was the foundation of the Infant Mary’s Minor Seminary at Tiruvalla. Already, it counts 25 students. At present, it is searching for books in English to form a library. Works of a general nature, such as an encyclopedia, books, and works for ecclesiastical studies, lives of the saints, and other devotional materials are particularly desired.

Copyright: The Catholic Advocate (Brisbane), 28 Dec 1933

The “Universe” correspondent in Calcutta says:

The Pope has suppressed the two dioceses in Malabar which were provisionally created at the beginning of the great conversion movement which has brought into the Catholic Church such a big proportion of the Jacobites of this part of Southern India and has created in their place a new Antiochene Province, consisting of the Diocese of Trivandrum and Tinnevelly. The former will be governed by Mar Ivanios, who will have as suffragan Mar Theophilus, Bishop of Tinnevelly. Mar Ivanios, who has been touring Europe, was not expected back in India for some time, but he has returned unexpectedly by airplane, traveling with his private secretary from Cologne to Karachi.

Copyright: Southern Cross, 13th Jan 1933.

Unexpected Departure: A Reuter telegram from Cologne states that Mar Ivanios, Archbishop of Trivandrum and leader of the great Jacobite reconciliation to Catholicism, suddenly cancelled his European tour and was hurrying back to India by aeroplane. Accompanied by his secretary, the convert Archbishop boarded the airplane at Aachen.

Route and Schedule: Travelling via Cairo and Baghdad, he was expected to reach Karachi on Tuesday, October 18.

Reason for Departure: The message indicates that the reason for the Archbishop’s sudden departure and swift homeward journey is that he has received a cable from India announcing a strong movement in favor of the reconciliation of an increasing number of Jacobites with the Catholic Church.

Developments in Ireland: Two years ago, the establishment of a Chair of Catholic Action at Maynooth was suggested at the annual meeting of the Irish Bishops. Their Lordships were again meeting at Maynooth recently, and there is a general opinion that the matter will be more definitely dealt with, and that the question of a memorial, of the Eucharistic Congress will also be discussed.

Fundraising Efforts: The Knights of St. Columbanus are endeavoring to raise £8,000 to endow the Chair, the maintenance of which will cost £400 a year.

Copyright: The Southern Cross, 2nd December 1932.

Inquiries published recently in the “Universe” newspaper have produced some extremely remarkable information concerning the number of churches dedicated to St. Patrick in all parts of the world. This week the “Universe” brings that total of such churches to over a thousand, which must be almost unequalled by any saint in the calendar, except for the Holy Family, and, perhaps, two or three of the Apostles.

Not least remarkable is that the great majority of these churches have been built within the past hundred years, when the memory of St. Patrick might have been expected to recede in favour of more modern saints. Even this year quite a number of new churches have been dedicated to St. Patrick, although one would imagine that he is much less widely popular now than he was a few generations ago.

AN ADMIRABLE PIECE OF RESEARCH

The totals, when analyzed, are most interesting. As it is hoped to provide as complete a record as possible this year, in honour of the fifteenth centenary of his apostolate in Ireland, it may be that some reader of this article overseas may be able to send further particulars to the editor of the “Universe,” at 1 Arundel-street, London. The churches are to be found in every continent. Nearly half of them are in the United States of America. The list is chiefly based upon an admirable piece of research undertaken by Mr. Frank O Reilly, the organizing secretary of the recent Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.

As the Congress was to coincide with celebrations of St. Patrick’s fifteenth centenary, Mr. O’Reilly wrote to every Bishop in the world, and consulted all the ecclesiastical directories. Even so, his list did not satisfy him as being complete, and he prefaced it with a warning to that effect, in his compilation, “St. Patrick, 432-1932,” in which the list was published with a large number of illustrations.

“THEIR SOUND HATH GONE FORTH TO ALL THE WORLD:”

A correspondent of the “Universe” made an analysis of the list in Mr. O’Reilly’s book, and added to it a few more churches of which he happened to know. With these additions, he reached the astonishing total of 987. Other additions have since been made by other correspondents of the “Universe,” and this week—with a good number of other sources still to be tried—the total has reached 1001. It may be doubted whether even St. Peter has so many churches dedicated to him. Even St. Joseph may not have many more. The total is all the more remarkable because it is much larger even than the rough estimate which the Holy Father himself quoted in his message to the opening of the Dublin Congress this summer.

In his inaugural message to the Congress the Holy Father said: “And then, as one considers the great number of churches dedicated to St. Patrick in various parts of the world—and they number almost 800—churches not only to tabernacle the Body of Christ, but also to strengthen the Catholic Faith, one realizes, very well that it may be truly said of the Irish people; as it was of the pioneer preachers of our Faith: “Their sound hath gone forth to all the world!”

Actually, the total is considerably more than 200 above the figure which the Holy Father had in mind when he wrote that message.

REMARKABLE FIGURES

The figures are so remarkable in detail that I quote a rough summary of the final total published in “Universe.” The figures are: Europe (Ireland, 168; Great Britain, 82; Italy, 2; France, 1; Malta, 1) total, 254. Asia (India, 13; China and Korea, 4); total, 17. Africa, 13. North America (U.S.A., 461; Canada, 65; Newfoundland, 1; British West Indies, 5); total, 532. South America, 2. Oceania (Australia, 164; New Zealand, 4; Hawaii, 1); total, 169.

MORE CHURCHES TO ST. PATRICK

Those were the original figures in the “Universe.” They showed, incidentally, that no less than nineteen of the churches were Cathedrals, six of these being in North America and five in Oceania.

But within a week another correspondent added yet another Cathedral at Bangalore, in India, which had been omitted. Another correspondent, just home from Burma, said that he had regularly attended another Church of St. Patrick in Northern Burma, which was not included in the original list. Another new Church of St. Patrick, near Liverpool, had been recently opened by Archbishop Downey, and yet another in County Armagh by Cardinal MacRory. Another was found at Sheffield, which had been overlooked, and two more in Scotland. Then two more were reported from France—one in a suburb of Marseilles, and the other in a village called St. Patrice, after the saint, not far from Tours.

Then two more were added which were, perhaps, the most remarkable of all the additions. The Indian convert, Archbishop Mar Ivanios, had recently issued an appeal for funds to build new churches for the convert Catholics in Malabar. The success, and the immense possibilities of his apostolic work among the schismatic Christians of Malabar, have attracted a great deal of attention in this country. He had asked for donations to help him in building little churches which could be erected at the amazingly low cost of £130, with an extra £30 for their equipment, and £60 to build a presbytery in each case. It is not often that one hears of the chance of building a complete church for so small a sum, and the appeal has met with several replies. Mar Ivanios went to Dublin for the Eucharistic Congress. Soon after he returned to England he received a letter from a donor offering him the sum he required for a church, with a request that, if possible, it should be dedicated to St. Patrick, to commemorate his fifteenth centenary.

A CHURCH IN MALABAR

I happen to know the anonymous donor, and he showed me the letter of grateful acceptance which Mar Ivanios sent in reply. He said that when he was in Ireland for the Congress he had been deeply moved by the evidence of such marvelous fruits from St. Patrick’s mission, and that he had vowed then to dedicate a church to St. Patrick in Malabar if he could raise the money he needed: He had been praying for this specially at every Mass since his return; and he regarded the anonymous donor’s request as, a direct answer to prayer. So one more dedication was announced in the “Universe.” And within a fortnight another donor, also anonymous, had given a second church to Mar Ivanios with the same request. The two anonymous donors are not the same person. Both are Irish Catholics whose lives have been spent in far-distant countries.

A TRIBUTE TO THE IRISH MISSION

With these two new churches the number of dedications to St. Patrick in India alone, without counting the two in Burma, now total 15, so far as is yet known. It is, indeed, an amazing tribute to the vitality of St. Patrick’s Irish mission that when a convert Indian Archbishop undertakes to spread the Faith through so remote a place as Malabar, he should do it under the invocation of St. Patrick. The other churches in India are mostly small chapels built at different times to accommodate the Catholic soldiers in the old Irish regiments of the British. Now that the Irish regiments have ceased to exist, the British regiments in India still contain a fair proportion of Catholics, and the chapels dedicated to St. Patrick will still serve them. But it was surely not to be expected that the native converts of Malabar, converted by their own native Archbishop and his convert clergy, would invoke the same dedication.

IN AFRICA

In Africa also, St. Patrick will be the local patron saint of many missions. Mr. Frank O’Reilly had difficulty in obtaining details of the churches in all parts of Africa, and his list of 13 churches for all Africa is admittedly incomplete. The “Universe” has already found two more, which were not included in his list—one at Sherbro, in Sierra Leone, and one at Pekina, in South Africa. In case any reader of this letter may be able to supply other details of other churches, I give the thirteen others in Mr. O’Reilly’s list. He includes five small structures in the Gold Coast and Ashanti. The other eight are: Two in Natal (at Bellair and Umbogintwini); two in South Africa (at Nackora and Kimberley); one in the Orange Free State (at Kroonstad); one in Tanganyika (at Morogoro); and one each in Madagascar and Mauritius.

WIDESPREAD DEVOTION

Assuming that the list is complete for South Africa, the Gold Coast, and Tanganyika, it seems probable that there are other churches dedicated to St. Patrick in those districts, especially like Eastern Nigeria and the Cameroons, where Irish missionaries have been labouring. It will be surprising if there are not churches dedicated to St. Patrick in Uganda and Kenya also. Of how many saints could one expect the same widespread popularity and devotion in places so very far remote from the scene of his labours, and so very many centuries after his death? Nor is there apparently any sign of the long list coming to an end. New churches dedicated to him have this year been either opened or begun in India as well as in Ireland and in Great Britain. The vast majority of his churches—including all in America and Canada and Australia, and most of those in Ireland and England—have in fact been built in the past hundred years. Yet some are of great antiquity, and the list includes some which are now in Protestant hands, including three Cathedrals in Ireland which bear his name, and at least nine pre-Reformation churches in England or Scotland.

THE APOSTOLATE OF ST. PATRICK

The persistence of such dedications to him is, indeed, all the more remarkable, because in Ireland itself, and among high Catholics in Great Britain popular devotion to St. Patrick has undoubtedly suffered a considerable eclipse. Most modern churches in Ireland are usually dedicated to some modern saint like the Little Flower, or to show reverence for some modern shrine of Our Lady like Lourdes. In O’Connell’s time, and even much later, up to the end of the last century, St. Patrick was the first dedication that occurred to Irish people. But of late there has been a marked change. Even the custom of wearing shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day tends to disappear.

It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that in quite modern times the apostolate of St. Patrick has extended to a much wider field—to China and Africa—where Irish missionaries are labouring among races of a different color as well as a different creed; and that while devotion to him among his own people and their direct descendants has declined, the elite of his apostles have taken the whole world as their province.

Copyright: The Advocate 13th October 1932

Archbishop’s Appeal: As a result of his recent appeal, Archbishop Mar Ivanios has received from an anonymous donor £130 to build one of the many churches he and his brother Bishop, Mar Theophilos, need for their many converts from the Jacobite Church.

Dedication to St. Patrick: Mar Ivanios has decided to dedicate the church to St. Patrick, as he vowed he would do while he was attending the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.

Expansion Plans: The convert Archbishop hopes to build another church with the same dedication this year so that India may have 15 churches dedicated to St. Patrick to correspond with the 15th centenary of St. Patrick’s apostleship. Mar Ivanios is able to build a church for £130, equip it for £10, and add a priest’s hut for £60. Altogether he needs 46 new churches.

Global Comparison: The church dedicated to St. Patrick which Mar Ivanios is to build on the Malabar coast will be India’s 14th named after the Apostle of Ireland, and the world’s 987th. The U.S.A. leads the way with 461 churches under this dedication. Ireland has 168, closely followed by Australia, which has 164. The others are in Great Britain (82), Canada (65), Africa (13—and probably more), India (13), British West Indies (5), New Zealand (5), China and Korea (4), Italy (2), South America (2), and one each in Newfoundland, Malta, and Hawaii. No fewer than 19 out of the 986 are Cathedrals.

Copyright: The Newcastle and Maitland Catholic Sentinel : the official organ of the diocese of Maitland. (1 October, 1932)

“NEWMAN OF INDIA” — ARCHBISHOP MAR IVANIOS — THE STORY OF HIS CONVERSION — A MYSTERY AT MALABAR — TRIALS SUFFERED BY THE CONVERT CLERGY — MAR IVANIOS’ VISIT TO BRITAIN — ENCOURAGEMENT OF NATIVE MISSIONS BY THE HOLY FATHER.

LONDON, July 19.

Mutual movn: England. any great people tii re Mar Ivanios not a Uni> 0n his. v back from the Eucharistic Cont-r ,.= in Dublin, Mar Ivanios. the leader the Jacobite conversion to union whh the Holy See in Malabar, lias : paying visits to various parts of i.J;ind and Scotland. His name lw- :. :>oared frequently in the Catholic r,’ iispapers, and he is often describei; r, -.lie Cardinal Newman of India. B ‘ • ; lie analogy is far from representin: she whole case. was tlic U i.-lor of a highly Newman intellecciit within the Church of id there was no hope of .-inversion of the common .irii hi? conversion. in, nn the other hand, was fixity preacher like Newman, but ilie Jacobite Archbishop of a very important district in India when he became P. Catholic two years ago. He was one of the heads of an important Church with a great popular following. Ami the movement which ht lias brought about may yet result in the conversion to Catholicism of a population more numerous than the entire Catholic body in England in the time- of the Oxford Movement.

THE STORY OF HIS CONVERSION.

The’story of his conversion and its far-reaching sequel is roughly as follows: Time are about 500,000 Indian Jacobites in the native State of Travancore” aw! in Cochin and Malabar. Most of them are concentrated in the Malabar which is a long strip of land on the south-west coast of- India, extending from Calicut in the north to Cape Coiiimin. Surrounded by the Ghat mountains and the sea, it has developed very much on its own lines as a separate country with its own traditions and religious beliefs. It is believed that St. Thomas brought Christianity to Malabar within a few years after the crucifixion of Our Lord: and liis shrine at Mylapore has been ;t centre of pilgrimage since long before any recorded history of the region. Centuries later the Christian population came under the influence of the Nestorians; they became schismatic and were for long out of cominur.i.v.i with the Church. But the Jesuit?, with their headquarters at Goa, s«i;i (cried in winning them back to union with the Holy See; and their reconciliation was confirmed in 1599, when they were allowed their own Syro-\f;.lrih;>r rite. Some thirty years ago they were given a native hierarchy by Ler \ni.; and there are to-day about 5”i.OOO of them in union with Rome, r.irler the native Archbishop of Em A:,! urn and his three suffragan Bishop r, under ; sites. Malabo 1662, n recent! joined ” der t’i Patriar As the .sc’: :”CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS.” Theivf. “Christians of St. Thomas,” as the;.- r.re usually called, were, howeve r >.aborted for a time by the immigration of Jacobite Christians who, had sep :: ated from the Church in the ntthcci..-ary (“the time of St. Patrick), ; influence of the Monophy- •iey migrated from Syria to • n large numbers; and, in •y of the Christians who had been reconciled with Rome ” ‘li them as schismatics, unurisdiction of the Jacobite • of Antioch. •suit of that migration and which it provoked, there are no v. roughly 500,000 Jacobites of Wious -orts in Malabar. In modern tpes t Protestant missionaries had £ ade f -at efforts among them, and oy 0f free schools ha<J suc. weded ,n gaining considerable influence Without actually becoming 7 1 ” s o m e 140,000 of them have aaoptecl various Protestant doctrines, Particular ly in regard to the Real Presence and devotion to Our -Lady:

THE REMBANS.

Faced with this modern tendency towards Protestantism, the main body of Jacobites in Malabar decided to set up a Church of their own, independent of the Patriarch of Antioch, and owning allegiance to their own Catholikos. In most rcspects they shared the doctrines of the Catholic” Church, except for refusing to acknowledge the Pope and his infallibilit}’. and also in regard to their belief in the nature of Christ. Their clergy are all obliged to be married; but their bishops must be celibates, and are chosen from a group of ascetics called Rembans, who until they become bishops are cut off from all ordinary work within the Church.

PERSONAL DETAILS.

Mar Ivanios was born just fifty years ago, and by a very rare dispensation he was allowed to enter the priesthood without being married. He was given charge of a school at Kottayam, and later appointed professor of palaeography at a college affiliated with Calcutta University. There he established a hostel where his disciples addressed themselves. But with work that could long he turned to Malabar, bringing his students with him. There he founded the first monastery of its kind in Malabar, calling his community the “Brotherhood of the Imitation of Christ.” In 1925 he was consecrated a Bishop, and three years later he became Archbishop of Bethany, being specially commissioned, with his suffragan Bishop, Mar Theophilos, to build up a new diocese.

RECEIVED INTO THE CHURCH IN 1930.

Soon after becoming a bishop he was troubled by the lack of any supreme authority within the Jacobite Church. In 1927 he went straight to the Catholikos to lay his doubts before him. The Catholikos shared his feelings; and in the belief that union with Rome would have to be accomplished, he commissioned Mar Ivanios to enter into negotiations with the Holy See. But the Catholikos died while the negotiations were in progress, and he was succeeded by another Jacobite prelate who was out of sympathy with the proposals. So the possibility of a corporate reunion fell through; but Mar. Ivanios himself had gone so far that he felt unable to hold back. In September, 1930, he was received into the Catholic Church; and the Pope not only recognized the validity of his consecration, but allowed him to continue as a Catholic Bishop, changing his title later from Archbishop of Bethany to Archbishop of Trivandrum.

FOLLOWED BY HIS PARENTS.

Returning to his own family, he found his parents eager to follow him; and before long the convent of religious women which he had founded became Catholic also. At the monastery which he had founded all but five of the monks followed him; and most important was the conversion of his suffragan bishop. Mar. Theophilos, and of 31 of his clergy. Nearly as many more are at present under instruction with a view to following him. Of the laity, fully 8000 have since submitted to the Holy See; and Mar Ivanios has also made a remarkably large number of converts among Hindus, some of them being Brahmins.

TRIALS OF THE CONVERT CLERGY.

The converted clergy have suffered very much the same trials and deprivations and abject poverty which followed the conversion of “Mr. Newman’s victims,” as they were called at the time of the Oxford Movement. Active persecution and even violent opposition to the converts has also been widespread. They have been boycotted and have, in some places, been greeted with the hoisting of a black flag when they have appeared. But the movement of conversion under the missionary leadership of Mar Ivanios has met with astonishing results. One of the most curious stories is of a place where thieves stole all the material he had collected to build a little church. Instead of invoking the law, Mar Ivanios got his nuns to pray that the material might be recovered. Within four days the thieves returned what they stole and had hidden in the river bed, and they all became Catholics.

THE NEEDS OF MAR IVANIOS.

At present Mar Ivanios is touring England and Scotland and appealing for funds to carry on the work of conversion, which has been proceeding so rapidly. His chief need is small village churches, and he is in a position to promise that a church can be built for £130 and equipped for only £10 more, while a priest’s house will cost only £60. There can be few missionary countries where such fruitful results may be expected from such very modest financial requirements. The population are already Christian and almost Catholic. They are apprehensive of the future of their own Church, and they recognize in Mar Ivanios a religious leader of extraordinary simplicity and deep piety.

NOT A MERELY PERSONAL MOVEMENT.

Two points concerning this movement in Malabar deserve special attention. The schismatic population which may be regarded as susceptible to this modern movement for unity with Rome is fully half a million. It is not a mere personal effort on the part of Mar Ivanios; for the late Catholikos was fully in sympathy with his efforts, and his suffragan bishop has already become a Catholic. Moreover, two of the clergy who became Catholics with them were already bishops-designate in the Jacobite Church. It would be too much to expect the whole Jacobite Church to follow their lead; but the total of 500,000 Jacobites is much larger than the large Catholic population of Ceylon; and it compares with a total of less than 2,900,000 Catholics in all India.

THE HOLY FATHER’S ENCOURAGEMENT.

Secondly, the encouragement shown by Pius XI. to this native Church carries out the general policy of encouraging native Churches, and the formation of native hierarchies and clergy, which the Holy Father has pushed forward so vigorously as the “Pope of the Foreign Missions.” In his famous encyclical outlining his missionary programme, he emphasized the fact that he was continuing a policy which had been vigorously adopted by Benedict XV. But the policy goes further back. It was Leo XIII. who established a native Hierarchy for the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar. It was he also who, before the end of the last century, prophesied that the conversion of India would be effected by Indians themselves, and that it would spread through India from the south.

Copyright: The Advocate, 1 Sep 1932