Mar Ivanios, asked that he be reunited with the Holy See. This was granted, and his episcopal powers were recognized. Thus, he became the “Newman of Jacobitism,” for he was soon followed by the Bishop-designate of the schismatic Church, the Bethany Monks, the Bethany Sisters, several Jacobite priests, and great numbers of adherents of the Church. So remarkable has been the move towards Rome that competent authorities believe the schism will be extinct within half a century.

Last week we published an illuminating interview with Archbishop Mar Ivanios, wherein the prelate told why he joined the Catholic Church. The Archbishop, who is now Catholic Metropolitan of Bethany, has written to the editor of the ‘Catholic Press’ giving further details. The letter follows:

Catholic Archbishop’s House,
Tiruvella, Travancore,
S. India,
31st March, 1931.

Dear Editor,

I write to introduce myself to you as the Archbishop Metropolitan who was recently reunited with the Holy See. It was very kind of you to have published the photo.

Please find enclosed a letter from his Excellency the Bishop of Kottayam, introducing me to you.

I take the liberty to enclose the copies of two letters — one that I wrote to the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, imploring his Beatitude to abandon his schism and enter into the unity of the True Church; the other I wrote to some of the priests of this country who appeared much interested to know of the progress we were making in the direction of conversion and organization.

If you consider that the publication of accounts about us will interest your readers, you are perfectly free to make use of these letters, and, in fact, we shall be very glad.

I understand that the Very Rev. Ramban Joseph Pulikot, formerly Bishop-designate of the Jacobite Church, and who has followed me into the Catholic Church, is forwarding to your address a few photos, and the translation of a farewell speech delivered by a leading Jacobite priest to his former congregation on the eve of his departure from the Jacobite Church. I trust you will be glad to publish these.

With best wishes and blessings on all your efforts in the cause of our Holy Faith, I remain, yours in Our Blessed Lord,

IVANIOS, Archbishop of Bethany.

Letter to Jacobite Patriarch.

JOY IN THE TRUE CHURCH.

Extracts from the Archbishop’s letter to Maran Mar Ignatius Elias, Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, Mosul, are as follows:

I trust your Beatitude is aware of the great step the Holy Spirit enabled me to take in that I made my submission to the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and was thus re-united with the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. I am supremely happy in that the most merciful Lord gave me this privilege. But my joy and happiness can never be complete unless and until your Beatitude and all the Jacobites forsake their schism and enter into the unity of the True Church.

Our Lord founded one Church only. He founded it on St. Peter. He entrusted the keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter. He authorized St. Peter to confirm his brother Apostles in the True Faith. He gave the Universal Pastoral charge to St. Peter. The Pope is the true successor of St. Peter. He is the Universal Bishop of Christendom, the divinely appointed center of Unity for the visible Church on earth, and the infallible guardian of the Catholic Truth.

May I on bended knees implore your Beatitude to consider this true doctrine which is clearly set forth in the Sacred Scriptures, and in the above quoted and hundreds of other passages in the ecclesiastical and dogmatic books of your Communion, and to ask Our Divine Saviour for the grace of the humility of heart, which alone can give the light to see and the strength to obey the will of God and enable you to make due submission to His Holy Will and heal the wounds in His Body. If only your Beatitude will prayerfully consider this matter, I am confident that the Divine grace will not fail you. For the reunion of Christendom is God’s Holy Will. And the Holy Father the Pope, and the entire Catholic Church, are praying in this Church Unity Octave, for the return of the separated Christians to the True Fold of Christ.

The Schism of the 5th Century.

There are two schisms which your Beatitude can heal by a single act. The first of these is primarily concerned with your own people in Syria and Turkey. It is the great schism which took place in the East in the middle of the 5th century when the followers of Eutychus and Dioscorus disobeyed the Universal Church, and repudiated the Pope and the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. Though the Jacobites anathematized Eutychus later, and in principle adopted the Chalcedonian definition of the Catholic faith, the schism has continued to this day.

The second is one that is confined to the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar. In the 17th century, a section of these Christians revolted against the Catholic Church and went into schism for merely personal and social reasons. This schism had nothing to do with faith and dogma. Later on, the schismatic Christians of St. Thomas accepted the supremacy of the Jacobite Patriarch, and thus nominally became Jacobites. The immediate cause of the schism was a false rumor that the Portuguese had drowned a Bishop come to Malabar from the East. This Bishop was not a Jacobite, and was not sent here by the Jacobites.

The Jacobite Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar have, during the past two and a half centuries of their connection with the Jacobite Patriarchate, suffered and lost a great deal. The greatest loss is the loss of Catholic Unity. In the 19th century, a section of the St. Thomas Christians fell under the influence of Anglican Protestants, imbibed Protestant teaching, and became adherents of the Church Missionary Society (Anglican), while another section constituted itself into an independent Church — called the Mar Thomas Church — whose teachings are no less Protestant than those of the O.M.S. The Mar Thomites are about 100,000 strong now. In the beginning of the 20th century, the remaining Jacobites who are over 300,000 strong, were again split into two, and wasted much of their resources in mutual conflicts and protracted litigation. The corruptive influence of repeated schisms and internecine strife has brought spiritual life to an extremely low level.

Taught by the Holy Spirit.

Your Beatitude is aware that I spent all my life for the service and spiritual amelioration of the Jacobite Church. And, later in life, the Holy Spirit most wonderfully taught me that true charity was impossible of attainment in a schismatic body, and that those who resist the will of God and obstinately continue in schism and heresy deserve eternal damnation.

The Holy Spirit taught me and my brother, Bishop Mar Theophilos, and the religious congregations of monks and sisters that God guided me to found, that perfection of humility and religious obedience were impossible of attainment in the Jacobite Church, which itself was founded on pride and disobedience. We discovered that all the work we did in the Jacobite Church was simply building on sand.

Our Lord built His Church on Rock — on the Rock of St. Peter. Since the Pope is the true successor of St. Peter, for anyone to attempt to build apart from the communion of the Pope, is to attempt to build apart from Christ.

I most humbly pray that your Beatitude return to the True Church. The Holy See has always been ready to receive Eastern schismatics and give them every facility to enable them to return to the Unity of the Church. The memorandum that I submitted to the Holy See expressing our desire to be received into the Catholic Church received the most sympathetic consideration.

Your Beatitude is also aware that the Catholics of the Puro Syrian Rite in Syria were most cordially received by the Holy Father. They use practically the same Missal and ritual as the Jacobites do and have their own Hierarchy. Since their reunion with the Holy See, they have made progress in every way, while those who persisted in schism have steadily declined. Social and moral degradation has been the consequence of spiritual degeneration. Systematic rejection of divine grace on the part of the schismatics has met with its inevitable reward.

Providence has called your Beatitude to your present position. I believe the Holy Spirit invites your Beatitude to surrender yourself entirely to His guidance, forsake your schism and enter into the unity of the Catholic Church by confessing the entire Catholic faith and making your submission to the Pope — the one center of unity for Christendom. . . . The Pope, the Vicar of Christ the King, guides and rules the entire Church on earth with the joyful cooperation and loyal support of all the Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops who constitute the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

I am confident that if your Beatitude would have the humility to return to the House of God, your Beatitude will be able to lead several thousands of schismatics into the Catholic Church, and thereby assure their salvation and bring abundant glory to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the charity of Our Lord Jesus Christ that has constrained me to write this humble letter to your Beatitude. May I, with all the humility of heart that I am capable of, implore your Beatitude to do all that lies in your power to heal the Jacobite schism and gather all the scattered Jacobites into the unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. For it is the will and prayer of the Lord that ‘they may all be one.’

Letter to Priests.

In his letter to the priests, Archbishop Ivanios said:

I believe that you have been praying for us. You can realize how deeply I feel for those schismatics who still remain outside of the Catholic Church and are consequently deprived of the great blessing and spiritual consolation that is the birthright of the true children of God. My anguish is all the greater in that some of those dear ones, whom I love so much in Our Lord, have turned out enemies, not only of me and those with me but also of the True Church of Christ.

However, the Archbishop was full of hope and told of much success and many difficulties overcome.

Forty Years a Jacobite Priest.

FAREWELL ADDRESS TO CONGREGATION.

The farewell address of Rev. Father Thomas Kalaikkattil, alluded to in our letter from Archbishop Ivanios, was delivered in the Jacobite Church of Kaviyur, on Sunday, February 8, 1931. After the sermon, he left the Jacobite Church, proceeded to the neighboring Catholic Church, and made his profession of the Catholic faith before the Right Rev. Mar Theophilos, Bishop of Tiruvella. In part, he said:

I have to tell you something difficult and equally painful to you and me, I have determined to enter the Catholic Church, for I find it more conducive to my future peace of mind, joy of heart, and tranquility of conscience. When I came to this parish, 36 years ago, there was no church here. The people had to go to the Kalluppara church, which is three miles away. I started this church. From the day in which the first stone was laid for this church till this moment I have been your Vicar and have, I believe, served you most faithfully. And all these years you have truly loved and respected me and rendered me all necessary help. While I express my heartfelt thanks to you for all this, I ask your prayers and solicit your goodwill in the future.

Sacred Heritage of Catholic Past.

Even after those ancestors of ours who fell into schism, we continued to recite the Nicene Creed, as ever before. I am so thankful that we have preserved this Creed and the sacred heritages of our Catholic past. Our holy liturgy and the sacred books and the rituals and services come from very ancient times, and they really belong to our Catholic past; I very much desire to preserve these most sacred ancient treasures and yet be in communion with the Pope, who is the Head of the Visible Church on earth. His Grace Mar Ivanios, Archbishop of Bethany, now resident close to us at Tiruvella, which is only three miles from here, has marked out a way and opened a road for us to cross over from schism into the unity of the Catholic Church. His Grace, as you all know, has all his life labored and spent for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls in this country. During the past ten years, his Grace has done a wonderful spiritual work in this parish and surrounding parishes. The Bethany monks have been systematically visiting this parish at my request, conducting missions, hearing Confessions, and sanctifying many lives. His Grace Mar Ivanios and the Bethany monks, who were the real spiritual leaders and beacons of spiritual life in the Jacobite Church, are no longer members of the Jacobite Church. In September last, they made their submission to the Pope and united with the Catholic Church.

I ask you, men and women, to consider why his Grace Mar Ivanios and the Bethany monks and sisters left the Jacobite Church. It cannot be that they had any earthly purpose in view. For His Grace, who was the most respected prelate of the Jacobite Church, has nothing worldly to gain by this change. Men, money, and influence he had in plenty. The sacrifice that he made compels me and you to consider the question why he left the Jacobite Church and joined the Roman Catholic Church. I have considered it to the best of my ability. His Grace and his followers have realized one great Truth, that Our Lord has only one Church, that the Jacobite Church is a schismatic body, that it is the will of God that believers in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, should all belong to one Church. That one Church is visible on earth. That one Church has one center and one head. That center and head are the Pope.

I am convinced that it is the will of God that I should live the rest of my life as a Catholic and die as a Catholic. Whenever a Jacobite Bishop visits our Church and gives Benediction to the people, they sing a hymn in response. Some of you have sung it, and all of you have heard it. I recite it now for your information.

Rest on the Rock of Peter.

‘To those who raise controversy with her, the Church says, ‘I am built on Simon, Cephas (the Rock), and I have seventy pillars. The saints are treasured up in me. I am built by the prophets and confirmed by the Apostles; the martyrs are enshrined in my bosom. The fortification around me is impregnable. I resemble the adorned bride, and I stand firm in Christ, my Bridegroom.’

The Church is built on the Rock of St. Peter. Mar Ivanios has taken his barque through the ocean of life and found rest for his soul and for the souls of all of us, in Jesus Christ, on the rock of Simon Peter. And I have decided to be in his barque. In the name of God, I invite you all to abandon your schism and unite yourselves to their Lordship, Mar Ivanios, and Mar Theophilos. For they are united with the Pope — the Center of Unity for the Christian Church.

I invite you all to pray for me and for the reunion of Christendom. I invite you also, if you like, to come to the adjoining little hut, which serves as the chapel of his Grace Mar Ivanios, and witness the profession of faith that I shall make in the Catholic Church. It was my desire to be received into the Catholic Church by his Grace Mar Ivanios, who is my own spiritual father.

My most dear people, don’t imagine that I am deserting you. I am just doing what God and my conscience command me to do. I am doing that which will, I hope, eventually bring you all into the bosom of Our Lord and of His True Church.

Thirty-six years ago I came to you a black-bearded young man, full of energy and enthusiasm. Now, I leave you an old man, bent with age and weakness, and with a grey beard. Thanking you for your past kindness to and cooperation with me, I take leave of you for the present. Reflect and pray. God will guide you. Farewell!

May God bless you all.

Pathetic Scenes.

At the end of the sermon, pathetic scenes occurred in the church. The whole congregation was in tears, and many kissed the hand of the priest with deep emotion and followed him into the neighboring Catholic Church to witness the profession of faith of their former Vicar.

Rev. Father Thomas Kalaikkattil is a priest of considerable influence in the Jacobite community and is no doubt an asset to the Catholic Church.

Quilon (India) – Mar. Ivanios, the Jacobite Archbishop who, with his assistant bishop, was received into the Catholic Church by His Lordship Bishop Benziger of Quilon, India, recently, will retain the dignity of Archbishop by special consent of the Holy See. His Holiness Pope Pius XI has further declared him free to use the powers of his Sacred Orders and jurisdiction. The new Archbishop has also received the faculty or receiving into the Church 13 priests and one deacon, all monks of the congregation instituted by him while an Archbishop of the Jacobite Church.

The Jocobite Schismatics, a body dating from the break with the Holy See four centuries ago, count approximately 400,000 in the Malabar section of India. The step taken by Mar Ivanios, characterized as the greatest religious reformer of the sect, has created a profound impression and is expected by some to lead many conversions. New converts from Jacobitism will be under the jurisdiction of the two bishops just received. Jacobite priests who are married may be received as such though future candidates for the priesthood must take the obligation of celibacy.

Copyright: The Catholic Advocate (Brisbane), 11 Dec 1930

Quilon (India) — Mar Ivanios, the Jacobite Archbishop who, with his assistant Bishop (as previously reported), was received into the Catholic Church by His Lordship Bishop Benziger of Quilon, India, on September 20, will retain the dignity of Archbishop by special consent of the Holy See. His Holiness Pope Pius XI has further declared him free to use the powers of his Sacred Orders and jurisdiction. The new Archbishop has also received the faculty of receiving into the Church thirteen Priests and one Deacon, all Monks of the Congregation instituted by him while Archbishop of the Jacobite Church.

The Jacobite schismatics, a body dating from the break with the Holy See four centuries ago, count approximately 400,000 in the Malabar section of India. The step taken by Mar Ivanios, characterized as the greatest religious reformer of the sect, has created a profound impression, and is expected by some to lead to many conversions.

New converts from Jacobitism will be under the jurisdiction of the two Bishops just received. Jacobite Priests who are married may be received as such, though future candidates for the priesthood must take the obligation of celibacy.

Flood of Them Comes After Archbishop and Bishop

(By Rev. Joseph C. Panjikaran, Ph. D., D. D.)

Ernakulam, India. – Events immediately following the reception into the Catholic Church of Archbishop Ivanios, the Jacobite prelate, at Quilon, recently, bring ever nearer to realization the total conversion of the Jacobite community in Malabar, which numbers 350,000 souls.

The conversion of Mar Ivanios, Syrian Jacobite Metropolitan of Bethany, and the Jacobite Bishop of Tiruvella, Mar Theophilos, who entered the Church with him, was followed the next day by the reception of a community of Jacobite Sisters, numbering more than a dozen, and a Jacobite community of monks.

These conversions were followed by those of two Rambans, the next claimants to the Jacobite Bishoprics, and also some of the leading laymen. News of the conversions has spread like wildfire and has stirred the whole of Christian and even pagan Malabar.

The answer to the situation is directly to be found in the Bethany movement in the Syrian Jacobite Church of Malabar. Belief is expressed by many students of the matter here that the movement, plus the remarkable recent conversions, constitutes a blow from which the schismatic Jacobite Church cannot rally, and that eventually the whole group will come into the Catholic Church. In any case, it is held certain that many more leading Jacobites will now become Catholics.

This Bethany movement, started by Mar Ivanios when he was the Rev. P. T. Geevarghese, is taking the same lines as the Tractarian movement led by Newman in England.

Mar Ivanios Is Leader Mar Ivanios is the leader of the movement. He is a master of arts of the Madras university and was the principal of the M. D. seminary, leading educational institution of the Syrian Jacobites of Malabar. While serving in that post, he received the offer of a professorship in the Divinity college of Serampore, Calcutta. He accepted the offer and went to Calcutta. A number of Malabar students then were flocking to Serampore and with some of these he began to lead a sort of monastic community life.

Mar Ivanios was the most learned of all the Jacobite Bishops of Malabar. He is 47 years old, strongly built, and a born leader.

His great idea was to start an Ashram of Jacobite monks following the rule of St. Basil in Malabar. With the help of Protestant friends he bought about 400 acres of land far in the interior of Malabar. Three persons who desired to lead a monastic life were welcomed.

The monks led a very regular life. They completely abstained from flesh and fish and lived only on vegetables. They dressed in Hindu Sanyasi (Kavi) robes.

They were self-sacrificing, pious and learned and devoted themselves to infusing some spiritual life into the Jacobite Church, which was torn by all sorts of dissensions and litigations. They were greatly esteemed by the people. Mar Ivanios told me the other day that when he was a simple priest he sometimes spent the whole night hearing Confessions.

To raise the standard of feminine education Mar Ivanios took some Jacobite girls to Barisol, Calcutta, and placed them with the High Church Protestant Sisters. In due course these girls returned to Malabar and started the Order of Bethany Sisters. Some of them are highly educated and hold university degrees. They conduct schools, maintain orphanages and have a press of their own, the Bethany printing house, Tiruvella. Mar Ivanios has been their chaplain all through.

Both communities, of monks and nuns, took the three vows, an innovation in the Jacobite Church of Malabar.

The next move was to start churches directly dependent only on Bethany. Meanwhile Mar Ivanios had been consecrated Metropolitan Archbishop of Bethany and Mar Theophilos, a Bethany monk, had been consecrated Jacobite Bishop of Tiruvella. With the endless litigation, quarrels and dissensions in the Jacobite Church, the people were getting tired and they gladly welcomed these Bethany churches where they could worship God in peace. Fifteen Bethany churches have been started thus far and land has been acquired for fifteen more in different places. When Mar Ivanios was in Calcutta, he had occasion to read Catholic books. Slowly he gathered a collection of Catholic books. The spiritual books that he used for the monks and sisters were for the most part Catholic. His studies convinced him that the Jacobite Syrian Church taught no heresy. The Malabar even retains the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, Mar Ivanios said, contained implicitly in its prayers and rituals. The belief in purgatory is deducible, he said, from the many prayers for the dead. They believe in the existence of the angels and even of guardian angels. They admit, I was told by him, even the Primacy of the Patriarch of Rome, whom they call Rees Patriarchese (Head Patriarch). These studies convinced Mar Ivanios and Mar Theophilos that the Catholic Church was the True Church and that the Jacobite Church was a schismatic body. He then entered into direct communication with Rome through His Excellency the Apostolic Delegate and the Bishop of Quilon, requesting Rome to allow them the use of the Syrian Jacobite liturgy which they had been using for more than 300 church years.

After a careful examination into their priesthood and their liturgical books, Rome granted them the use of their rite and confirmed Mar Ivanios as Metropolitan Archbishop of Bethany and Mar Theophilos as Bishop of Tiruvella. They and those who join them will depend directly on Rome. Their future clergy will be unmarried.

Though all this was done secretly yet somehow it became known. Some four months ago the Vicar General of Bethany, unable to stand the sting of conscience any longer, left Bethany and became a Catholic of the Syro-Malabar Rite. Meanwhile the Jacobites were roused and they tried to put every impediment possible in their way. They tried to get Mar Ivanios entangled in litigation over the Bethany properties. He was then staying on in the hope of getting as many as possible to come away with him when he made an open declaration of his Faith. One day at the Holy Sacrifice he had the inspiration to leave all and follow the Master in poverty and want. The monastic possessions which he thought it prudent to abandon entirely are worth nearly 400,000 rupees. He called the monks and told them of his resolve to leave Bethany immediately, leaving them to follow any course they desired. Most of the monks decided to follow the Bishops. The Archbishop is now literally poor.

On their way they were met by a Hindu Nair gentleman who asked them the cause of leaving Bethany. On hearing their story he offered them his own house for a lodging and donated to them five acres of land to build the new Bethany Ashram. Leaving the monks and the Junior Bishop there, Mar Ivanios came to Tiruvella and took up his quarters close to the house of the sisters to encourage them and make arrangements for their reception. All the sisters without a single exception decided to follow Mar Ivanios.

On September 20, Mar Ivanios and Mar Theophilos were received into the Catholic Church at Quilon by the Bishop of Quilon, assisted by the Bishop of Changanacherry. This was followed by the other conversions noted above.

The Jacobite Church in Malabar had its origin in the middle of the seventeenth century. Many attempts at reunion have been made in the past, but they never succeeded.

Editor’s Note: Though the Jacobite Church of Malabar began in the seventeenth century, the sect goes back to the Monophysite heresy, condemned at Chalcedon in 451. Therefore, the fact that these people of India are found today with doctrines that are Catholic is a tremendous proof of the Apostolicity of our Faith.

Copyright: The Nebraska Register, Grand Island, Nebraska, Sun, Nov 16, 1930

(Fides Cable to “Southern Cross.”)

Madras (India) — A remarkable ceremony, important in the missionary history of India, took place on September 20, when Mar Ivanios, Jacobite Archbishop, and his Assistant Bishop, Theophilus, were received into the Catholic Church by His Lordship Bishop Louis Benzinger, O.C.D., Bishop of Quilon.

The Jacobites, who number approximately 400,000 in Malabar, South India, were profoundly impressed by the conversion.

Mar Ivanios was formerly Metropolitan of the Bethany Congregation of Jacobite Monks, of which he was the founder. Rumors of his trend to Rome had been persistent for some time, but the formal announcement was not made until August 24 when Mar Ivanios addressed a vast congregation of Jacobites assembled at Bethany from all parts of Southern Travancore.

A public meeting was held after the Mass at which the Archbishop explained at length how he was forced to relinquish Jacobism and become a Roman Catholic by the dictates of his conscience, and by the consideration of his soul’s salvation.

After his formal leave-taking, the Bethany institutions were closed, and the Metropolitan, his Assistant Bishop, and the Monks left the headquarters of the Order for Thiruvella. It is reported that only very few of the Monks of the Order will remain within the Jacobite fold.

Mar Ivanios is regarded as the greatest religious reformer that the Jacobite Church in Malabar has had during its four centuries of existence. As a simple Priest, he was grieved at the state of affairs in the Jacobite Church, and left his post as Principal of the M.D. Seminary High School for higher theological studies, with a view to devoting his life to the spiritual reformation of his fellow-Jacobites.

He organized the Bethany Monks and an auxiliary Congregation of Sisters, and instituted an apostolate of the press. During his intensive apostolic work, his doubts of the Jacobite position increased until his transition to Rome. His conversion is expected to have great influence among the Jacobites of Malabar.

The Jacobite Syrian Christians date from the year 1663 when, with the idea of having their own indigenous bishops, they broke away from the Portuguese missionaries. Their history since has been a series of schisms, mutual excommunications, and quarrels.

Catholic missionary work among them is successful, sixteen Priests and approximately 3,000 people having joined the Catholic Church in recent years.

Copyright: Southern Cross (Adelaide), 14 Nov 1930