The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

Denomination·Founded 1930 CE·est. ~465,000, mostly in Kerala with dioceses in North America and Europe; the Annuario Pontificio figure was about 437,000 in 2012 and has grown since.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → The Eastern Catholic Churches → The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

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G Figure of The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

Geevarghese Mar Ivanios.

A professor and principal before he was a bishop, he founded the Bethany Ashram at Perunad in 1919 to give the Malankara church an indigenous monasticism, was authorised by his synod in 1926 to open negotiations with Rome, and on 20 September 1930 entered the Catholic communion with Bishop Mar Theophilos and a small group. He was made archbishop of Trivandrum in 1932. Rome declared him Venerable in 2024.

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Names & titlesGeevarghese Mar Ivanios; Panickerveettil Geevarghese
Domainthe ashram, the reunion, and the liturgy that survived it
Depicted asa bishop in a black hood with a hand cross, from photographs of the 1930s
Standingfounder of the Bethany Ashram and of this church; declared Venerable by Rome in 2024
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Ivanios was born in 1882 at Mavelikara, took a masters degree at Serampore, and served as principal of a college in Assam before being consecrated bishop in 1925. The Bethany Ashram he founded in 1919 was a deliberate attempt to give the Malankara church a monasticism in Indian dress — ashram, not monastery, with an Indian rule of life. His correspondence with Rome ran from 1926 and the terms took four years. He died in 1953 and is buried at Saint Mary's Cathedral, Pattom, in Trivandrum; the cause for his canonisation advanced to the declaration of heroic virtues in 2024.

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