His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Mathews III

The Ninth Catholicos of the East in Malankara

His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Mathews III was enthroned as the Catholicos of the East & Malankara Metropolitan (the Supreme Head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India) on Friday, 15th October 2021. His Holiness is the 92nd Primate on the Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas.

His Holiness was born on 12 February 1949 to Mr. Cherian Anthrayos of Mattathil family, being a member of St Peters Church, Vazhoor. After his school education, he joined Kerala University and passed his BSc in Chemistry. After his BSc, he joined Orthodox Seminary, Kottayam, and had his GST degree. His Holiness took his BD degree from the Serampore University and did his higher studies in Theology at Theological Academy, Leningrad, Russia. Thereupon he joined Oriental Institute, Rome, and took his MTh and Ph.D. from there. His Holiness was ordained a deacon in 1976 and a priest in 1978 by HH Baselios Mathews I. His Holiness was escalated to the post of an Episcopa on 30 April 1991 at a function at Parumala, and metropolitan in 1993.

H.G. DR. Youhanon Mar Demetrios

Fr. Dr. John Mathews (Ravi Achan)

Met. Dr. Youhanon Mar Demetrios formerly known as Fr. Dr. John Mathews (Ravi Achan) was born as the second son of five children to the late Cdr. Samuel Mathews and Mercy Mathews in Kerala on 18th Dec 1952. He completed his high school studies from Baldwin Boys’ High School, Bangalore in 1968 and took his B.A. (English Literature) from Fathima Matha National College, Kollam in 1971. Subsequently he proceeded for his theological education to Gordon – Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts, USA for his M.R.E. degree and then secured his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Fordham University, Bronx, New York in 1993.

Met.Demetrios was first consecrated as a Reader (Korooyo) in July 1980 and Sub-deacon (Yaupudiakono) in September 1987. He was ordained as a priest on January 8th 1989. He was consecrated as metropolitan on 12th May 2010 and was first appointed as the Assistant Metropolitan of the Diocese of Delhi in August 2010.

H.G. DR. Youhanon Mar Demetrios

Born on August 9, 1922 in an ancient Orthodox Syrian Christian family at Tripunithara in Kerala, young Paul Verghese (former name of Paulos Mar Gregorios) was brought up in the traditional Christian family discipline and close knowledge of Orthodox faith and practice. The young boy was very attached to his mother. However, the sudden onset of a serious and prolonged mental illness of his mother brutally severed their affective ties, and the unusually bright teenager son was thrown into total confusion. His father was a stern school teacher of modest means. The emotional, spiritual and material struggles the boy, eldest son in the family, had to undergo at that time remained with him throughout his life. Despite all the painful circumstance, Paul Verghese got through the school final examinations with high distinction in the princely State of Cochin. One of his bitter disappointments was that his family had no means to send him to college.

Paul Verghese then tried his hand at many things like being a clerk in a transportation and shipping company, a teenager journalist working for a Malayalam daily and so forth.

H.G. Job Mar Philoxenos

Late Lamented Job Mar Philoxenos, the more commonly acknowledged Thirumeni Appachan for the people of the churches of the Delhi Diocese was a man of divine insight, and a visionary and a beacon of love and compassion. A metropolitan who upheld and fulfilled the essence of what essentially his name meant, ‘Philoxenos’ i.e. lover of the strangers. He committed himself to the administrative requirements of Delhi Diocese, taking on its reins from the illustrious First Metropolitan of the Diocese H.G. Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios, after the demise of the latter in 1996.

Under his able guidance, the Delhi Diocese strived at length for the upkeep of the motto of the Church at large and the aims outlined by his predecessor for the Diocese, braving through the multiple ailments he suffered from. His love for humanity can be seen reflected in the social activities he started in Shantigram, a hamlet of land near the Sohna Tehsil, in the state of Haryana. The life and work of Mar Philoxenos reflected the spirit of Mount Tabor Dayara, which emphasized the virtue of dedicating individual lives to an austere discipline, in a common effort toward prayerfully agreed social endeavors.