A Fragrant Offering of Memory: Incense Prayer for Pope Francis at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Pattom

Pattom, Trivandrum – In the quiet hush of St. Mary’s Major Archbishop’s Cathedral, the Mother Church of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, incense rose like silent song—a prayerful fragrance of remembrance for His Holiness Pope Francis, whose earthly pilgrimage came to a close in Rome today.

The incense prayer and memorial was led in the presence of His Eminent Beatitude Cardinal Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholicos, Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. The sacred rite was offered in solemn unity with the Universal Church, honouring the memory of a Pontiff who had, in both word and witness, emphasised the Church’s mission as a field hospital for the wounded, a home for the poor, and a mirror of Christ’s mercy.

Gathered in reverence were His Excellency Most Rev. Dr. Mathews Mor Polycarpos, Auxiliary Bishop of the Major Archieparchy of Trivandrum, and His Excellency Most Rev. Dr. Mathews Mor Pachomios, Bishop of the Eparchy of St. Ephrem – Khadki – Pune, along with many priests, religious Sisters, and members of the faithful. The gathering, though modest in number, was profound in heart—echoing that ancient Christian truth: that remembrance is an act of love, and prayer, its most enduring form.

The altar stood adorned not with elaborate ceremony, but with a cutout of Pope Francis placed reverently outside the iconostasis—his gentle gaze seeming to bless the gathered flock once more. There, under the dome of our cathedral in Pattom, a fragment of Rome had arrived—not in marble or parchment, but in prayer, in incense, and in the bonds of Catholic communion.

This act of remembrance was not merely symbolic. It was a confession of fidelity—a declaration that the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, born of the East but one with Peter, mourns with the Church Universal and gives thanks for the life and legacy of a Pontiff who walked humbly and carried the scent of the Gospel.

May his memory be eternal. And may the incense that rose from Pattom to heaven be counted among the prayers of the saints.