Archbishop Mar Ivanios Receives Last Homage of Flock

TRIVANDRUM, India.—A Prelate, who occupied a Jacobite episcopal throne earlier in life and then a Catholic episcopal throne, was seated on the latter throne after death to receive the last reverence from his devoted flock.

Known as the Cardinal Newman of India, Archbishop Mar Ivanios of Trivandrum died there on July 15 at the age of 70. He had been ill for almost a year.

According to the custom of the Jacobite Church and the new Catholic rite which Archbishop Ivanios introduced into the Catholic Church, his remains were seated on the throne of St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral after his death. His body was dressed in his episcopal robes, his pastoral staff was clasped into one hand, the cross in the other. Seated on the throne, his frail remains received the last respects from his Priests, Nuns, and the laity. They passed by in silent reverence and kissed the staff and cross.

The morning of the funeral, the remains of the Archbishop were seated in a carriage and a solemn procession took them from St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral to the crypt of the still unfinished new cathedral. Thousands who followed the Archbishop into the Catholic Church and many thousands more lined the streets of the city as the Archbishop’s carriage was drawn through the city.

After a Solemn Requiem, his remains were entombed in a sitting position in the main niche in the crypt of the cathedral. The Archbishop was the first to be buried in the cathedral which he started.

Received into the Catholic Church in 1930, the former Jacobite Bishop became the leader of a new Catholic rite—the Syro-Malankara rite, which used Malayalam, the language of Malabar, in its liturgy.

At the time of his death, the reunion movement which the Archbishop headed had brought four schismatic Bishops, about 125 Priests, and over 60,000 lay people from the Jacobite Church to the Church of Rome.

Archbishop Ivanios made an extended tour of the United States and Canada in 1947. While in the U.S., he was received by the then President Harry Truman.

Copyright: Southern Cross (Adelaide) Fri 31 Jul 1953