Mar Ivanios: Called “Newman of India”

Introduction: The “Newman of India” was the characterization applied to Archbishop Mar Ivanios of Trivandrum, of the Indian State of Travancore, at the opening ceremony of the Church Unity-Octave at the National Shrine at the Immaculate Conception, Washington, U.S.A.

Distinguished Visitor: Mar Ivanios will be a distinguished visitor to the forthcoming Melbourne Diocesan Centenary celebrations.

Liturgical Celebration: Archbishop Ivanios celebrated the liturgy according to the Syro-Malankarese Rite before 1200 persons in the crypt of the still-unfinished shrine on the campus of the Catholic University of America. It was Mgr. Thomas McMahon, executive secretary of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, who referred to him and to his action in leading a group of dissident Jacobites into the Church in 1930.

Comparison to Newman: “Mar Ivanios is a Newman of India who entered into his Gethsemane ‘mid the encircling gloom,’ who prayed as Newman prayed, ‘lead, kindly light, lead thou me on,’ and he had to relinquish all temporal possessions to enter the one true fold of the Good Shepherd,” Mgr. McMahon declared in his sermon.

Copyright: The Advocate, 15th April 1948.