The inclusive and global vision of His Beatitude Joseph Mar Dionysius V (Pulikkottil II), Malankara Metropolitan (Malankara Sabha Thejas).

Like a caring shepherd, Pulikkottil II Thirumeni not only faithfully guided the flock but also envisaged a brilliant vision to have the flame of the Orthodox faith be lit worldwide. Under Thirumeni’s leadership, we see the emergence of two such prominent clergies- one from the Roman church and one from the Parsi community, namely Blessed Alvares Mar Julius Thirumeni and Fr Dr. S.D. Baba respectively.

(     A) Fr. Dr. S.D. Baba- From Zoroastrianism to Orthodoxy.

Pulikkotil II Thirumeni lived in an era when India was under the colonial rule of the British Empire. Thirumeni wished that an ambassador of the Orthodox Church in India should be present in London who would mainly publish details/news regarding the Malankara Church in the English newspapers and represent the Malankara Orthodox Church in important events taking place in London- the capital of that empire known as the one on which the sun never sets. Thirumeni’s vision was that having such representation will increase the glory of Malankara Orthodox Church worldwide. Without much delay, Thirumeni’s fervent prayers for this desire was answered in the person of Fr. Dr. S.D. Baba.

Dr. S.D. Baba was a Parsi by birth and a native of Pune. He left for England at a young age and became a doctor by profession after completing medical studies. He embraced Christianity and was a part of the Presbyterian church. He also became an ordained minister with Presbyterian community.

Though Dr. Baba wasn’t known to Mar Dionysius V Thirumeni but he was aware about the existence of the Malankara Orthodox church and her history. We can assume that it would have been due to Alvares Thirumeni’s outreach that someone like Dr Baba would have known about the Malankara Orthodox church which was then concentrated in Kerala only. Of course, that period was almost a century before the internet or social media happened wherein, we could get the information on our fingertips.

Eventually, Dr Baba met Pulikkottil II Thirumeni and over the course of time he became well versed with the tenets of the Orthodox faith and became a member of the Malankara church. Dr S.D. Baba wished to be an ordained priest of the Malankara Orthodox church. Since the ordination from Presbyterian church was not considered valid and travelling from London to India will be a cumbersome affair (including financial burden), Pulikkottil Thirumeni instructed him to travel to Jerusalem and get ordained by the Syriac Metropolitan Elias Mar Ivanios Thirumeni. Mar Ivanios gave diaconate and priesthood ordination to Dr S.D. Baba. With the approval from Pulikkottil Thirumeni, Fr. Dr. S.D. Baba was appointed as the Ambassador of the Malankara Orthodox Church to London.

He was a passionate about and remained firm in the Orthodox faith. He translated the liturgy of St James in English and would celebrate the Holy Qurbana in English using the translated version. It is sad to note that almost a century later, there are still parishes in the diaspora who are in two minds about having the liturgy in English catering to the youth!

Fr Dr. S.D Baba had written articles and essays about our Church in the English dailies. Fr S.D. Baba was invited as the representative of the Malankara Church to attend the funeral of King Edward and was given the honor equivalent to what was bestowed to the ambassadors from different countries.

*****************************

    B) Blessed Alvares Mar Julius Thirumeni- the courageous prelate who upheld the True Faith amidst persecutions.

The Goan priest Fr. Alvares was disgruntled with the Roman church and his quest for the true apostolic church led him to Malankara. What attracted the Goan padre to the Orthodox fold, was not only its faith and the indigenous nature of the Malankara Church, but also the pleasing and loving personality of Pulikkottil II Thirumeni. Thirumeni wholeheartedly welcomed Fr Alvares to the Orthodox faith, who was later ordained to the order of bishophood. Like this nation’s patron saint- St Thomas, Blessed Alvares Thirumeni’s mission was spread across geographies many of which is yet to be discovered.

It is impossible to pen down the missionary activities of Blessed Alvares Thirumeni’s in few paragraphs. In a society entrenched deep into caste-based discrimination, Mar Alvares’s mission extended to the people of lower castes (which included the fishermen community in the present Tamil Nadu). This happened ages before Mahatma Gandhi coined the term ‘Harijan’.  At a time when it was unthinkable to include people from lower caste to the mainstream, Mar Dionysius V Thirumeni offered his support to the newly converts thus- “this group was to be considered as my own flock and I take much interest and warm care in their welfare.”

One thing to note as we commemorate Pulikkottil II Thirumeni’s memory is his vision and focus on the Church’s outreach to different communities which is seen from the example above. It was also evident with the ordination of Rene Villate (Mar Timetheos) to cater the spiritual needs of the Western world.

With Pulikkottil II Thirumeni’s repose, the disconnect with Mar Alvares Thirumeni’s mission grew and it is an unfortunate naked truth that Mar Alvares wasn’t accorded the due honor for countless years by the Malankara Orthodox Church. Now, when we commemorate the memory of Blessed Alvares Thirumeni with much devotion and glory, indeed the soul of his spiritual guru- Pulikkottil II Thirumeni will be content!

Had it not been for the Mar Dionysius V Thirumeni- the brilliant visionary, the church would have been never blessed with the presence of Blessed Alvares Thirumeni and Fr. Dr. S.D Baba!

****************************

May the prayers and intercessions of the holy fathers be our refuge always!

In Christ,

Rincy John

Reference:

Translated from Malayalam, Malankara Sabhayude Suvarna Yugasilpi, Malankara Sabha Thejas Pulikkottil Joseph Mar Dionysius II, Vol. I, Editor- Fr. Dr. Joseph Cheeran, Published by: Dr. Geevarghese Mar Yulios, M. J. D. Publishing House, Kunnamkulam, 2011, Pg-641,642.

Saints, Goddesses And Kings - Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900, Susan Bayly, Cambridge University Press-1989. Pg 318.

St Dionysius Vattasseril on the steadfast faith of Blessed Alvares Thirumeni.

29th April 2020 marks the 184th birth anniversary of Blessed Alvares Thirumeni. In the Orthodox tradition, we do not have the concept of ‘celebrating’ birthdays of saintly fathers and mothers, but we rather commemorate their departure who ‘fought the good fight, finished the course and kept the faith’ (2 Timothy 4:7). The intent of this posting is to remind the readers of the glorious spiritual life of the Blessed Alvares Thirumeni. He was born in Verna (Salcete taluka11) on 29 April 1836, to Jose Batista Alvares and Marinha Expectacao Lourenco.The Alvares family was locally hailed as “devanghar” (house of God) in acknowledgement of the many acts of charity performed by its members. It was this exposure to human needs/care in his early years that sowed the seeds in the young Alvares to champion for the cause of the downtrodden and to boldly speak against oppression.

Vattaseril Thirumeni exhorts us to emulate the faith exhibited by Alvares Thirumeni in this following speech titled ‘Conscience and Peace’ (Manasakshiyum Samaadhaanavum):

“You are well aware about our Alvares Methrachen (Metropolitan). It has been only a few months since he left for heavenly abode. He died when he was almost 90 years or so. He stood firm and steadfast in his faith. Towards the end of his life, he lived in the city of Goa. There was no one from the Orthodox faith in that town, in fact majority of the people belonged to the Roman church. He did have few esteemed and honoured individuals from the Hindu faith and business community as his friends. He told these friends before his death:

“When I am on my deathbed, many priests of the Roman fold may come and advise me to renounce my faith. Due to ill-health and fatigue I may move my head. Seeing my head movements, they will proclaim that I have nodded in agreement to what they instructed me. To ensure such things do not happen; I declare the following with you as a witness: I will never renounce my faith, even on my deathbed. If anyone claims that I have renounced my faith, then you are a witness to the fact that it is not true.”

You must understand how firm his faith was. For the sake of ensuring peace with others, nobody one should renounce his faith, or act against his conscience.”

May the prayers of the saintly fathers be our refuge.

In Christ,
Rincy John

Ref:

1) Dr Samuel Chandanapally, Malankara Sabha Pithankanmaar, Volume 1, April 2012, chapter 4, Page 313, CeeDees Books, Pathanamthitta, Kerala.

2) Carmo Azevedo; Patriot and Saint- The Life Story of Bishop Mar Julius –I Page 5-6, Panjim 1988

16 November- National Press Day/ Alvares Thirumeni as the patron saint of the journalists.

Glory to the Triune God.

His Grace Alvares Mar Julius (of blessed memory)

November 16^th is celebrated as National Press Day in India to commemorate the establishment of the Press Council of India. This day personifies a responsible and free press in the country even though we live in an age where the fourth pillar of the democracy is seen with a questioning eye as a major chunk seems to be the mouthpiece of the ruling establishments rather than being the voice of the people.

Roughly 150 years back there lived a saintly man who used the medium of press to fearlessly expose the ills and shortcomings of the authorities- whether it was government, ecclesiastical and spoke for the rights of the common man. The Orthodox bishop- His Grace Alvares Mar Julius (of blessed memory), who also donned the garb of a journalist along with his episcopal duties and whose unorthodox, non-conformist stance on Roman church and Portuguese rule earned him the ire of the authorities.

Bishop Alvares was born and raised in Goa- a state we now associate with beaches and vacations only. Goa hardly comes to our mind when we are asked about independence movement against colonial powers. This tiny state of Goa has produced over 300 journals in a span of 140 years with a focus against colonial occupation and was home to several notable freedom fighters.

Alvares Thirumeni’s stint with journalism started somewhere in 1876/77 when he took over the editorship of ‘A Cruz’, a weekly started by Fr MA de Carvalho, as Fr Carvalho was struck with pulmonary tuberculosis. [Alvares Thirumeni is also credited with publishing a booklet on the treatment of Cholera].

Not the one to mince words Fr Alvares wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. For e.g. writing scathing pieces against the excesses of the Portuguese rule, he said thus about the arrival of Vasco da Gama and the conquest of Goa by Albuquerque;

“The banditry and piracy through which the rich city of Goa—the celebrated empire of the Orient—was taken, has no justification in the laws of divinity or of humankind. All manner of oratory and poetry are unable to render holy, just, and right, what was in fact the work of piracy”.

Speaking against the brutal plunder and oppression of the Portuguese, Fr Alvares said that though India was invaded many times, all forces apart from Portuguese were naturalized. Such statements were considered blasphemous in those times!

Fr Alvares critiques didn’t go well with the Portuguese ecclesiastical hierarchy and he had to soon bear the brunt when the new Archbishop Dom Antonio Sebastio Valente, known for authoritarian mindset, through a pastoral decree banned A Cruz. Fr Alvares appealed to the Crown and though he got a favorable ruling from the Goa High Court, A Cruz had lost its readers because of Archbishop’s orders which forced Fr Alvares to start another weekly- A Verdade wherein he carried his fight on what he felt was the truth (Verdade means truth).

Fr Alvares is also credited to bring out the first journal to experiment in English (in Goa)- ‘The Times of Goa. For a renaissance of the Goan political environment, he suggested to have a ‘journal in English-which is today almost a universal language’.

Fr Alvares was also a vocal opponent of the economic policies of the Portuguese. Citing the miserable economic situation of the common man, he declared that ‘a middle class Goan with land had about 650 rupees in hand annually, after paying all dues and taxes. This was scarcely sufficient to meet the needs of a family in 1877’ and that the Portuguese economic policies had strengthened Portuguese as well as British markets. In 1895 he tried to initiate a campaign to boycott all Portuguese imports.

In Alvares Thirumeni’s periodical 'O Brado Indiano' one finds the beginning of genuine Indian protest as indicated in its title. In one of its editorials in 1895, it cried to drive the beggars (the Portuguese) out from the country and proclaimed independence.

Through his newspaper Alvares Thirumeni conducted a determined campaign against the corrupt and negligent officials of the Portuguese administration of Goa. It was only a matter of time that Alvares Thirumeni’s periodicals and newspapers would become subject to state surveillance.

In the July 1985 issue of O Brado Indiano, the newspaper carried an article which invited its readers to identify the corrupt government official with the help of riddles. The administrator of Ilhas- Manuel Gomes DaCosta, thoroughly offended by the article, slapped sedition charges on Alvares Thirumeni. In the evening of 19^th August, 6 policemen in disguise stopped Alvares Thirumeni on his way back home, took advantage of his poor health, forced him into their car and took him to the police station. He was kept in a filthy, dark cell without ventilation which was 3 metres long and 1.5 metres wide. After questioning Thirumeni, the judge soon released him as he noted that the police hadn’t adopted the correct procedure. Thirumeni was arrested following evening on the charges of apostasy and to humiliate him, Thirumeni was stripped of his episcopal attire and paraded to the court in his undergarments.

In the month of September, the same year, the sepoys of the Portuguese Indian army staged a mutiny protesting the orders of moving to Mozambique. Gomes da Costa had blamed prominent Goans like the Viscount of Bardez (the mayor)- Mr. Ignacio Caetano de Carvalho and Alvares Thirumeni for instigating the sepoys and the general public to unite and fight for the cause of “India for the Indians.”! Mr. Carvalho was a Goan employed in the judiciary and owned and edited a number of newspapers in Goa (all of these were anti-establishment papers). Mr. Carvalho published a pamphlet in Bombay in defense of himself and Alvares Thirumeni stating that the rebellion had nothing to do with newspapers but had been prompted by bad governance and callousness.

The Viscount of Bardez lamented thus when writing about the unlawful sedition charges against Alvares Thirumeni-

“In all governments that are not absolutely corrupt, the functionaries are obliged when questioned, to justify themselves through legal organs and through the press. In Goa, things proceeded directly to the contrary…The attitude of the administration in India will pull back Indian society by more than 400 years”. Seems so true in today’s times!

This article just gives glimpses of Alvares Thirumeni’s stint with journalism in Goa and is not an exhaustive coverage of his works. He lived in an era with press restrictions and where harassment was a norm when one wrote against the authorities or questioned them. Even when faced with great tribulations there are fearless men and women who like Alvares Thirumeni bring truth to the public and fight on their behalf. May our Lord bless them!

May the memory of Alvares Thirumeni be eternal and may his prayers and intercession be a source of strength and refuge to the ‘truth-informers’ of our country!

In Christ,

Rincy John

****************************************

Some details about Alvares Thirumeni's publications/periodicals/newspapers in Goa are as follows:

1) Name: O Progresso de Goa

Periodicity: Weekly

Duration: Began and ended in 1883

2) O Brado Indian(The Indian Cry)       

Periodicity: Weekly

Duration: Dec. 15, 1894 to Oct. 12, 1895 (10 months)

3) Name: A Cruz

Periodicity: Fortnightly

Duration: July15, 1876 to July18, 1882.

Editors-Fr. Manuel Agostinho de Carvalho and Fr. Antonio F. X. Alvares

4) Verdade (A)

Periodicity: Weekly Periodical

Duration: July 16, 1882 to Dec. 31, 1885.

5) The Times of Goa

Periodicity: Weekly

Duration: Sep. 21, 1885 to 1889

************************************************

References: 

1. Rochelle Pinto, BETWEEN EMPIRES: Print and Politics in Goa, Oxford University Press, New Delhi © Oxford University Press 2007, Pgs 37, 40, 49, 146-9)
2. Rochelle Pinto. (2005). A Time to Publish: Pamphlets and Politics in Colonial Goa. Economic and Political Weekly, 40(9), 877-885. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/4416278
3. Carmo Azevedo; ‘Public Life in Goa (1867-1887)’; Patriot and Saint- The Life Story of Bishop Mar Julius –I Page 19-23, Panjim 1988
4. Rekha Mishra, History Of The Press In Goa, Doctoral Thesis, Goa University, 2004- http://irgu.unigoa.ac.in/drs/handle/unigoa/3905; Accessed on 03 September 2019.
5. Uma Página Negra dos Annaes da História Colonial Portugueza, , Nova Goa, 1895, Pg 118- 120 (translation from Portuguese to English were done using google translate).
6. Pratima Kamat, Mutiny in the Portuguese Indian Army, Pg 92, Link here.
7. Pratima Kamat, H.G. MAR JULIUS ALVARES METROPOLITAN OF CEYLON, GOA AND INDIA: AN APOSTLE OF ‘FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY’, Link here.
8. Henry Scholberg, Journalism in Portuguese India 1821-1961, Link here.

Little pearls from the Pearl Island -Part-4

Glory to the Triune God!

Our Lady of Good Death church/Bouna Morte Church.

The Hulftsdorf region in Colombo was once the the administrative center for the successive Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial governments. The region now is a business district; while driving through busier congested lanes one reaches the church compound adjoining a school whose name you are bound to look at twice- St Sebastian Muslim Mahavidyalayam. This church is 'Our Lady of Good Death church/Bouna Morte church' that had a splendid past of being the cathedral church of the Independent Catholic mission in Ceylon spearheaded by Alvares Thirumeni.

The origin of this church goes back to 21 February 1845 when a piece of land in Belmont Street, Hulsdorf, was granted by the British authorities to a group of Burghers, self-identified as “Independent Catholics”, to build on it a Cathedral entitled to Our Lady of Good Death, often known as Buona Morte Church. The leader of this group, the Catholic surgeon Dr. John Bonifacio Misso (1797-1864), was Consul General of Portugal and an adamant supporter of Padroado, the royal patronage of the Portuguese crown over the Catholic missions in Asia.¹

For centuries, following the principle of Padroado/Royal Patronage, the King of Portugal had nominated the bishops of the Latin rite in India and the diocese of the other former Portuguese colonies. The Padroado Real had provided Goans an opportunity to serve in Ceylon. With the signing of the signing of the Concordat between the Holy See and Portugal in 1886- Portugal renounced its claims in Ceylon and Goa’s religious jurisdiction in that territory ceased. This abolishment of Padroado caused an unrest amongst several Goan and Ceylonese Catholics who still had strong sentimental links to Portugal.

In 1887, a Goan priest, Padre Alvares, journeyed to Ceylon to rally the Goan clergy posted there in their fight against the Concordat of 1886 (Padre Alvares in later times visited Ceylon in the capacity as the Metropolitan of Goa, India excluding Kerala and Ceylon to perform his episcopal duties). It was in Colombo that Padre Alvares met Malankara Metropolitan Pulikkottil  Joseph Mar Dionysius II and it was probably then when the journey of Padre Alvares to the Orthodox church initiated. Independent Catholic Mission was the name of the group/parishes (of Goa, Ceylon) which along with Padre Alvares, broke from Roman catholic church and joined the Malankara Orthodox church. Alvares Thirumeni’s consecration as a bishop was held on July 29^th, 1889 at Old Seminary, Kottayam.

In its initial years the mission had around 5000 members- however as the time progressed, because of the lack of qualified priests by 1903 the situation had worsened. After the departure of Alvares Thirumeni, the mission had begun to weaken and disintegrate.

Vijaya Vidyasagara, noted Sri Lankan socialist and St Paul’s Kynsey road parish member provides the below information about this church in year around 1937-38 when a Russian Orthodox delegation led by Archbishop Nestor had visited Ceylon:

Archbishop Nestor wanted to have a church that could be used fully by the Orthodox community then in Colombo. He was able to secure a church that was formerly Roman Catholic, which had been taken over by the Independent Catholic mission with the current vicar as Fr Joseph Alvares (believed to be a nephew of Alvares Thirumeni). Fr Alvares’s parish comprised of seventy people representing the remnants of the Independent catholic mission. It had at one time had outstanding laymen like Dr Lisboa Pinto and Armand Dsouza among its members. Fr Alvares wanted to leave for India and therefore was ready to have the Archbishop take over his church. The author was able to join the Anglican and the Orthodox clergy when they visited that church.

The church had several altars with life size statues but were removed as the Orthodox people preferred not to have them and had plans to cover them with altar frontals. The author’s aunt (mother’s sister) helped much in some of the sewing and adaptation of the high altar to suit Orthodox norms. 

Fr Alvares left for India and Fr Basil Jeyawardene, the Anglican priest of St Paul’s Church Kynsey Road, (who had very cordial and friendly relationship with the Malankara and the Russian Orthodox church) secured the services of a Syrian Orthodox priest to look after the Independent Catholic congregation and the Russian Orthodox community.

The Syrian Orthodox priest sought to minister to the congregation and when it came to the Mass, the author notes that the priest would have had difficulty for he used his Syrian rite in place of Latin then being used by the church. The author also feels that it might have been easier for an Anglican priest to say the Mass according to the Latin rite but perhaps these matters were not thought properly.

So, the result was that influential persons in the congregation created dissension and sought to engineer a return back to Rome. Once day some muscle men were deployed to chase the Syrian priest and take over the church and the Papal flag was hoisted that day the church. Archbishop Mason of the Roman Catholic Church was present to bless the hoodlums and the Roman Catholic faithful who thereafter took over the church. So, came to an end what might have been an interesting and unique experiment in inter-church relation.*

Vijaya Vidyasagara was a member of the Lanka Sama Samaj Party. One of the founding members of this party was Ms Susan DeSilva whose grandfather Stephen DeSilva was the secretary of the Independent Catholic mission in Colombo. While the mission faced various challenges -most importantly that of the lack of priests, he had sent letters to another independent catholic movement based in Philippines and requested two priests intelligent and of good moral conduct as they were not getting sufficient priests to work independent of Rome.

As John Achen, I and baby Alvares were about to leave the church, the caretaker lady who stays in nearby convent asked baby (in Tamil) if he came to visit the church. To which baby Alvares (who usually doesn’t respond to strangers) said promptly in Malayalam- Alvares Thirumeni is here. Perhaps infants because of their pure heart can see angelic beings and departed holy fathers and mothers. We went back with immense thanksgiving to the Lord in our hearts knowing very well that our departed holy fathers and mothers are pleading for the Church unceasingly.

To be continued…

In Christ,

Rincy John

References:

1) First para of the Invitation letter for the workshop on- A Global and Local History of the Buona Morte Church oraganised by The St. Sebastian Parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Colombo, the Madras Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, and the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft of Universität Bonn on 22-23 November 2018.

2) Azevedo Carmo; ‘On Joining the Syrian Orthodox Church (1887-1894); Patriot and Saint- The Life Story of Bishop Mar Julius –I Page 25-26, Panjim 1988

3) Kamat, P.P., (2014). The Goa-Ceylon religious connection: a review of the ‘The Indian Cry’ of Alvares Mar Julius, Archbishop of Ceylon, Goa and India. Sabaragamuwa University Journal.

4) Peter-Ben-Smit, Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History, Brill’s Series in Church History, Volume 52, Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands, Pg 196.

5) HERMANN, A. (2014). The Early Periodicals of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (1903–1904) and the Emergence of a Transregional and Transcontinental Indigenous-Christian Public Sphere. Philippine Studies: Historical & Ethnographic Viewpoints, 62(3/4), 549-565. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24672324

6) * Vijaya Vidyasagara, Memoirs of a Christian and a Socialist, The Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue, Colombo, © 2016, Pgs 11,12 with minor edits. Also included are minor updates from Perpetual Embers: A Chronicle of ROCOR’s Missionary Efforts in India, Rassophore Monk Angelos, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, Pg-31