Mar Ivanios moves ahead in sainthood path

The documents, Church officials said, number almost one lakh.

Thiruvananthapuram:  The Syro-Malankara Church on Monday undertook an exercise that is crucial to the cause of canonization of Servant of God Mar Ivanios.

The mortal remains of Mar Ivanios, buried at the St Mary’s Cathedral, Pattom, was exhumed and subjected to an examination by a 21-member team which includes six doctors.

The remains, before they are returned to the grave, will be kept on display at the Cathedral for a few hours in a specially-made casket.

Six decades after his death, much of what Archbishop Geevarghese Mar Ivanios put down on paper or uttered in speeches and discourses have been painstakingly compiled and translated into English.

The documents, Church officials said, number almost one lakh.

“The translation work is over. The texts will soon be submitted to the Vatican, where it will undergo thorough scrutiny. If the Vatican finds him worthy, Ivanios ‘Thirumeni’ will be declared as ‘venerable,’ which is the next step in the canonisation process,” Fr Bovas Mathew Meloottu, spokesperson of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, said.

“Earlier, the documents had to be translated into Italian. Rome has simplified the process, though. Now English will do,” he said.

Serious time and effort go into canonisation, the process of getting an individual listed in the canon of recognised saints.

All other factors being on track, a candidate listed as ‘venerable’ is declared ‘blessed’, if it can be proved that he/she was responsible for one miracle. For being declared a saint, two miracles have to be established. In Mar Ivanios’ case, the initial hurdles of this tedious process are being negotiated.

Born in 1882 in Mavelikkara, Mar Ivanios is best known as the architect of the Reunion Movement. Formerly a bishop of the Malankara Orthodox Church, he joined Communion with the Catholic Church in 1930, and founded the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.

Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis, the present head of the church, had declared Mar Ivanios a ‘Servant of God’ in 2007, after which the church appointed a 150-member team on the canonisation ‘project.’

But the groundwork began as early as 1998. The 150-member team comprises experts -- people on long leave from their profession and retired college professors -- under an oath of secrecy.

“Documents were collected from 38 archives, some from as far as the US and Rome. All this is required to prove that the individual in question lived his life as a pure Catholic and that his faith was true,” Fr Bovas said.

The documentation/translation work itself was carried out by the Historical Commission.

Source: New Indian Express