The Credentials of Mar Julius Alvares, bishop of Ceylon, Goa and India Excluding Malabar
George A.
Kiraz
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 2
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license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n2kiraz
George A. Kiraz
The Credentials of Mar Julius Alvares, bishop of Ceylon, Goa and India Excluding Malabar
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N2Kiraz.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 7
issue 2
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Syrian Orthodox Church
Malabar
Malankara
Patriarch Peter
Julius Alvares
Joseph René Vilatte
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This brief article gives the Syriac text,
with English translation, of the certificate of episcopal
consecration given to Mar Julius Alvares, a Roman Catholic
priest who joined the Syrian Orthodox Church in 1894. The text
is compared with the alleged certificate of episcopal
consecration given to Joseph René Vilatte, another
convert, who was later excommunicated from the said
Church.
[1] In the
summer of 2001, two late nineteenth-century documents were
brought to my attention. The first one is a letter dated Feb
10, 1894
It is not clear if this is a Julian or Gregorian
date. Patriarch Peter III dated his communications, even during
his visit to London, using the Julian calendar. It is not known
to me if Syriac communications sent from British-controlled
India used the Julian or Gregorian reckoning.
from Matthew Konat (1860-1927), known in Syrian
Orthodox circles as the Malphono of Malabar/Malankara,
to his Patriarch Peter III/IV
Peter IV designated himself during his patriarchate
as Peter III. Later patriarchal lists designate him as Peter
IV.
in Mardin. The second document, the
subject of this brief paper, contains the text of an original
copy of the certificate of consecration given to Antonio
Francisco Xavier Alvares,
For a biography of Alvares, see Carmo Azevedo,
Patriot & Saint: The Life Story of Father
Alvares/Bishop Mar Julius I (Panjim: 1988).
a Roman Catholic priest who joined
the Syrian Orthodox Church and was consecrated
metropolitanâMor Julius, bishop of Ceylon, Goa and India
excluding Malabar. This original copy was sent to Patriarch
Peter in Mardin for the Patriarchal records. Both documents
once belonged to the Patriarchal archive located in the Church
of the Forty Martyrs in Mardin.
The Patriarchal archive in Mardin contains many
letters in Syriac, Malayalam and English from and to India. It
was organized by Mor Philoxenus Yuhanna Dolabani (1885-1969).
[2] A
cursory Internet search on "Julius Alvares" gives numerous
pages. Hardly anything is mentioned about Alvares in these
pages; he is simply listed in a line of succession of the
Patriarchs of Antioch, beginning with St. Peter and ending with
one episcopus vagans or another. Such episcopi
vagantes claim titles like 'patriarch,' 'catholicos,'
'metropolitan,' etc., sometimes in combination (e.g., one
Joseph Vredenburgh of Saint Thomas Christian Church, not to be
confused with the Mar Thoma Church of Kerala, claims the title
"Maran Mar Timotheus Josephus Narsi, Catholicos
Patriarch.")
http://www.orderofthedove.org, checked on July 7,
2004.
[3] While
the consecration of Alvares to the episcopate cannot be
challenged, his connection with the line of succession of such
'wandering bishops' is due to his involvement in bringing one
Joseph René Vilatte to the fold of the Syrian church and
in having him consecrated, also within the bounds of canon law,
to the episcopate in 1892 in Colombo. It was Alvares, together
with Mar Athanasius Paulos (d. 1907), Bishop of Kottayam, and
Mar Gregorius Gewargis (d. 1902), Bishop of Niranam (and later
of Thumpamon), who consecrated Vilatte in 1892 and named him
"Mar Timotheos, Metropolitan of North America," most probably
with the blessings of Patriarch Peter. Later, Vilatte took it
upon himself to single-handedly consecrate other bishops,
contrary to canon law, which resulted in his excommunication
from the Syrian Orthodox Church. The bishops consecrated by
Vilatte themselves started consecrating other bishops. Already
in 1964, over 25 churches in America, Europe and Africa claimed
the Vilatte succession.
Peter F. Anson, Bishops At Large (London:
Faber and Faber, 1964), Chapter VIII. See also Henry R. T.
Brandreth, Episcopi Vagantes and the Anglican Church
(London: S.P.C.K., 1961, 2nd edition).
[4] Vilatte
and his successors have always been challenged by Rome and
Canterbury (as well as by the Episcopal Church in America) to
produce the bull of Patriarch Peter sanctioning the
consecration, and the certificate of consecration given to
Vilatte in their original Syriac form. Vilatte's successors
have only been able to produce alleged English translations of
both documents. A note given by Patriarch Afram I Barsoum to
Mor Athanasius Yeshu Samuel upon his departure to the United
States as Patriarchal Legate in 1949, in which Barsoum gives
instructions and advice to his legate, states that Vilatte had
lost his Syriac certificate. (Earlier, on December 10, 1938,
Patriarch Barsoum, probably at the request of the Church of
England, issued a statement in which he denied any relation
with all schismatic bodies of the Vilatte line.
Brandreth, Episcopi Vagantes, pp. 118-119.
)
Fig. 1. Picture taken in 1892. Seated from left to right:
Vilatte, Mar Ivanios Paulos (later Catholicos Baselius Paulos
I), Mar Dionysius Joseph, Mar Athanasius Paulos, Mar Gregorios
Gewargis, Mar Julius Alvares (Courtesy: Malankara Orthodox
Seminary, Kottayam)
Fig. 2. The Alleged English translation of the Bull of
Patriarch Peter sanctioning the consecration of Vilatte
(Courtesy: Brandreth, Episcopi Vagantes)
[5] The
discovery of the certificate of consecration given to Alvares
sheds some light on what the original Syriac of Vilatte's
certificate may have looked like. In what follows, I give the
Syriac text of the certificate of Alvares. I then give my
English translation of the same, aligning it vertically with
the published text of the English translation of the Vilatte
certificate.
http://www.tboyle.net/Catholicism/Vilatte.html,
checked on July 7, 2004.
The translation has been divided into numbered
sections (in curly brackets, {Â }) for ease of comparison.
The reader will note much parallelism in the sequence of the
text, as well as similarities in phraseology.
Alvares's Certificate
Vilatte's
Certificate
{1} The Certificate which the Fathers Wrote
for the Ordination of Our Father Mor Yulius and Gave in
His Hands as a Systaticon.
{2} In the Name of the Eternal Being,
Everlasting, [and] of Necessary Existence Who is
Omnipotent,
{3} Metropolitan Athanasius who is
Paulos,
Metropolitan Ivanios who is Paulos,
and Metropolitan Gregorios who is Gewargi,
Metropolitans of Malabar that is under the
jurisdiction of the Apostolic See of Antioch, the
weak
Patriarchs and bishops suffix their titles with a
Syriac abbreviation consisting of the letter Mim that
has a double reading. The abbreviation is intended by the
writer to stand for mhilo
'weak,' but is read by anyone apart from the writer
myaqro 'honorable'.
ones:
{4} By the order which was sent on the day
of 15 January of this year,
= Gregorian 28 Jan.
from our Father,
Patriarch Mor Ignatius, Father of the Fathers, the First
of the Chiefs, of the Apostolic See of Antioch and All
the East who is Peter III, the Exalted one,
{5} we first gathered together and ordained
the priest Antonios Francisco Xavier Alvares to the rank
of Monkhood,
{6} and also today the said monk
{7} was ordained by the Holy Spirit to the
rank of Metropolitan
{8} at the time of the Divine Liturgy
[i.e., Mass], and by the prayers and services,
{9} and by the laying of the order of Moran
the Exalted Patriarch on his head, and by the laying of
the hands of our weakness,
{10} Metropolitan to the diocese of Ceylon,
Goa and India Excluding Malabar;
{11} and the title of his Metropolitate was
named Julius as was ordered from the mouth of Moran the
Exalted Patriarch;
{12} and we all exclaimed with all the
people "worthy, worthy, worthy, it is meet and right,
Father Mor Julius Metropolitan of the diocese of the said
places."
{13} And he has spiritual authority, by
this gift which was given to him by God through the
intercession of Moran the Exalted Patriarch,
{14} to ordain monks, priests, deacons,
etc.; to consecrate the oil of baptism and of the sick,
as well as (to consecrate) churches, altars, and
tablithos;
{15} and to exercise all consecrations and
spiritual functions, etc., suitable to the rank of
Metropolitan under the jurisdiction of Moran the
Patriarch, the high-priest, the head of our faith.
{16} And we entrusted in his hands the
order of blessings which was sent from the See of Antioch
to the said dioceses.
{17} And now, we wrote to Moran the Exalted
Patriarch to send him [Alvares] a Systaticon from his
Lordship, so that he will have authority [and] complete
strength.
{18} And we await to see it quickly, and to
rejoice with him always.
{19} This Certificate was written on the
17th day of the month of July in the year 1889
of our Lord from the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle
of the School of Kottayam which is in Malabar.
{2} In the Name of
the Essential, eternal, Self-existing, Almighty.
{3}
A.F.X. Alvarez, Metropolitan under Antioch.
(Seal - Mar Athanasius)
(Seal - Mar Gregorius)
(Seal - Alvarez/Julius I)
This is to certify that,
{5} Rev. Joseph
René Vilatte was duly raised to the Order of
Monkhood: and
{4} in virtue of
the special authority conferred upon us on the fifteenth
of Konum Kolim [sic] by the Apostolical Edict of
the Most Exalted Father and Head, His Holiness Moran Mar
Ignatius Peter III., Patriarch of the Apostolic See of
Antioch and of all the East,
{6} the said
Monk,
{8} amidst solemn
Mass, Prayers, and Services,
{7} was this day
consecrated by the Holy Spirit,
{10} Metropolitan
of the Archdiocese of America,
{9} in the
meantime the Patriarchal Bull and the hands of our
weaknesses being laid on his head.
{11} As commanded
in His Holiness' Edict, he was entitled Mar
Timotheus;
{12} and we,
together with the assembled faithful, exclaimed, as is
usual, "Worthy, Worthy, Worthy, our Father Timotheus of
the said Diocese."
{13} This sublime
gift bestowed upon him by God, through the precious
intercession of His Holiness, legally authorises him
{14} to ordain
monks, priests, deacons, etc., to consecrate churches,
chancels, as well as baptismal and unctial oil,
{15} and to
exercise with perfect efficiency all other spiritual
functions appertaining to metropolitan dignity, subject
to the Patriarch of Antioch.
{16} We entrust to
his care the general epistle from the Holy See addressed
to the believers of the above said Archdiocese;
{17} also we have
to add that His Holiness the Patriarch is prayed and
expected to speedily dispatch the station [sic],
definitely describing its authority and jurisdiction.
{19} Church of Our
Lady of Good Death, Columbo, Ceylon, twenty-ninth day of
May eighteen hundred and ninety-two (29 5 1892).
/Signed/ Mar Athanasius,
Bishop of Kottayam
/Signed/ Mar Gregorius,
Bishop of Niranam
/Signed/ A.F.X.
Alvarez/Julius I., Archbishop-Metropolitan for the
Archdiocese of Ceylon, Goa and the whole of India.
Fig. 3. The Certificate of Alvares, recto (Courtesy: Andreas
Juckel)
Fig. 4. The Certificate of Alvares, verso (Courtesy: Andreas
Juckel)
Bibliography
Anson, Peter F. Bishops At
Large (London: Faber and Faber, 1964).
Azevedo, Carmo, Patriot &
Saint: The Life Story of Father Alvares/Bishop Mar Julius
I (Panjim: 1988).
Brandreth, Henry R. T. Episcopi
Vagantes and the Anglican Church (London: S.P.C.K., 1961,
2nd edition).