Mar Thoma V – May 10

Mar Thoma V was born in Pakalomattom family, one of the oldest families in Kerala and he was known as Ouseph (Joseph). By 1727, Mar Thoma IV fell sick. So, the leaders of the Malankara Orthodox Church selected a successor for him. He was consecrated as Mar Thoma V, without the presence of any foreign bishops. On 24 March 1728, Mar Thoma IV passed away and Mar Thoma V, took charge as the Malankara Metropolitan. He made Kandanad (Pallikara Palli) his headquarters. In 1728, Mar Thoma V assumed the office of Malankara Metropolitan.

Despite the interventions of Roman Catholics and Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch in the affairs of the Church, he succeeded in preserving the autonomy and autocephalous nature of the Church. During his tenure a number of bishops from Antioch arrived and he had to face a lot of problems from them. In 1751, a group of bishops and priests was sent to Kerala, from Syria by the Patriarch of Antioch. Their mission was to re-ordain Mar Thoma V as ‘Mar Dionysius’ and thereby establish the supremacy of Antiochian Church over the Indian Church.

The Dutch East India Company by whose ship they travelled, put the burden of the travel expenses of the group-around twelve thousand rupees- on Mar Thoma V. But he refused to pay the amount because the foreign bishops started ordaining priests and intervene in the administration of the Church as soon as they reached here. The Dutch arrested Mar Thoma V and threatened to send him on exile. This dispute was later settled by the intervention of the Government of Travancore.

On 18 Dhanu 1754 the foreign Metropolitans signed an agreement declaring that they would not give ordination to anyone without the permission of the Malankara Metropolitan nor interfere in administrative aspects of the Church. The Antiochian bishops tried hard to re-ordain Mar Thoma V and bring him under the Patriarch of Antioch. But he refused to kneel as he was strongly convinced that the Indian Church is autonomous and autocephalous in all respects and it doesn’t need any external intervention in its affairs. To reinforce this, he himself ordained Mar Thoma VI as his successor in 1761 at Niranam Church without the participation or assistance of any foreign bishops thus severing all allegiance to foreign bishops. During his long tenure spanned for 37 years, Mar Thoma V successfully defended the disruptive activities of Antiochian Church and Roman Catholics.

He passed away on 8^th/10th May 1765 and was laid to rest inside the Niranam Valliya Pally. The funeral service was conducted by Mar Thoma VI.