Syro-Chaldean (Nestorian) Succession
East Syria, Assyria, Persia and Mesopotamia were evangelized by St. Thomas the Apostle, assisted by St. Adai, one of the Seventy sent by Chris (Luke 10:1) and one of their disciplies. Proceeding from Palestine, they preached in those lands, and St. Thomas eventually reached India.
The Metropolitan of Seleucia-Ctesiphon governed the Persian Church from its earliest days, the twin capitals of the persian Empire, who was subject to the Patriarch of Antioch and of the East, but owing to difficulties of communication, the Patriarchal jurisdiction was delegated to the Metropolitan who was designated, "Catholicos of the East" (i.e., "holder of all") and Patriarch.
The Syro-Chaldean Church (the official designation of the Catholicate of the East) at one time became the largest body of Christians in the world, extending throughout all Persia, Mesopotamia, India and China. It was eventually reduced to small numbers by the barbarian invaders. The Indian branch remained in communion with the Catholics until the Synod of Diamper in 1599, when the Latin missionaries forced the Indian Christians to sever their connection with the See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and submit to Rome.
A number of them effected a union with the Syrian-Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch in 1665 and were constituted as the Syrian Orthodox Church of Malabar. For approximately 250 years, though cut off from their historic center of jurisdiction, a faithful remnat was perpetuated, and it was not until 1862 that the Syro-Chaldean jurisdiction in India was restored; and in this manner:
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His Sacred Beatitude, Maram Mar Rowell Shimun XVIII, Reuben, Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and Catholicos of the East, who on December 17, 1862, consecrated:
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Anthony Thondanatt, Mar Abd Ishu, Metropolitan of Trichur, who on Jul 24,1899, consecrated:
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Luis Mariano Scares, Mar Basileus, Metropolitan of India, Ceylon, Mylapore, Socotra and Messina, who on November 30, 1902, consecrated:
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Ulric Vemon Herford, Mar Jacobus, Bishop of Mercia and Middlesex, who on February 28, 1925, consecrated:
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William Stanley McBean Knight, Mar Paulus, Bishop of Kent, who on October 18, 1931, consecrated:
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Hedley Coward Bartlett, Bishop of Siluria, who on May 20, 1945, consecrated:
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Hugh George de Willmott Newman, Mar Georgius I, who on July 6, 1956, consecrated:
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Charles Dennis Boltwood, who on October 16,1966, consecrated:
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Albert J. Fuge, who of May 27, 1972, consecrated:
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John Lawrence Brown, who on December 31, 1973, consecrated:
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Donald Lawrence Jolly, who on March 16, 1980, consecrated:
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Robert Vincent Bernard Dawe, who on October 18, 1981, consecrated:
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Francis Thorne-Coley, who on August 20,1998, consecrated:
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Lee Allen Petersen, who on April 26, 2009 consecrated
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Mansell Christian Gilmore, who on January 30, 2011, consecrated
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Bryan Dennis Ouellette, Ph.D., in ecclesia Nicholas III, Patriarch, by acclamation and fiat, Holy Nicholean Church, Patriarch, by election and acclamation, Holy Imperial Russian Orthodox Church.
