The Syro-Malabar (Indian) Succession
Unfortunately, this exceedingly ancient line of authority is one for which there are precious few records from antiquity. We can be assured that there were indeed missions from earlier times and there is believable evidence that St. Thomas the Apostle did indeed visit India during his lifetime, although there is dispute about the extent of his role there.
And, we know that the line was sufficiently developed that a Patriarch of the Indian and Afghani churches sent a representative to the Council called by Constantine. Currently, there are three main traditional Malabar lines: one Occidental, one Orthodox and one independent. Our tradition somes from the Orthodox line.
We trust in the Holy Spirit that the work begun there in aniquity has retained its unbroken tradition. At the least, we know that there was much cross-fertilization over the years and thus if there are any breaks in the line, that efforts over the last 400 years have likely cured most if not all of the same. We are proud to claim the Syro-Malabar tradition as a part of our own. The below partial lineage is all we have gathered to date.
THE APOSTLE St. Thomas and the indigenous Indian first preached Christianity in India Church was called “The Christians of St. Thomas.” Being without a bishop, the St. Thomas Christians seceded in some numbers in 1665 and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, from which See they received a hierarchy and were thereafter called the Syrian-Orthodox Church of Malabar, being under the jurisdiction of those Patriarchs of Antioch:
• Moran Mar Ignatius Yacob II, Syrian Patriarch of Antioch, who on February 12, 1865, consecrated:
• Joseph Pulikottil, Mar Dionysios V, Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, who on July 29, 1889, consecrated:
• Antonio Francisco Xavenda Alvarez, Mar Julius, Archbishop of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Ceylon, Goa and India, who on May 29, 1892, consecrated:
• Joseph Rene Vilatte, Mar Timotheos, Archbishop-Exarch of North America, who on December 29, 1915, consecrated:
• Frederick Ebenezer John Lloyd, Bishop of Illinois, afterward Primate of the American Catholic Church, who on September 8, 1929, consecrated:
• John Churchill Sibley, Missionary Archbishop for England, who on October 6, 1935, consecrated:
• John Sebastian Marlow Ward, Archbishop of Olivet, who in August 25, 1945, consecrated:
• Hugh George de Willmott Newman, Mar Georgius I, who on July 6, 1956, consecrated:
• Charles Dennis Boltwood, who on October 16,1966, consecrated:
• Albert J. Fuge, who of May 27,1972, consecrated:
• John Lawrence Brown, who on December 31, 1973, consecrated:
• Donald Lawrence Jolly, who on March 16, 1980, consecrated:
• Robert Vincent Bernard Dawe, who on October 18,1981, consecrated:
• Francis Thorne-Coley, who on August 20, 1998, consecrated:
• Lee Allen Petersen, who on April 26, 2009 consecrated:
• Mansell Christian Gilmore, who on January 30, 2011, consecrated
Bryan Dennis Ouellette, Ph.D., in ecceslia, Nicholas III, Patriarch, by acclamation by fiat, Holy Nicholean Catholic Church, Patriarch, by election and acclamation, Holy Imperial Russian Orthodox Church.
