Catholicos Of the East

The Catholicos of the East is the title of the autonomous Primate of the East whose succession is that of the apostle St.Thomas, and also has a spiritual primacy of honor over all churches of the east. He is the supreme head of the Indian Orthodox Church(Malankara Orthoodx Syrian Church).He is called the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. Two titles with separate responsibilities for a single individual.

The Catholicos of the East has several functions such as consecrating Bishops for the Orthodox Church of the East, presiding over the Episcopal Synod, declaring its decisions and implementing them, conducting administration as the representative of the Synod and consecrating the Holy Mooron (Oil).The Malankara Metropolitan is the head of the Malankara Archdiocese, the President of the Malankara Syrian Christian Association and the Managing Committee. The Prime Jurisdiction regarding the temporal ecclesiastical and spiritual administration of the Malankara Church is vested in the Malankara Metropolitan subject to the provisions of the Church constitution. The Indian Orthodox Church (Malankara Orthodox Church) view Catholicate as the legitimate succession to St. Thomas.

Catholicate of the East was re-located from Persia, and established in India by H.H. Abdul Messiah, the Patriarch of Antioch in 1912, when H.H. Baselious Paulose I was ordinated as the first Catholicos of the Indian Orthodox Church, at St. Mary's Orthodox Syrian Church, Niranam (Niranam Valiyapally).

The current Catholicos is His Holiness Baselius Mar Thoma Didymos I, Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. H.H Didymos I is the 89th successor to the throne of St.Thomas and the 7th Catholicos in Malankara. The Head Quarters of the Catholicos of the East is at Devalokam in Kottayam, which is a beautiful place in central Kerala.