H.H. Baselios Marthoma Mathews II was the sixth Catholicose of Malankara Orthodox Church and 89th Apostolic Successor of St. Thomas. The life of His Holiness was a well-celebrated one and he lived his life to the full, the richness of which touched the hearts of millions and made an indelible mark on the history of Malankara. Being anointed to His Holy Episcopate by the descent of the Holy Spirit, Mar Basalios guided the Malankara Orthodox Church with diligence of a most devoted shepherd for fifteen years from 1991 to 2006 in his apostolic struggle in the New World.

Mar Basalios was one of the most innate charismatic people, to ever grace, with a never fading smile and features corresponded with the greatness of his soul. With his natural personal sources of charisma came from his disarming smile where the whole face smiled, when his mind smiled. The Metropolitan had earned a special place in the minds of his flock through his total devotion and principled life. He was well respected by religious and community leaders. He mingled very well with young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. His uncompromising attitude in the fundamentals of Church and incessant asceticism, he won the respect of one and all. Reaching to the pinnacle of self-discipline through fasting, penance and meditation coincided with his compassion towards the downtrodden, H.H. Marthoma Mathews became a god-man in all sense.

Marthoma Mathews was born at Puthusserazhikath Puthenveedu in Perinadu near Quilon in the Trikkunnathu Panchyath area on January 30, 1915 to Idiculla and Annamma couple. His paternal root family was Menattil and mother Annamma belonged to Nellikkunnathu Family at Kottarakara. Known by a pet name 'Kochunnoonni', Mathews was the eldest son among the eight children of Idiculla family, five sons and three daughters. Being eldest in the family, Kochunnoonni enjoyed a special respect from his siblings, very near to the paternal respect and affection. The original mother-church of Menattil family was the St. Thomas Church, 6 K.M. away from the residence of Idiculla family. Later a Church was constructed at Perinadu and family of Mathews started their fellowship at this new Church.

As per the prevailed custom of that time, after studying alphabets and minor mathematics from a local Guru, Kochunnoonni joined Inchavilla Kavara North Lower Primary School under the discipleship of Ayyappan Master. Incidentally, Ayyappan Master was the teacher of his father Idiculla also. Most of the friends of Mathews were Hindus and Muslims. Mathews studied upto forth standard in Kavara School. Further Mathews joined Prakulam N.S.S High School for his higher secondary education. Mathews was very fond of reading biographical sketches of Hindu ascetic Sanyasis.

Kochunnoonni used to attend the Bible Class conducted by Ala Achen of Marthoma Church. He found it very hearty and inspirational. During his childhood, it was a time when MoonnamPackal Sadhu Kochoonj Upadeshi was spreading the seed of personal spirituality and relationship with Jesus, with his sermons and songs across the southern zone of Travancore. His spiritual experience and touchy sermons inspired Kochunnooni to become an evangelist. Kochunnooni prayed to this cause and finally knew the call of God and decided to dedicate everything for the Glory of the God.

Parents of Mathews, specifically his father, were not initially in favor of sending him for the priestly service. While Mathews was studying in the High School, the third Catholicos of Malankara, H.H. Basalios Geevarghese Second visited Kundara Seminary, and Mathews got a chance to meet His Holiness very near to him and to kiss his hands. Immediately after seeing the Grace of the Catholicos, Mathews got attracted to Bava and installed him as his role-model in his mind. Mathews was very studious, calm and quite with a great love to God. With the great inspiration he received with memory of his role-model in his mind, Mathews self determined to dedicate himself for the priestly service.

The Perinad Parish people greatly desired to have a local priest from their own parish. With the graceful and holy appearance of Mathews and his devout nature, his parish fellows wished and selected Mathews to get ordained as their local priest. Being Idiculla against this idea, Mathews started praying earnestly for a change of mind of his father. Incidentally, some untoward incidents happened in the family and Idiculla turned flexible, being with an intuition that these misfortunes were due to his opposition for allowing Mathews to be ordained.

One night Mathews had a dream of calling from God similar to the call received by Prophet Samuel. Next day Mathews mentioned about the dream to his cousin Thalavoor Charuvilla John. Understanding the mental status of Mathews, John informed about this incident to their parents and Church fellows. Then diocesan Metropolitan of Quilon, Alexios Mar Theodosious heard about this episode and encouraged the boy for priestly vocation. A group of envoys from the parish informed the Catholicos Mar Geevarghese II who was residing in Kundara Seminary. Bava consulted and took advice from the Manager Father Modisseril Mathews who knew very well that Kochunnonni is a very deserving boy for this vocation. Immediately Bava sent an ecclesiastical letter to father of Mathews to come with Mathews to Seminary. When Idiculla reached the Seminary with his son and met Thirumeni, Bava told as an order to Idiculla, 'I need your son.' Further everything moved fast.

On 17th April 1938, Mathews was ordained to the first stage of deaconate at Kundara Seminary. Thus, Mathews fulfilled his cherished goal which he was nurturing in his mind for a long time. Dn. Mathews set off to Kottayam and joined in M.D. Seminary for his theological studies under the discipleship of Cheriamadathil Skariah Malpan and Karikkott Fr. K.B. Mathews. Malpan liked and loved this young fair and handsome Semmassan and gave him lessons of Syriac. When the M.D. Seminary was closed for a while, Dn. Mathews moved along with other deacons to the petty Basil Seminary at Makkamkunnu, Pathanamthitta established by H.G. Geevarghese Mar Philaxenos. Clerry Daniel [Later H.G. Daniel Mar Philaxenos] was the Principal and Warden of the Seminary. Malpan of the Seminary was V. Rev. Geevarghese Thengumtharayil Cor-Episcopa. Dn. Mathews had his lessons in Bible, Church History, and Theology etc. at this seminary. Deacon Mathews learned Syriac Music from Fr. Yohannan Parakamoottil.

Being at the primitive stage, the Seminary did not have any convenience for the accommodation or class rooms for the deacons. Warden Clerry Daniel was living in an unprovided room on the Veranda of the Aramana. Dn. Mathews and other inmates used to sleep in classrooms of Catholicate School keeping two benches adjacent as their cot. Clerry Daniel was very keen to attend the needs of deacons and he acted as the beloved local guardian of all inmates. Philaxenos Thirumeni was in place of their father in their home away from home. Mar Basalios himself had exposed that the Mantra taught by the Philaxenos Thirumeni, 'I am nothing', was the life force through out his life.

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H.G. Geevarghese Mar Philaxenos was much concerned about the impecunious state of the Church in the spiritual field and deficiency of gifted and spiritually inspired preachers of the Word of God. His Grace could foresee a great hope in Dn. Mathews towards this cause. So Thirumeni was used to take along him, the Deacon to the loneliness of the lawn under the shade of a big tree behind the Catholicate College during the evenings. Thirumeni induced him to read a Bible portion after the night prayer, meditate to God to enlighten the inner eyes to perceive the profundity in depth of the Word of God and to ruminate the ideas behind it, on the bed. In the morning, plentifulness of the spiritual ideas will arise in the mind and these ideas are to be well preserved in the brain. Mar Basalios confessed himself during later years that as he pursued this advice of his Guru, he never had any dearth of commentary and interpretation of the Words of God, throughout his life.

After completing theological training in the Basil Dayara, Dn. Mathews returned to the Catholicose Mar Basalios Geevarghese. Catholicose found him ripe for the priestly service and ordained him as full deacon at Pandalam Pongaladi Church and further in 1939 ordained Dn. Mathews as a priest at the Old Seminary, Kottayam. With his intense desire to acquire the heights of theological knowledge, Fr. Mathews did not intend to limit his service for his home parish as a vicar. Mar Philaxenos was a student and inmate of Bishop's College in Serampore, Calcutta as a deacon while Fr. P.T. Geevarghese of Malankara Church was serving as a Professor of that College and His Grace used to attend the yearly convocation of the college on the later years. During that year, Thirumeni returned after the convocation with the great news that one seat in the college is reserved for the Malankara Orthodox Church. Thirumeni did not have to think twice to choose Fr. Mathews and seek consent from the Catholicose to sponsor him to Bishop's College for theological higher education. Accordingly Fr. Mathews proceeded to Serampore in Calcutta.

Fr. Mathews was a model student of the Serampore College. Though the college had a protestant atmosphere, Fr. Mathews was very strict and punctual to observe prayer and fasting as he used to do in Kerala. In addition to the Christian theological lessons, Father acquired keen knowledge in Bhagavalgeetha, Quran, Upanishad and various other Vedic literatures. In addition, he could acquaint with many world renowned scholars of theological field. His acquaintance with Fr. Robins of Cambridge Mission House was a big blessing for Fr. Mathews. Robins had a Church in Delhi. With his friendship with Fr. Robins, he could get permission to use his Church in Delhi to celebrate Holy Qurbana according to the Malankara tradition. Later, Fr. Robins became Bishop of a Protestant Church. Also his contacts with Fr. Shore, Fr. Macbeth, Fr. Douglas etc. broadened his vision of ascetic life. Once Fr. Mathews returned from Calcutta after his graduation, the Principal Fr. P.C. Canon had written an appraising letter to Catholicose mentioning Fr. Mathews was a great inspiration to the College both to the staff and to the students.

After accomplishing his higher studies in Calcutta, Fr. Mathews became a dear personality in Malankara. His diocesan Metropolitan and Bethany Ashram Superior Alexios Mar Theodasios desired that Fr. Mathews should join the Bethany Ashram. By this time, Mar Philaxenos envisaged a Dayara at Othara to train deacons. Mar Basalios Geevarghese Bava appointed Fr. Mathews for the service of strengthening the new Othara Dayara. Accordingly, Fr. Mathews proceeded to his designated new pasture at Othara without even seeing or knowing about the condition of Dayara in advance. At that time, the Othara Dayara was administered with out any central or institutional monetary aid from the Church. It was a small establishment with a three bed room and a kitchen building and an attached small chapel accommodated in 1 Acre 13 Cents land. There was no source of constant income for the Dayara and day to day expenses were met with petty local donations. His mentor and originator of the Dayara, Mar Philexenos also was under severe monetary paucity and lived in a small cottage on the bank of Pothael pond at Chengannoor, even without a cook. This Pothael was later turned as the Bethel Aramana.

Fr. Mathews was struggling very much to meet even the daily food expenditure of the inmates of the Dayara. Virtually he and the inmates were starving in the Dayara. The staple food of the inmates was Bajara and jack fruits grown in their own compound. Rice was a luxury and rare festival feast for the inmates. Many inmates returned to their home due to this starving state of affair of the Dayara. However, Fr. Mathews was very reluctant to expose the scenario to his Guru or any Church authorities. After a while, when Fr. Mathews visited Mar Philaxenos, he was seen turned very thin and swollen due to lack of nutrition. Thirumeni was very upset with the figure of this young priest. Hearing about the new Dayara, many priests and laymen including Fr. K.C. Thomas [Later H.G. Thomas Mar Makarios] started visiting Dayara and they had to satisfy with normal cooked jack fruit and small fish curry lunch of the inmates during noon. While, once, K.C. Mammen Mappila and Elanjickal John Jacob visited Dayara during a noon time, Fr. Mathews was embarrassed to serve them the normal lunch of the inmates. With a quick make-shift arrangement, rice appeared on the dining table. While seeing water stained rice in the plate, the guests could easily make out that it was sudden turnout from Kanji to water drained dry rice. Knowing this pathetic situation of the Dayara, John Philipose arranged to collect paddy from the farmers of Kuttatanadan area after harvest for the inmates of Othara Dayara. Hence forth the Deacons of the Dayara personally used to go and bring this collected paddy from the western provinces of Kerala during the harvest season. By this time a trusted layman, one Pappachen of Mangalam also joined Dayara and helped the inmates for cooking and cleaning. Later Pappachen became the driver and constant associate of Mar Coorilose Thirumeni [Fr. Mathews].

With the enormous theological knowledge gained by Fr. Mathews and with the maturity attained at Othara Dayara, Bava appointed Fr. Mathews to teach in the Old Seminary along with the charge of the Dayara. Augen Mar Timotheos was the Principal of the Seminary during that time. Fr. Mathews used to walk early in the morning to Kallooppara and go by bus to Kottayam and in the evening by bus to Kallooppara and walked back to Othara. This became a daily routine of Fr. Mathews. However, he enjoyed to teach in the Seminary as it was a great opportunity for him to distribute the knowledge he gained in Serampore to the students. H.G. Thomas Mar Makarios was a student of Fr. Mathews in the Seminary, that time. Very incomprehensible theological ideas, Fr. Mathews explained to his students in simple words and common parables.

Service of Fr. Mathews was not restrained to the Seminary and Dayara. He started to travel throughout Malankara conducting retreats and inspiring the faithful in their spiritual experience. His spiritually stimulating divine voice started echoing in Churches, convention halls, youth and student conferences, women’s associations etc. in the east to west and north to south across Malankara. He spoke in simple words and with parables and paradigms of our own surroundings which pierced deep to the mind of the listeners. He used to well prepare in advance even to address small gatherings. Also, he was too emotional and enthusiastic to share his spiritual thoughts with his audience.

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