A man fully and wholly devoted his lifetime for the benefit of the Malankara Orthodox Church is no more. “Sabhakavi” Sri C. P. Chandy passed away on Wednesday 4th May 2005. “Sabhakavi” a title which was given to a short and slim man in 1964 by the late His Holiness Augen Ist. Sri C. P. Chandy was the Heavenly Trumbet of Malankara.

He was born in 1916 to a missionary, late Chakkalakkunnil Mr. Philipose of Vennikulam and late Mrs. Achamma, daughter of Rev. Mattackal Pathrose kathanar Niranam.

After the high school education, he achieved the “Sanskrit Shastri” from Aluva Adwaithashram in 1939 and graduated from the then Travencore University in 1945. Later he gained deep knowledge in Sanskrit with the assistance of a scholar from the Pandalam Royal family.

At the age of 27, he started translating the Holy Liturgy from Syriac to Malayalam and as Malayalam Master he served and lived at the Old Seminary at Kottayam. Later, fulfilling the wishes of Puthenkavil Kocuthirumeni, he moved to Basil Aramana in Pathanamthitta and continued his lifelong mission of various translation projects list below:

Recently St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Sharjah honored him at the Jubilee celebrations at Parumala Seminary in 2003.

His contributions are immensely rich and simple. If he had turned to the Malayalam language literature he could have achieved high goal and more fame.

We, the Malankara Orthodox Church are duty bound to pay due respect to the Mahakavi late C. P. Chandy. The leadership should rise to the occasion to keep his memory alive for ever.

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