Geevarghese Mar Ivanios

In 1919, he resigned from his professorship in Calcutta and returned to Kerala to found, on August 15, 1919, at Mundanmala (Ranni), a monastic community called the Bethany Ashram (officially the Order of the Imitation of Christ - OIC). This monastery, the first of its kind in the Malankara Church, combined the Eastern Christian monastic tradition (notably Syriac) with the traditional asceticism of India (the concept of the ashram). The place quickly became a center for spiritual renewal and prayer, but also a place of welcome for the poor, orphans, and the marginalized. On September 21, 1925, he founded the women's branch of his congregation, the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ (Bethany Madhom), to support women's education and charitable works.

Recognized for his spiritual work, he was consecrated Bishop of Bethany on May 1, 1925, by Catholicos Baselios Geevarghese I, under the name Geevarghese Mar Ivanios. Convinced that communion with the Apostolic See of Rome was essential for the fullness of the Church, he made his Catholic profession of faith on September 20, 1930, during a historic ceremony in the chapel of the Latin Bishopric of Quilon (Kollam), alongside Bishop Jacob Mar Theophilos, Father John Kuzhinapurath OIC, Deacon Alexander OIC, and the layman Chacko Kilileth, before Bishop Aloysius Maria Benziger OCD. This act marked the official birth of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in full communion with Rome, while retaining its Western Syriac liturgical rite (Rite of Antioch).

The re-union movement quickly gained momentum. On June 11, 1932, through the Apostolic Constitution Christo Pastorum Principi, Pope Pius XI officially established the hierarchy of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Mar Ivanios was appointed the first Metropolitan Archbishop of Trivandrum. In 1932, he traveled to Rome where he met Pope Pius XI, who presented him with the pallium on May 2, 1932. Under his pastoral leadership, the Church developed dramatically: he founded approximately 150 parishes and mission stations, established about fifty schools, and in 1948 founded the prestigious Mar Ivanios College in Trivandrum to promote higher education.

Seriously ill during the last three years of his life, Mar Ivanios endured his sufferings with heroic patience, never ceasing to guide his flock. He passed away holily on July 15, 1953, in Trivandrum, at the age of 70, after receiving the Anointing of the Sick.

He was buried in St. Mary's Cathedral in Pattom, Trivandrum. His tomb immediately became a place of incessant pilgrimage for thousands of faithful, both Catholic and non-Catholic, who came to implore his intercession. His reputation for holiness, apostolic zeal, and heroic charity spread rapidly throughout India and beyond.

The cause for the beatification and canonization of Mar Ivanios was officially opened at the diocesan level in the early 2000s.

On July 14, 2007, the eve of the 54th anniversary of his death, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, officially proclaimed Geevarghese Mar Ivanios a "Servant of God" during a solemn celebration at St. Mary's Cathedral in Pattom.

On March 14, 2024, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thereby conferring upon him the title of "Venerable."

The spirituality of Mar Ivanios rests on an absolute trust in Divine Providence and on an intimate union with Christ through contemplative prayer and the Eucharist. He knew how to harmonize the liturgical and theological heritage of the Christian East with the culture and asceticism of India, embodying the figure of a Christian 'sannyasi' (renunciant).

Nicknamed the 'Newman of the East' for his intellectual and spiritual journey toward Catholic communion, or even the 'Moses of modern times' by Cardinal Peter Turkson in 2015, he led his people toward the unity of the universal Church without causing them to lose their own identity.

His most visible legacy is the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church itself, which today counts more than 445,000 faithful spread across several eparchies in India and in the diaspora. Each year, on the occasion of his feast day on July 15 ('Mar Ivanios Day'), thousands of pilgrims participate in a great prayer march (the Mar Ivanios pilgrimage) from Pathanamthitta to his tomb in Trivandrum, testifying to the fervor and continuous devotion toward this great apostle of unity.