Antony Padiyara

Metropolitan and Gate of all India Mar Antony Padiyara (11 February 1921 – 23 March 2000) was a Syro Malabar Major Archbishop and cardinal. He was the First Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. He was Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly from 1985 to 1996, having previously served as Bishop of Ootacamund (1955–1970) and Archbishop of Changanassery (1970–1985). He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988.

Biography[]

Born in Manimala, Travancore, Antony Padiyara studied at St. Peter's Regional Seminary in Bangalore and was ordained to the priesthood on 19 December 1945.^[1] He was incardinated into the Latin Rite Diocese of Coimbatore, where he served as curate at and pastor at Kollegal and Ootacamund between 1946 and 1952.^[2] He became rector of the minor seminary in 1952 and a professor at St. Peter's Regional Seminary in 1954.^[2]

On 3 July 1955, Padiyara was appointed Bishop of Ootacamund by Pope Pius XII.^[1] He received his episcopal consecration on the following 16 October from Bishop René-Jean-Baptiste-Germain Feuga, with Bishop Francis Xavier Muthappa and Archbishop Matthew Kavukattu serving as co-consecrators.^[1] After attending the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, Padiyara returned to the Syro-Malabar Rite. On 13 June 1970 he was promoted to Archbishop of Changanassery.^[1] He was elected Vice President of the Indian Episcopal Conference (1976), President of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (1983), and President of the Syro-Malabar Bishops Conference (1984).^[2] In one of the acts of his short-lived papacy, Pope John Paul I named him Apostolic visitor to the Syro-Malabar Catholics in Kerala on 8 September 1978.^[2]

Padiyara was appointed Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly by Pope John Paul II on 23 April 1985.^[1] He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Maria "Regina Pacis" a Monte Verde in the consistory of 28 June 1988. When the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly was elevated to the rank of a major archdiocese on 16 December 1992, Padiyara became a Major Archbishop and thus head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.^[1] During this period, the powers of Major Archbishop were also vested in the Pontifical Delegate Mar Abraham Kattumana (1992–1995). Within the Roman Curia, he was a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Oriental Canon Law.^[3] After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, he resigned as Major Archbishop on 11 November 1996, after eleven years of service. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1998.^[2]

He later died at the Cardinal Padiyara Nature Cure Centre in Kakkanad, which he himself had founded, aged 79. He is buried in St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica in Ernakulam.^[2]

References[]

External links[]

• Antony Padiyara statistics