Kabaridam of IV Marthoma at Kandanadu Martha Mariam Church
Mar Ivanious consecrated Mar Thoma IV as successor of Marthoma III in 1688 April (9th of Medom) Mar Thoma IV administered the Church for 40 odd years. It was during this period that as per the order of Catholicos Elisa of Baghdad that the Nesthorian Metropolitan started propagating Nesthorian faith. But Mar Thoma IV opposed him stoutly and nullified the blasphemous Nesthorian beliefs. He consecrated his successor Mar Thoma V and passed away on 24 March 1728 (13 th of Meenam ). He was laid to rest in Martha Mariam Church at Kandanad. His Death Anniversary is on 25th March.
During the regime of Mar Thoma IV a Nestorian Bishop Gabriel arrived in the country in 1708, having been sent by the Nestorian Patriarch of Babylon. He was not cordially acknowledged by the community.
There is a story concerning him that a Syrian Christian discontented with Mar Thoma, hearing of Mar Gabriel’s arrival at Cochin, paid a visit to him, and on his return, referred to him in words which have since become a proverb, viz., that he was “neither a father nor an uncle, but fit for the present purpose” (of opposing Mar Thoma).
Mar Gabriel was a time serving man. He had to serve his own interest rather than the interest of Nestorianism. When he started for Malabar, he submitted his confession of Faith to Pope, with a request that he be confirmed as the Bishop of Malabar. Failing in that direction, he tried to exact the sympathy and acknowledgement of the Jacobites, by imitating Jacobite rituals and practices in his worship, and this enabled him to win the partial acceptance of few parishioners.
A Carmelite friar of Verapoly obtained from him an agreement that he would live a retired life. It is said this agreement is still preserved in the archives of Verapoly.
Mar Thoma IV treated him as an intruder and heretic. He wrote to the Dutch Governor at Cochin, complaining against Mar Gabriel’s intrusion and soliciting the Commodore’s help to oust him from diocese. Mar Gabriel died in 1730 and was buried in the Jacobite (Cheriapalli) church at Kottayam. His tomb was afterwards desecrated by the congregation of the church, and the materials were utilized in the construction of a staircase in their parochial building.
Mar Thoma IV opposed Mar Gabriel as long as he lived. In Europe in1714, Mar Thoma is described as a monophysite and the Church of Malabar is represented as receiving bishops from the Patriarch of Antioch. Two letters written by Mar Thoma and addressed to the patriarch are also extant.
In the first, written in 1709, he complained of schism introduced by Mar Gabriel and requested the Patriarch to send Bishops and theologians to teach the Church.
In the second letter, dated 1720, (a copy of which may be seen in Asseman, IV, 466), the Patriarch is designated head of the Universal Church of Christ by the appointment of three hundred and eighteen Fathers of Nicea; reference is made to the former Antoichan bishops, Mar Gregorious, Mar Baselious, and Mar Ivanius, whose death, it is said, reduced the Malabar Church to state of a ship without a rudder; Mar Gabriel is alluded to as a Nestorian who taught that Christ had two natures and two persons, and who consequently was not recognized except by a single priest; and the Patriarch is requested to send bishops and priests well versed in philosophy and in the interpretation of Holy scriptures, as well as to write letters to the Dutch Commander at Cochin soliciting his help to the Bishop against his enemies and against infidel kings.
Unfortunately this letter did not reach its destination, but somehow escaped to Europe and was published there. Asseman, who saw it, or perhaps a copy of it, concludes from its terms that the writer was a Jacobite who depended upon the See of Antioch.
Mar Thoma IV died on the 13 th of Meenam (March) 1728, after consecrating his successor Mar Thoma V, and was entombed at Kandanad Martha Mariyam
Mar Gabriel
There is a story concerning him that a Syrian Christian discontented with Mar Thoma, hearing of Mar Gabriel’s arrival at Cochin, paid a visit to him, and on his return, referred to him in words which have since become a proverb, viz., that he was “neither a father nor an uncle, but fit for the present purpose” (of opposing Mar Thoma).
Mar Gabriel was a time serving man. He had to serve his own interest rather than the interest of Nestorianism. When he started for Malabar, he submitted his confession of Faith to Pope, with a request that he be confirmed as the Bishop of Malabar. Failing in that direction, he tried to exact the sympathy and acknowledgement of the Jacobites, by imitating Jacobite rituals and practices in his worship, and this enabled him to win the partial acceptance of few parishioners.
A Carmelite friar of Verapoly obtained from him an agreement that he would live a retired life. It is said this agreement is still preserved in the archives of Verapoly.
Mar Thoma IV treated him as an intruder and heretic. He wrote to the Dutch Governor at Cochin, complaining against Mar Gabriel’s intrusion and soliciting the Commodore’s help to oust him from diocese. Mar Gabriel died in 1730 and was buried in the Jacobite (Cheriapalli) church at Kottayam. His tomb was afterwards desecrated by the congregation of the church, and the materials were utilized in the construction of a staircase in their parochial building.