Geevarghese Mar Osthathios Passed away

GEEVARGHESE MAR OSTHATHIOS PASSED AWAY

Geevarghese Mar Osthathios, senior-most Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, passed away at St. Gregorios Mission Hospital at Parumala on Thursday evening(16/02/2012). He was 94.

The Metropolitan had been undergoing treatment for cardiac ailment in the intensive care unit of the hospital. The death occurred at 7.25 p.m., hospital sources said. Born to Ezhakkad Munduvelil Kochitty-Mariyamma couple at Mavelikara on December 9, 1918, Mar Osthathios was widely known within and outside India as a prophet of social justice and a propagator of the universal religion of love.

He had his preliminary education at various educational institutions at Cherukol, Pathichira, and Mavelikara and higher education in America. He received his priesthood from Baselius Geevarghese II, the then Catholicos of the East, and became Fr. M.V. George on May 10, 1956. He became a Ramban on October 2, 1974, and was consecrated as bishop by Baselius Augen, the then Catholicos of the East, at St. Mary's Church, Niranom, on April 1, 1975. Author of as many as 56 books (13 of them in English), Mar Osthathios was a renowned theologian, thinker, orator, and writer. His passion for justice, equality, sharing, and love was grounded in the Christian doctrine of Holy Trinity.

                                                                                                                                         Prof. John Kurakar