Mar Aloysius (Louis) Pazheparambil (

Pulinkunnoo Pulincunnoo or Pulinkunnoo (Churuli) is an island village in the Kuttanadu region of Alappuzha district in the Indian state of Kerala. The Pampa river in Pulincunnoo is one of the most favored routes of the houseboats tourism operators in Ku ...

, 25 March 1847 –

Ernakulam Ernakulam () is the Central Business District of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Many major establishments, including the Kerala High Court, the office of the Kochi Municipal Corporation a ...

, 9 December 1919) was the

Vicar Apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

in the

Syro-Malabar Catholic Church lat, Ecclesia Syrorum-Malabarensium mal, മലബാറിലെ സുറിയാനി സഭ , native_name_lang=, image = St. Thomas' Cross (Chennai, St. Thomas Mount).jpg , caption = The Mar Thoma Nasrani Sl ...

. Originally a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

of the Syrian Carmelites, he was expelled along with nine others in 1875 from the religious order by the local bishop for writing to the Pope asking for an Indian bishop to rule his church. Later in 1896, he became one of three Indian bishops appointed to rule over the three Vicariates Apostolic in his

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

Early life and ordination

Aloysius Pazheparambil was born in Pulinkunnoo at Alleppey and joined the Carmelite order for Catholic Syrians in 1860. At that time, the local Catholic Thomas Christians were under the authority of a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

bishop. There were constant quarrels, because these Latin bishops had little understanding of the Thomas Christians. The Thomas Catholics eventually began agitating for their own bishop. Against this backdrop and to avoid such harmful future developments, a group of monks asked for a native bishop. Father Aloysius Pazheparambil was the head and spokesman of this group and for his actions was, in 1875, expelled from the Carmelite order along with the others by Leonardo Mellano, the

Apostolic Vicar Apostolic may refer to: The Apostles An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission: *The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles *Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Churc ...

of Verapoly.IC Chacko, Illiparambil: Mar Pazheparambil Louis , Trivandrum, 1937

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

soon intervened, and in 1887 dissolved the episcopal structure then present and designated for them the Apostolic Vicariates of Trichur and Kottayam, headed by the Latin bishops Adolph Edwin Medlycott and Charles Lavigne. Both were respectful to the Thomas Christians and their rite, and with an open mind prepared the transition to local bishops. This finally happened in 1896 when Medlycott and Lavigne resigned from their Vicariates and the Pope reorganized the VIcariates to create Vicariate of Ernakulam. In that year came the first Syro-Malabar titular bishops, elevated as Vicars Apostolics to the dioceses. One of them, the Vicar Apostolic of Ernakulam, was Pazheparambil.

Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

Aloysius Pazheparambil was one of the closest collaborators of the bishops Medlycott Adolph Edwin and Charles Lavigne. On 11 August 1896. he was made the titular bishop of Tymandus and Vicar Apostolic of the new diocese of Ernakulam. He was also made the Apostolic Delegate of India by Archbishop Ladislaus Zaleski on 25 October of that year, at his residence in Kandy (Sri Lanka). On 5 November 1896, Pazheparambil began the governing of his diocese, which he managed with great skill and zeal until his death in 1919. He was given the task of building all new diocesan structures as well as being tasked with allowing the native rite, after centuries of oppression, to unfold again. His epitaph, written by his episcopal successor

Augustine Kandathil Augustine Kandathil (25 August 1874 – 10 January 1956) was Metropolitan and head of the Syro-Malabar Church (1923-1956). Further reading *George Thalian: , Mar Louis Memorial Press, 1961(Postscript)I. C. Chacko, Illiparambil: ''Mar Louis Pazheparambil: Jeevithavum Kaalavum'', Trivandrum, 1937.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pazheparambil, Mar Aloysius 1847 births 1919 deaths Malayali people Christian clergy from Kottayam Saint Thomas Christians Syro-Malabar archbishops Syro-Malabar Catholic Archbishops of Ernakulam-Angamaly Founders of Indian schools and colleges 19th-century Indian educational theorists