Cardinal Priest Varkey Vithayathil |
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Patriarch of Marthomma Nasarni Church, Successor Of St.Thomas The Apostle | |
Diocese | Ernakulam-Angamaly |
See | Ernakulam-Angamaly |
Predecessor | Mar Antony Padiyara / Mar Abraham Kattumana |
Successor | Mar George Alencherry |
Other posts | Apostolic Administrator of the Benedictine Monastery in Bangalore (1990–1996) Cardinal-Priest of S. Bernardo alle Terme |
Orders | |
Ordination | 12 June 1954 |
Consecration | 17 January 1997 |
Created Cardinal | 21 January 2001 by Pope John Paul II |
Rank | Cardinal-Priest of S. Bernardo alle Terme |
Personal details | |
Born |
North Parur, Travancore |
29 May 1927
Died | 1 April 2011 Ernakulam, Kerala, India |
(aged 83)
Nationality | India |
Denomination | Syro-Malabar Catholic Church |
Parents | Justice Mr. Joseph Vithayathil Mrs. Thresiamma Manadan |
Cardinal Mar Varkey I Vithayathil, C.Ss.R. (29 May 1927 – 1 April 2011) was an Indian cardinal, serving as Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly and head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. He was also a religious priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
Born to Justice Joseph Vithayathil (a member of the Travancore Legislative Assembly, a Judge of the High Court of Travancore-Cochin, a Chevalier, and a President of the All Kerala Catholic Congress) and Thresiamma Manadan in North Parur, Travancore, he became a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), a religious order founded by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri in 1732. He was ordained as a priest on 12 June 1954. He wrote for a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome on The Origin and Progress of the Syro-Malabar Hierarchy. He taught for 25 years at the Redemptorist seminary in Bangalore. In 1972 he took his Master's Degree in Philosophy from Karnataka University. He also taught different subjects in several other seminaries in Bangalore.