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Mar Dionysius I, also known as Mar Thoma VI (died 8 April 1808), was the Metropolitan of the Malankara Church from 1765 until his death. A member of the Pakalomattom family, he was a shrewd administrator who appealed to outside authorities to assert his position as the sole leader of the Malankara Church and to attempt to reunite all the Saint Thomas Christians. Mar Thoma VI succeeded Mar Thoma V as Malankara Metropolitan in 1765, and unlike his predecessors, who were claimed by their opponents not to have been properly ordained as bishop, he received orders from Syriac Orthodox bishops in 1772, thus ending any controversy. Other events of his reign include the separation of the Thozhiyoor church (now the Malabar Independent Syrian Church), the arrival of English Protestant missionaries, and the first translation of the Bible from Syriac to Malayam. ==Life== The man who would be Mar Dionysius was the nephew of his predecessor as Malankara Metropolitan, Mar Thoma V, and a member of the Pakalomattom family. In 1757, as part of a play to assert his authority and autonomy in the Syriac Orthodox Church, Mar Thoma V consecrated his nephew as coadjutor bishop and named him his successor, in contradiction to the wishes of the Syriac Orthodox hierarchy. Upon Mar Thoma V's death in 1765, the younger Pakalomattom was ordained as Metropolitan on 8 May, taking the name Mar Thoma VI.〔Neill, p. 67.〕〔Vadakkekara, p. 91.〕 As with his predecessors as Metropolitan going back to the first, Mar Thoma I, Mar Thoma VI's critics charged that his succession, and therefor his position, was invalid. To overcome this criticism, in 1772 Mar Thoma VI underwent a second ordination at the hands of the Syriac Orthodox bishop Mar Gregorios in the church in Niranam. He received all the Holy Orders, from the tonsure to the episcopal consecration, and thereafter took the name Mar Dionysius.〔Neill, pp. 67–68.〕 Syriac Orthodox and other critics of Mar Thoma VI saw this as his only ordination, while his supporters saw it as a "re-ordination", but either way, it ended the controversy over the validity of his position.〔Vadakkekara, pp. 91–92.〕 This done, Dionysius focused on his second primary aim of securing his place as the sole head of the Malankara Church, a measure opposed by some in the Syriac Orthodox hierarchy. To this end, Dionysius appealed to both the Catholic Church and the British colonial government in India. Several times he contacted the Catholic hierarchy, both locally and in Rome, seeking to have his church, with him as its designated head, brought into full communion. This would have the double aim of solidifying his authority, and re-uniting all the Saint Thomas Christians, who had been split into Catholic and independent (Malankara) factions since the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653. His appeals were considered in Rome, where the Church was willing to grant him temporal but not spiritual authority over the Saint Thomas Christians. In the end, however, no satisfactory deal was ever made and the factions remained separate.〔Neill, pp. 68–69.〕 In 1771, Mar Gregorios consecrated a second bishop, Kattumangatt, who took the name Mar Cyril (Koorilose). Dionysius saw Cyril as a threat to his authority, and appealed to the British authorities to suppress the rival bishop. Cyril left for Thrissur, outside of British jurisdiction, and established what would become an independent church. This body is now known as the Malabar Independent Syrian Church.〔Vadakkekara, p. 92.〕 Subsequently, however, Gregorios and the other Syrian bishops died and were not replaced, leaving no further internal challengers to Dionysius.〔Neill, p. 69.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mar Dionysius I」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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