Mar Yohannan

Mar Yohannan (John) was one of the legendary metropolitan of the Church of Malabar of st Thomas Christians. At the end of the fifteenth century the Church of the East responded to a request by the Saint Thomas Christians for bishops to be sent out to them. In 1490, two Christians from Malabar arrived in Gazarta to petition the East Syrian patriarch to consecrate a bishop for their church. Two monks of the monastery of Mar Awgin were consecrated bishops and were sent to India.

Joseph the Indian was among one of the three delegates who travelled to meet Mar Simeon, the Patriarch of Babylon (1437–1497).One delegate died on the way but Joseph and George arrived there safely. Both of them were ordained Priests by Mar Simeon at the Holy Church of St George at Gazerta. They were then sent to a Monastery of Blessed Eugenius where they found two monks with the same name, Rabban Joseph and the Catholicose Patriarch consecrated them as Bishops – Mar Thomas and Mar John for Malabar. Cathanaars Joseph and George returned with Mar Thomas and Mar John back to Malabar.

“When these same four came there with the help of Christ ,our Lord, they were received by the faithful with great joy, who carried before them, the book of the gospel, the cross, censors, and torches and they introduced them to the Christians with much pomp and with chanting of psalms and hymns. And they, the Bishops consecrated altars, and ordained very many priests, for the people had been without fathers for a long time”.

Mar John stayed in Malabar and Mar Thomas returned to Babylon in AD1498 with Joseph to fetch the offerings of the Christians of India to the Cartholicos. This second journey is mentioned in the Narrations of Joseph, the Indian also. Joseph’s narrations to Venetians as reported by Paesi tell us that “The said Joseph related that he had departed from the said town of Cranganore with a Bishop, his superior. Ascending a ship, he went towards the island of Ormus. From there he proceeded to the mainland where he stayed for three months and with the said Bishop, he went as far as Armenia to meet his Pontiff. By Him, this Bishop was consecrated and the said Joseph was ordained a Priest”.