Intro to the Eastern Catholic Churches Part IV: The Chaldean Rite

By now, many of us have come to realize that the liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church are rich and numerous. Following an introduction on all 23 of the Eastern Catholic Churches, we’ve already delved into the Armenian and Alexandrian Rites of the Catholic Church. Today, we’ll take a look at the East Syrian (or Chaldean) Rite, which houses two more sui iuris (that is, particular) Churches. Those two Churches are the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Both of these Churches trace their lineage back to St. Thomas the Apostle, with many Syriac Christians (both Catholic and Orthodox alike) preferring to call themselves “St. Thomas Christians”. Pope St. John Paul II also appreciated the beautiful traditions and faithfulness of these Churches, as he mentioned to the bishops of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India on their “Ad Limina” visit to Rome visit back in 2003: “The Liturgy of the Syro-Malabar Church, for centuries a part of India’s rich and varied culture, is the most vivid expression of your people’s identity. The celebration of the Eucharistic Mystery in the [East Syrian] Rite has played a vital part in molding the experience of faith in India.”

And on Chaldean Catholics, St. John Paul conveyed his love and appreciation of the faithful to Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid in a 1993 letter: “The entire Church, close to you who are in need, is grateful to you and proud of you for the faith with which you are witnessing to Christ’s name. Your land preserves Christian memories of immense value… testify[ing] to an ancient flourishing Christianity that was generous in its apostolic zeal, famous for the depth of its doctrine and missionary commitment to distant countries.”

We will delve a little more into the traditions, liturgical structures, and great saints of these two Churches in this essay so as to bring us as Latin Catholics into a better familiarity with our Eastern Catholic brethren.

History

Chaldean Catholic Church

Tradition holds that the ancient Assyrian Church, in the lands that made up Mesopotamia, was founded by St. Thomas the Apostle and his disciple St. Thaddeus (or Addai) of Edessa. During the fifth century, the first major schism to seriously rock the universal Catholic Church occurred when these Assyrian Christians declared in 424 that their patriarch was no longer subject to the Pope in Rome. Also, in direct opposition to the teachings promulgated at the third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431, the Assyrian Church rejected the Christological definitions that deemed Nestorius’ teachings on the nature of Christ’s divinity heretical. This effectively cut the Assyrian Christians off from the rest of the Christianity, both Rome and Byzantium, and with this schism we see the beginning of the current day Assyrian Church of the East. This Church’s orders and sacraments are still considered valid by the Catholic Church. However, it wasn’t until the 16^th century that some bishops and priests would seek reunion with Rome.

In 1552, a group of Assyrian bishops decided to return to the Catholic Church. This was in part instigated by the fact that the patriarchal succession within the Assyrian Church of the East was hereditary. Usually, the nephew of the patriarch was appointed, and this led to several patriarchs who were unfit for the job, or too young. In this case, the patriarch at the time had appointed his 12 year old nephew as his successor. After the nephew died, his 15 year old brother was appointed. For these and other reasons, a group of clergy rebelled and elected a monk named Sulaka as patriarch. However, none of these bishops who rebelled against the patriarch were metropolitans, and thus had no one to consecrate Sulaka. It seemed the group had reached an impasse until they traveled to the Holy Land where the Franciscans were already working with other Nestorians. Sulaka and his group talked with the Franciscans about having the Pope ordain and consecrate Sulaka as bishop and patriarch, and after sufficiently convincing the Franciscans that they were willing to submit to the Catholic Church in matters of doctrine and authority, the Franciscan friars gave them a letter of presentation to the Pope, and with a translator in tow, Sulaka and his compatriots headed for Rome.

In 1553, Sulaka petitioned Pope Julius III to consecrate him as patriarch, and on February 20^th, he made a profession of faith in front of the Pope. A couple months later, on April 9, 1553, he was consecrated as bishop in St. Peter’s Basilica, and was named Patriarch of the Chaldeans. Sulaka took the name of Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaka. The newly installed patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church returned home in November and fixed his seat in the city of Amid. Less than two years later, he was put to death after being tortured by those belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East, but not before consecrating five bishops and elevating them to the rank of metropolitan so that the new line of patriarchs could continue.

Over the next few hundred years, there was much fighting that occurred in the area as a result of the schism, and the patriarchate of the Chaldean Catholics went under many changes and divisions itself. It wasn’t until 1830 when two of the patriarchates which both professed the Catholic faith were consolidated into one and the new patriarch, Yohannan VIII Hormizd, was given the title of “Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans”, a title still used by the patriarch to this day. The Chaldean Catholic Church is known as one of six Eastern Catholic Churches to be called a patriarchal Church.

Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

Just as the Chaldean Catholic Church does, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church holds that its roots are found in the missionary work of St. Thomas the Apostle. However, the veneration of this saint often seems more heightened among Syro-Malabar Catholics who often call themselves “St. Thomas Christians”, as the apostle supposedly landed on the coast of the present-day city of Kerala, India in 52 A.D. Unfortunately, much like the history of the Chaldean Catholic Church, these Christians in India also broke from the Catholic Church in the fifth century following the Council of Ephesus, and the Indian Christians came under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.

It wasn’t until 1498 when the explorer Vasco da Gama landed in India, that the Catholic Church came into contact with these Christians again. The St. Thomas Christians and Roman Catholics alike were surprised to find that they both professed the Christian faith. Unfortunately, the Portuguese explorers didn’t accept the validity of the St. Thomas Christian’s traditions and liturgy, especially in regards to the Holy Qurbono (what those who use the East Syrian Rite call the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) not having the Words of Institution present, which we will discuss more in depth later.

Over the next 100 years, Latin dioceses were erected, primarily in Goa, and this led to a rough transition for those who wanted to remain true to their traditions as St. Thomas Christians. The Holy Qurbono was heavily Latinized and barely drew any resemblance to what it had been prior to the Portuguese landing there. In 1597, the last Metropolitan appointed by the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East who oversaw the Christians in India had died, leading to a void in leadership and the subsequent convening of the Synod of Diamper by the Latin Archbishop of Goa, Aleixo de Menezes in 1599. This marked the establishment of the current Syro-Malabar Catholic Church making the reunion of the St. Thomas Christians to the Pope in Rome complete. Or at least, so they thought. Much like how well-meaning Roman Catholics messed things up in the Ethiopian Church, we see how the heavy Latinizations and disregard for authentic tradition led to even more schism and strife.

The remaining native hierarchy (who now submitted to Rome), including the archdeacon, became weary of the Latin prelates and the situation reached a head in 1652 a man named Ahatallah appeared and claimed that he had been sent by the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria to serve as the Patriarch of India. Ahatallah never produced any credentials and the Portuguese deemed him an imposter and sent him away on a ship after causing even more confusion in the region. The Archdeacon demanded that he speak to Ahatallah regarding the veracity of his claims, but he was too late, as the mysterious man had already been sent away, leading to speculation that the Portuguese had in fact murdered the man. This appeared to be the breaking point and early the following year, in 1653, the Archdeacon along with several other members of the Indian community met at a Church in Mattancherry and declared they would no longer submit to the Latin bishop again. This would become to be known as the Coonan Cross Oath, and in an even greater act of defiance, 12 priests there laid hands on the archdeacon and “ordained” him bishop and metropolitan, thus restoring what they thought to be the original order that was in place before the Portuguese and Latin Catholics had appeared. Now originally, the intention wasn’t to break with the Pope, but to demand a native metropolitan instead of a foreign Jesuit or Carmelite.

Many communities throughout India sided with the Archdeacon, and in response to this, the Carmelites and Franciscans attempted to restore full communion with the disaffected St. Thomas Christians. When this failed, an appeal to Pope Alexander VII was made, and in 1662, Bishop Joseph Sebastiani was sent to ameliorate the situation, and was successful in bringing most of the St. Thomas Christians back into full communion. The Archdeacon’s consecration was eventually regularized by a Syriac Orthodox prelate, and thus we see the consequences to this day. Those that recognized the Archdeacon as the true successor of the St. Thomas Christians make up the current day Malankara Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox and Mar Thoma churches. On the other side, those that remained in the fold of the Catholic Church, after Bishop Sebastiani’s intervention. are what we know as Syro-Malabar Catholics today. In appreciation of their submission, Bishop Sebastiani consecrated Palliveettil Chandy Kathanar as metropolitan of the Syro-Malabar Catholics in India, making him the first known native St. Thomas Christian to be consecrated bishop.

Over the next 200 years, Latinizations still took place due to the influence of the Carmelites and other Latin Catholics that remained, and it wasn’t until Pope Leo XIII’s papacy in the late 19^th century that a real push for the renewal of the East Syrian rite was made. By 1934, Pope Pius XI brought about a large scale liturgical reform which led to the purge of Latinizations from the Liturgy of Mar Addai and Mar Mari, except for the modification of the anaphora to include the Words of Institution. This new liturgy, based firmly on the original, was introduced in 1962. During this time, more eparchies were created, both in India and throughout the world, which eventually led to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church being raised to the level of a major archiepiscopal Church by St. John Paul II in 1992. Since then, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has continued to grow exponentially.

The Churches of the East Syrian Rite Today

Chaldean Catholic Church

The Chaldean Catholic Church has seen, especially since the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, a great persecution at the hands of governments such as the Ottoman Empire, and militant Islamists which continues to this day. This has, in part, led to many Chaldean Catholics finding new homes throughout the world, with sizable populations in countries such as the Americas and Australia. Due to the growing number of Chaldean Catholics throughout the diaspora, new eparchies were created in Australia in 2006, and in Toronto in 2011. The Eparchy of Mar (Saint) Addai in Toronto has seen an explosion of growth in the last two years. The 2014 Annuario Pontificiorecorded 18,668 Chaldean Catholics in the eparchy, while 2015 saw that number nearly double with 31,372 people recorded as living in the eparchy.

Other eparchies, such as the Archeparchy of Basara in Iraq, have seen a decline in the volatile area since the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s. The Patriarchal seat is now located in Metropolitan Archeparchy of Baghdad, with Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako as the current head of the Chaldean Catholic Church. In 2015, it was recorded that there were 21 parishes with 150,000 faithful living in the archeparchy, but these numbers (and those of neighboring eparchies) might be fluctuating with all the unrest going on in Iraq, Iran and Syria. The total population of Iraqi Christians has dropped from 1.3 million in 2003 to around 300,000 today, showing that the numbers in the 2015 Annuario Pontificio may indeed have changed. Ancient monasteries and churches, such as St. Elijah’s Monastery of Mosul, have been totally razed and destroyed by ISIS in only the past year or two. It’s truly sad to see Christianity being wiped out in this region, and has even led to Patriarch Sako to order priests, who have fled back to the country, to minister to the shrinking Catholic population there. We can only pray that this ancient part of the Church is not wiped out in its homeland, but at the very least, the traditions of these Chaldean Catholics are finding a vibrant life outside the Middle East with no fear of persecution.

Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

Today, this particular Church is the second largest Eastern Catholic Church, behind only the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church. According to the Annuario Pontificio, in just 25 years, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church grew from 2,887,050 faithful to 4,121,096 faithful today. The Major Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Anagamaly itself boasts over 500,000 faithful, and is also the location of the major archbishop’s seat. The major archbishop, and current head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, is Cardinal George Alencherry. As was mentioned in the previous essay, out of the 215 living cardinals, eight of those cardinals belong to various Eastern Catholic Churches. Four of those cardinals are still electors, and Cardinal Alencherry is the only Syro-Malabar Catholic among them. He is the spiritual head of Syro-Malabar Catholics throughout the world, and there are two eparchies located outside of the Middle East, one in Chicago and one in Melbourne, which were established in 2001 and 2013 respectively.

Vocations are also very strong in this particular Church, which one would hope for giving the explosiveness of the Church’s population into the new millennium. As of 2015, there were 1,233 seminarians, and nearly 7,000 priests both secular and religious. Female religious have been doing very well also, with nearly over 34,000 recorded in 2015, located mainly in the major archeparchy. There are no signs of stopping this growing Church, and the universal Catholic Church as a whole is better for it, especially for the rise in vocations that it has produced.

Liturgy and Traditions

There are three different liturgies that are used in the East Syrian Rite. The only major difference in these liturgies are the anaphoras, which is where the consecration happens. In the West, this is typically called the “Eucharistic Prayer”, whereas all Eastern Christians use the word “anaphora”. The first of these is called the Liturgy of Mar (or Saint) Addai and Mar Mari. This is one of the oldest liturgies in use in the Catholic Church, and may have been used as far back as the 3^rd century in Edessa. Its current form, however, resembles that of the same liturgy that has been used since the 7^th century.

This anaphora of Mar Addai and Mar Mari has been very controversial throughout the years, and only recently has it all come to a head. The apparent problem with this anaphora was that the Words of Institution were not present explicitly. We see the Institution Narrative in the Divine Liturgies of the Latin and Byzantine Churches for example, but it was not explicit in this ancient liturgy, leading the Catholic Church to add the Institution Narrative to both the Syro-Malabar and Chaldean Catholic Churches when they reentered communion with Rome. Obviously, this inclusion of the Institution narrative never occurred in the Assyrian Church of the East which also used this anaphora. Interestingly enough, the Catholic Church never once doubted the validity of this anaphora, while the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches did, as they generally deny even the validity of Holy Orders in the Assyrian Church. At least in the areas where the Chaldean Catholic Church is centrally located, many of these Catholics find themselves attending these Churches due to intermarriage or necessity resulting from migration, and the Catholic Church during St. John Paul II’s pontificate found it important that these Catholics of the East Syrian Rite feel confident that what they were receiving in these Churches was truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 2001, following several discussions with the Assyrians, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity officially declared, with the approval of St. John Paul II, that the Eucharist in the Assyrian Church of the East was indeed valid, and intercommunion between this Church and Catholics could be permitted in the same way intercommunion was allowed between the Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches. The report stated:

“Finally, it must be observed that the eastern and western Eucharistic Anaphoras, while expressing the same mystery, have different theological, ritual and linguistic traditions. The words of the Eucharistic Institution are indeed present in the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, not in a coherent way and ad litteram, but rather in a dispersed euchological way, that is, integrated in prayers of thanksgiving, praise and intercession. All these elements constitute a "quasi-narrative" of the Eucharistic Institution… So the words of the Institution are not absent in the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, but explicitly mentioned in a dispersed way, from the beginning to the end, in the most important passages of the Anaphora.”

A full treatment on this goes beyond the scope of this essay, but to learn more you can visit these resources at the links provided. Again, it should be noted that the Institution Narrative is explicitly added in the Chaldean Catholic Church immediately before the epiclesis, and immediately before the oblation in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. In any event, the Liturgy of Mar Addai and Mar Mari is used the most throughout the liturgical year. The other two Liturgies used are the Liturgy of Mar Nestorius and the Liturgy of Mar Theodore the Interpreter. The former is used on the Epiphany and on the feasts of St. John the Baptist and the Greek Doctors of the Church. The latter is used from Advent up until Palm Sunday, and in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, was recently restored under the direction of Pope Pius XII, leading to its approval in its current form on an experimental basis back in December of 2012. The languages used in these liturgies are now typically the vernacular, but was originally said (and still is in the Chaldean Catholic Church) in a dialect of Aramaic.

As far as the liturgical calendar goes, the Chaldean and Syro-Malabar Catholic Churches are nearly identical as they both use the East Syrian Rite. The liturgical year is divided into nine seasons. There is no “Ordinary Time” or “Time after Epiphany and Pentecost” as there is in the West, but instead have seasons focusing on things in common like Advent and the Great Fast (Lent), as well as the Apostles’ Fast in June and the Season of Moses and Elijah in September and October. These two Churches also abstain from meat every Friday of the year, except the Fridays between Christmas and the feast of Epiphany and the first Friday after Easter, although local bishops can relax these norms. In addition, every Friday during the Great Fast is a day of fasting (at least in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church), whereas in the Latin Catholic Church, the only required days of fasting are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Holy Days of Obligation are pretty similar between both Churches. One Holy Day that is particular to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is that of St. Thomas the Apostle on July 3^rd. In addition, both Churches have four readings said during the Holy Qurbono on Sundays; that is, two from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, followed by a Gospel reading.

When receiving the Sacraments of initiation, these two Churches differ just a little bit. As it’s typical in many of the Eastern Catholic Churches to receive all three at once, even for infants, this isn’t the case in the Chaldean Catholic Church. Baptism and Confirmation (or Chrismation, as it is called in the East) are given together, but the first reception of Holy Communion is put off until the age of reason, as it is in the Latin Catholic Church. This Latinization was also present in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church since the Synod of Diamper in 1599, but in 2004 the Church reinstituted its tradition of communing infants, and since then all three Sacraments of initiation have been administered together. During the reception of the Eucharist during the Holy Qurbono, intinction (the dipping of the Host into the Precious Blood) is allowed in both Churches, and typically, unleavened bread is used.

Great Saints

Chaldean Catholic Church

Virtually all of the saints of the Chaldean Catholic Church come before its reunion with the Pope in Rome in 1553. But before the Assyrian Church broke away from the Catholic Church, there were several great saints who lived that are still commemorated by the universal Catholic Church. The first of these are Ss. Thaddeus (or Addai) and Mari, who were mentioned above in the Divine Liturgy that shares their name. According to tradition, St. Thaddeus was supposedly sent out by St. Thomas the Apostle to cure the king of Edessa, Abgar V, after King Abgar had written a letter to Christ asking to be healed. St. Thaddeus made the journey and successfully cured and converted the king. Being the first bishop, St. Thaddeus ordained several priests and firmly established the Church in the Mesopotamian region. As for his disciple, St. Mari, even less is certainly known about his life. He converted to the Christian faith through St. Thaddeus’ preaching, and was later ordained by him and was sent out to Nineveh to preach the Gospel. He eventually ended up in the lands surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and established a bishopric there. Even though information on these two saints is a bit nebulous, they are greatly revered by the Chaldean Catholics and Assyrian Christians, and their feast is celebrated in the Catholic Church on August 5^th.

Another saint we know a bit more about was St. Simeon Barsabe, along with his companions. St. Simeon was the bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon in the mid-4^th century. He was condemned to death by the Zoroastrian King Shapur II of the Sassanid Empire of Persia after being accused of conspiring with the emperor of Rome, therefore bringing what was considered the “foreign” religion of Christianity to the kingdom. When he and his companions were brought before the unjust tribunals, St. Simeon was made an impossible offer: if he were to deny Christ and instead pay worship to the sun, he and the rest of his fellow Christians would not be executed. St. Simeon refused, and continued to bear testimony to Jesus Christ. On Good Friday in the year 341, he and his companions were taken to be beheaded. He was forced to watch his flock martyred, and he exhorted them as they met their deaths, until at last he himself was beheaded. Ss. Simeon and his companions are commemorated on April 21^st.

Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, on the other hand, has several men and women who have been canonized and beatified in recent years. Obviously, St. Thomas the Apostle is regarded as the greatest saint in this particular Church. But these other saints closer to our own times are dearly revered as well. First among these is St. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, who became the first native Indian saint to be canonized back in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI. St. Alphonsa was a Franciscan nun who was born in 1910 to a wealthy family in Kerala, India. After she was sent to school, she received many proposals for marriage from other wealthy families, but instead declared the intention to dedicate her life to God in opposition to her foster mother who wanted to see her married. When she was 13, her feet were badly burned when she fell into a fiery pit of burning chaff, leaving her permanently disabled for the rest of her life. According to some, this was a deliberate action in order to get out of having to marry a suitor in accordance with her mother’s wishes. From there, she joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation and entered the novitiate of the congregation at Bharananganam in 1930. Soon after however, she became ill for a period of five years, and while eventually she was cured (by her own testimony) through the intercession of another Syro-Malabar saint, she would soon suffer pneumonia and other ailments throughout the rest of her life until she died on July 28, 1946. Pope St. John Paul II had these words to say about her at her beatification in 1986:

“From early in her life, Sister Alphonsa experienced great suffering. With the passing of the years, the heavenly Father gave her an ever fuller share in the Passion of his beloved Son. We recall how she experienced not only physical pain of great intensity, but also the spiritual suffering of being misunderstood and misjudged by others. But she constantly accepted all her sufferings with serenity and trust in God, being firmly convinced that they would purify her motives, help her to overcome all selfishness, and unite her more closely with her beloved divine Spouse.”

Her feast is celebrated on the day of her death, July 28^th.

Interestingly enough, the saint that St. Alphonsa credited for her healing wasn’t canonized until after her own canonization. That person we speak of is St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara, a priest who was also born in Kerala, India in 1805. He is the first canonized male saint of Indian heritage, and was the co-founder and first Prior General of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, which was the first congregation for religious men in India and in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. With the caste system alive and well in India, St. Kuriakose became a social reformer as he ministered and educated the lower castes by founding schools and working for free education for Catholic schools. At his canonization on November 23^rd, 2014, Pope Francis mentioned that “Father Kuriakose Elias was a religious, both active and contemplative, who generously gave his life for the Syro-Malabar Church, putting into action the maxim ‘sanctification of oneself and the salvation of others’. St. Kuriakose’s feast day is commemorated on January 3^rd.

While both of these sui iuris Churches share the same liturgy, we can see they have taken some different paths in their histories; one, the Chaldean Catholic Church, is being heavily persecuted but is still thriving throughout the diaspora. Second, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church keeps growing and growing no matter where the faithful are living and have given the Catholic Church the gift of many priests, and even more seminarians are waiting in the wings. These Churches have been a boon to the Catholic Church as a whole, in their traditions and in the holy men and women they have produced as great examples of sanctity, and all Catholics should surely be acquainted with their rich patrimony. In the next part of this series, we’ll delve into the Antiochene (or West Syrian) Rite which includes the Maronite Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.