The supreme head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India, Baselios Marthoma Paulose II, passed away in the early hours of Monday. He was 74. He was popularly known as Catholica Bava. He died around 2.35 am at a private hospital in Parumala in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district while undergoing treatment for post-COVID-19 complications. The senior priest, who had been suffering from lung cancer since December 2019, had recovered from the COVID-19 infection in February this year.
The late Paul II was the eighth Catholic priest of the Malankara Orthodox Church. He was enthroned as the Catholicos of the East & Malankara Metropolitan in November 2010. He was a philanthropist and known for his secular ideologies. In 2006, the Synod of the Orthodox Church elected Paul II as the ordained Catholic Bava of the Malankara Church. Then, in 2010, Didymus I resigned from his post due to ill health, and Paul II ordained him as the Eighth Catholic. Paul II was born in 1946 in a village in Thrissur district in Kerala. After completing his primary education and studying at the Saminari in Kottayam, he became a priest. At a very young age, Paul II entered the title of Bishop of Katilok. In 1985, at the age of 36, Father Paul was promoted to the rank of Paul Mar Militios. He then became the Metropolitan of the newly renamed Kunnamkulam Diocese.
