Gregorios Abdul Jaleel

Who was Gregorios Abdul Jaleel?

Mor Gregorios Abdul Jaleel Bawa was a Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem from 1664 until his death. He is chiefly remembered for his 1665 mission to India, in which he established ties between the newly independent Malankara Church and the Syriac Orthodox church. He is venerated as a saint by his church.

Abdul Jaleel was born in Mosul, Iraq. In 1654 he was ordained metropolitan bishop for the Ameed diocese in Turkey by the Patriarch Mor Ignatius She'mun. In AD. 1664, he was elevated as the Metropolitan of Jerusalem with the title Mor Gregorios. He traveled to India in 1665 to regularize the ordination of Mar Thoma I, archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christian community who been declared a bishop by his followers after refusing to submit to the Portuguese. In India Gregorios established ties between Thoma's Malankara Church and the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch, and introduced the West Syrian Rite. He died in India in 1681, and his remains are interred in the St. Thomas Church at North Paravur. On April 4, 2000, Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I declared Mor Gregorios Abdul Jaleel a saint.