Titus I Mar Thoma

Who was Titus I Mar Thoma?

Titus I Mar Thoma was known as Thithoos Mar Thoma Metropolitan among his people, and was the first Mar Thoma after the formation of Marthoma church.

The small state of Kerala is on the South Western coast of India. In the 1st century, Thomas the Apostle arrived there to preach the gospel to the Jewish community. Some local residents became followers of Jesus of Nazareth; they were known as Nasrani people and their church as Malankara Church. They followed a unique Hebrew-Syriac Christian tradition which included several Jewish elements and Indian customs.

Malankara church was split into two, Bava faction and Metran faction. Thithoos Mar Thoma was the Metropolitan of the Metran faction, which later chose the name Malanakara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, now popularly known as Mar Thoma Church. This church remained completely independent and did not join the Bava faction.. In the litigation between the two factions that began in 1879 and ended in 1889, the Metran faction lost all its properties to the Bava faction. At this time Bishop Thithoos Mar Thoma took charge as Metropolitan.