Baselios Yeldo

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(Redirected from
Eldho Mor Baselios
)

Saint Baselios Yeldo
St. Thomas Church, Kothamangalam
Feast3 October

Saint Baselios Yeldo was the Maphrian of the East of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1678 until his resignation in 1684. He is venerated as a saint in the Syriac Orthodox Church and his feast day is 3 October.

Yeldo was proclaimed a saint by  
Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, on 20 October 1987.[1][2]

Biography

Yeldo was born in 1593 in the village of

Maphrian of the East in 1678 by Mor Ignatius Abdul Messiah I, the then Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.[3]

In 1683,

Monastery of Saint Matthew and made preparations for the journey to India. The monks Joea and Matthew, from the monasteries of Saint Matthew and Saint Behnam respectively, Bishop Mor Ivanios Hidyatullah, and Yeldo's brother Jamma joined him on the journey south to Basra.[3]

The group travelled by sea from

Kothamangalam)[4][5] by land and in disguise. Whilst travelling, the group encountered a tiger, but was repelled when Mor Yeldo made the sign of the cross in its direction, forcing it to flee. He later arrived at the village of Pallivasal and, with the knowledge a heavy flood would afflict the village in the night, advised the villagers to sleep in the hills. Those who followed the saint and his entourage into the hills survived whilst the animals and villagers who remained were drowned. Mor Ivanios and Mor Yeldo continued on to Kozhippilli, near Kothamangalam, where Mor Ivanios agreed to hide in a tree until Mor Yeldo returned, as it was deemed unsafe to travel together.[3]

He later reached the

St. Thomas Church, Kothamangalam. The man stated he could not do so due to his inability to leave his cattle alone, and thus Mor Yeldo drew a circle in the dirt with his walking stick and instructed the man to direct the cattle into the circle. The cattle consequently did not leave the circle, and the man told the saint of his sister's labour pains, to which Mor Yeldo asked for water. The man went to climb a coconut tree, but it bent down by itself, and he gathered two coconuts. Mor Yeldo blessed one of the coconuts and told the man to make his sister drink from the coconut. The man later returned with the news that his sister had successfully given birth to a baby boy. As the cattle had remained within the circle, the man agreed to show Mor Yeldo to the local church. In remembrance of this event, his successors, belonging to the Nair community, hold the traditional lamp of the church and lead the Rasa (Church procession) on the festival day of Mor Baselios Yeldo to date.[3]

At the St. Thomas Church, members of the local congregation returned to Kozhippilli with Mor Yeldo's handkerchief to retrieve Mor Ivanios who, however, refused to come down from the tree as he believed that the crowd had murdered the saint. The local deacon, who spoke

Feast of the Holy Cross, Mor Yeldo consecrated Mor Ivanios Hidayatullah as archbishop to help consecrate clergy and thus combat Portuguese affronts against the Church of Malankara. Due to his age, however, the saint became ill three days later and died on 29 September 1685. The huge granite cross within the Church of Saint Thomas lit up at the time of his death.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b St. Baselios Yeldho. St. George Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, Cheppaud, Kerala, India
  2. ^ "St. Baselios Yeldho". syriacchristianity.info. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e St. Baselios Yeldho. Malankara Syriac Christian Resources
  4. ^ Journal of South Indian History. Publication Division, University of Calicut. 2005. pp. 84–85.
  5. ^ In Quest of Kerala: Geography, places of interest, political history, social history, literature. Accent Publications. 1974. p. 57.
Preceded by Syriac Orthodox Maphrian of the East
1678–1684
Succeeded by