Cheppad - Cheppad Philipose Mar Dionysius

Cheppad Philipose Mar Dionysius

St George Orthodox Church is the resting place of Cheppad Philipose Mar Dionysius, Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church during 1825–1855. Philipose Mar Dionysius, Malankara Metropolitan of Syrian Orthodox Church was born in 1781 at the Aanjilimootil family in Pallippad (A place near to Cheppad). After the death of Mar Dionysius III in 1825, Philipose Malpan of Aanjilimoottil, Pallipadu was ordained as Metropolitan Mar Dionysius IV for The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The ruler of Travancore issued a Royal Proclamation acknowledging him as Malankara Metropolitan. He was not on good terms with the English missionaries who worked in Malankara Church under the English. The foreign missionaries suggested to reform the 'Qurbana norms' according to the Protestant standards, and to do away with the worship and prayer conducted for the dead, other suggestions included in raising of a fund to increase the salary of the priests, and giving ordination to only those priests who passed out from the Seminary and received the certificate from the Principal. The accounts of the Church every year must be submitted to the Resident for annual auditing the church services were to be conducted in Malayalam. The Metropolitan rejected all these suggestions outright. A meeting of the representatives of the church was convened in Puthiyacavu Church, Mavelikara in 1836 in order to discuss the recommendations of the missionaries. The Mavelikkara Padiola was formulated in order to strongly resist the new reforms of the foreign missionaries. In 1846, the Patriarch sent a Metropolitan Yuyakim Mar Kurilos to Malankara. Later on Mar Donysius gave up the position of Malankara Metropolitan to avoid a split in the church and retired from administrative matters. He died on 9 October 1855. He was laid to rest in St. George Orthodox Church, Cheppad. His Death Anniversary is on October 12 every year.

Recent Development Cheppad is turning into a town of the future with the already existing national thermal power station,new government medical college,modernisation of Cheppad railway station and 5 star hotels in the neighbourhood.Cheppad is covered by the state of the art 3G mobile network and high speed broadband up to 8 Mbit/s and the new national highway-47 development gives Cheppad access to all major cities