Thomas Athanasius

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Thomas Mar Athanasius Mar Thoma XIV, or Thomas Thirumeni (7 October 1836 – 10 August 1893), was the Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Syrian Church faction of Malankara, from 1877 to 1893. The first son of prominent Syrian Church reformist Abraham Malpan (the "Martin Luther of the East"), he was born into the Palakunnathu family of Maramon. He ascended to the throne of the Malankara Metropolitan at a time of turmoil in the Malankara Church, being removed from office by the majority pro-Patriarchate faction of the church following the Royal court verdict of 1889, and evicted from the Pazhaya seminary (the seat of Malankara Metropolitan).^[1]

The Reformist faction of the Malankara Syrian Church which stood faithful to him later organized into an Independent Reformed Syrian Church governed by its own autocephalous bishop, adopting the name "Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church". The Mar Thoma Syrian Church claims to be the true autonomous Malankara Syrian Church dating back to the Apostolic activity of St. Thomas the Apostle in the 1st Century A.D.