Antony Padiyara

Antony Padiyara (February 11, 1921—March 23, 2000) was an Indian prelate of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. He was Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly from 1985 to 1996, having previously served as Bishop of Ootacamund (1955-1970) and Archbishop of Changanassery (1970-1985). He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988.
==Biography==
Born in Manimala, Kerala, Antony Padiyara studied at St. Peter's Regional Seminary in Bangalore and was ordained to the priesthood on December 19, 1945. He was incardinated into the Latin Rite Diocese of Coimbatore, where he served as curate at Kodiyeri and pastor at Kollegal and Ootacamund between 1946 and 1952. He became rector of the minor seminary in 1952 and a professor at St. Peter's Regional Seminary in 1954.
On July 3, 1955, Padiyara was appointed Bishop of Ootacamund by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 16 from Bishop René-Jean-Baptiste-Germain Feuga, with Bishop Francis Xavier Muthappa and Archbishop Matthew Kavukattu serving as co-consecrators. After attending the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, Padiyara returned to the Syro-Malabar Rite upon being promoted to Archbishop of Changanassery on June 14, 1970. He was elected Vice President of the Indian Episcopal Conference (1976), President of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (1983), and President of the Syro-Malabar Bishops Conference (1984). In one of the acts of his short-lived papacy, Pope John Paul I named him Apostolic Visitor to the Syro-Malabar Catholics in Kerala on September 8, 1978.
Padiyara was appointed Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly by Pope John Paul II on April 23, 1985. He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Maria "Regina Pacis" a Monte Verde in the consistory of June 28, 1988. When the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly was elevated to the rank of a major archdiocese on December 16, 1992, Padiyara became a Major Archbishop and thus head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Within the Roman Curia, he was a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Oriental Canon Law. After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, he resigned as Major Archbishop on November 11, 1996, after eleven years of service. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1998.
He later died at the Cardinal Padiyara Nature Cure Centre in Kakkanad, which he himself had founded, aged 79. He is buried in St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica in Ernakulam.
==References==
== External links ==
* Antony Padiyara statistics
Category:Indian cardinals
Category:Indian Eastern Catholics
Category:2000 deaths
Category:1921 births
Category:Eastern Catholic bishops
Category:Archbishops of Changanassery
Category:Syro-Malabar Catholic Archbishops of Ernakulam-Angamaly
Category:Archbishops of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Changanassery
Category:Christianity in India
Category:Participants in the Second Vatican Council
Category:Cardinals created by Pope John Paul II
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