Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch
Malabar Rite
Apostolic Succession in the Church of Antioch
The term "apostolic succession" refers to the doctrine in Catholic
and Orthodox churches that holds that certain spiritual powers, which Jesus Christ first entrusted to the twelve apostles, are
passed on in an unbroken line of succession from the apostles to the first bishops of the church and that these bishops in
turn consecrated their successors as well as ordained priests to assist them in their pastoral duties. The validity
of apostolic succession is the key factor in determining the sacerdotal powers of Catholic and Orthodix Churches.
The principal line of apostolic succession of the Church of Antioch comes from the Roman Catholic Church,
through the Dutch Old Catholic Church and the Liberal Catholic Church in England.
The validity of this line of succession is widely recognized with the earliest recorded member being Roman Catholic bishop
Scipione Rebiba. More than 91 percent of all Roman Catholic bishops world-wide trace their own lineage to Rebiba (Bransom,
1990). The founder of our Church, Archbishop Herman Adrian Spruit, as you will see below is in direct succession of bishop
Rebiba..
In addition, the Church
of Antioch has made an effort to unite Eastern and Western lines of apostolic
succession. The Church of Antioch
derives additional lines of succession from Archbishop Spruit's co-consecrators (in addition to that portion of our name Antioch
- Malabar RIte). These additional lines include the Syrian Jacobite Patriarchate of Antioch, the Chaldean Patriarchate of
Babylon at Baghdad, the Catholicate-Patriarchate of Assyria,
the Greek Melkite Patriarchate of Antioch, Patriarchate of Moscow, Armenian Catholicate-Patriarchate of Cilicia, the Metropolitan-Archbishops
of Albania, the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, and the nonjurring Anglicans. Joseph Aneed, a Greek Melkite bishop
with a claim to a patriarchate for North America willed his claim to Archbishop Spruit, thereby
giving our church a similar claim.
We make our principal lines of succession available here for
those who wish to gain a better understanding of the sacramental authority on which our independent branch of the One, Holy,
Catholic, and Apostolic Church
is founded. All Christians are grafted into the one vine, the mystical body of Jesus Christ.
The
Church of Antioch’s Major Lines of Apostolic Succession
ROMAN CATHOLIC SUCCESSION
Succession from St. Peter to Cardinal Scipione Rebiba
On 12 March 1566,
Cardinal Scipione
Rebiba,
Roman Catholic Bishop of Troia consecrated
Giulio Antonio Santorio,
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santa Severina
who on 7 September 1586 consecrated
Girolamo Bernerio,
O.P.,
Roman Catholic Bishop of Ascoli Piceno
who on 4 April 1604 consecrated
Galeazzo Sanvitale,
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bari
who on 2 May 1621 consecrated
Ludovico Ludovisi,
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bologna
who on 12 June 1622 consecrated
Luigi Caetani,
Roman Catholic Titular Patriarch of Antioch
who on 7 October 1630 consecrated
Giovanni Battista
Scannaroli,
Roman Catholic Titular Bishop of Sidon
who on 24 October 1655 consecrated
Antonio Barberini
(the younger),
Roman Catholic Bishop of Frascati
who on 11 November 1668 consecrated
Charles Maurice Le Tellier,
Roman Catholic Bishop of Mieux
who on 21 September 1670 consecrated
Jaques Benigne Boussuet,
who on 24 October 1693 consecrated
Jaques Goyon De
Matigon,
who on 18 February 1719 consecrated
Dominicus Marie
Varlet,
Roman Catholic Bishop of Babylon
who on 17 October 1739 consecrated
Petrus Meindaerts,
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
who on 11 July 1745 consecrated
Johannes Van Stiphout,
Old Catholic Bishop of Harrlem
who on 7 February 1768 consecrated
Gualterus Michael
Van Nieuwenhuizen,
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
who on 21 June 1778 consecrated
Adrianus Johannes
Broekman,
Old Catholic Bishop of Harrlem
who on 5 July 1797 consecrated
Johannes Jacobus
Van Rhijn,
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
who on 7 November 1805 consecrated
Gilbert Cornelius
De Jong,
Old Catholic Bishop of Deventer
who on 24 April 1814 consecrated
Willibord Van Os,
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht,
who on 25 April 1819 consecrated
Johannes Bon,
Old Catholic Bishop of Haarlem
who on 13 November 1824 consecrated
Johannes Van Santen,
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
who on 17 July 1854 consecrated
Casparus Johannes
Rinkel,
Old Catholic Bishop of Haarlem
who on 11 May 1892 consecrated
Gerard Gul,
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
who on 28 April 1908 consecrated
Arnold Harris Mathew,
Old Catholic Bishop for Great Britain
who on 28 October 1914 consecrated
Frederick Samuel
Willoughby,
who on 13 February 1916 consecrated
James Ingall Wedgwood,
Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church
who on 13 July 1919 consecrated
Irving Steiger Cooper,
Liberal Catholic Regionary Bishop for the United States,
who on 13 September 1931 consecrated
Charles H. Hampton,
Liberal Catholic Regionary Bishop for the United States
who on 22 June 1957 consecrated
Herman Adrian Spruit,
who became Archbishop-Patriarch of the Church of Antioch
(Catholic Apostolic Church
of Antioch, Malabar Rite)
SYRO-JACOBITE SUCCESSION
The Christian Church in India claims to have been instituted
by the apostle Thomas, whose tomb is said to be located in Mylapore, now a suburb of the city of Madras
in Southern India. Tradition holds that St. Thomas landed in India at Malankara which is an
island in the lagoon near Cranganore in Cochin. It is believed he traveled all over Northern and Southern India but there
is considerable evidence that the church now calling itself the St. Thomas Christians was not founded by him.
The church of St. Thomas
in all probability came into being between the second and fourth decade of the third century.
It was founded by a Syrian merchant know as Thomas of Cana (Knai Thomas). Finding
the Christian Church on the Malabar Coast to be in deplorable condition, on his return to Syria he brought the matter to the attention to Patriarch Seleucia.
In order to strengthen the Malabar Church
the Patriarch dispatched Mar Joseph, Metropolitan of Urfu, and other unnamed clergy together with about 400 Syrians to the
Malabar coast. Thomas of Cana was among these
settlers and set up business in the new colony. They arrived in Cranganore, Malabar,
in 345.
Thomas of Cana established an extensive business in the new colony and soon became its most influential member. He married twice raising a large family and as a result of frequent intermarriage
of his descendents with other Christians of the region the whole community soon came to regard Thomas of Cana, by now called
Mar Thomas, as their common ancestor. The community that resulted from this Syrian
settlement has been able to maintain itself to this day and its descendants are commonly called Christians of St. Thomas or
Malabar Rite Christians.
The Jacobite Church was founded
by Jacob Baradeus (500-578) who was recognized as the head of the Syrian Monophisytes and hence the church is called the Syro-Jacobite Church. The Patriarch of the Apostolic See of Antioch heads the church although his actual
residence is in Syria.
The Monophisytes argue that Jesus possessed a single nature while its opponents held to the dual nature of Christ. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 the Monophisytes conceded to the composite nature
of Christ but refused to acknowledge the two natures of Christ as proposed by their orthodox brethren. The Council of Chalcedon rejected the Monophysite argument and declared their theology not to be orthodox. As a consequence the Monophisytes withdrew and a whole new ecclesiastical structure
arose side be side that of the orthodox churches.
The Monophysite Syrian Jacobite Church established its presence on the Malabar Coast as early as the sixteenth century. It was
to this church that Antonio Juilus Alvarez, Independent Bishop of Ceylon
and Goa, petitioned and from which he derived his consecration to the episcopate.
The fact that Bishop Alvarez’ Apostolic Succession comes from a Monophysite jurisdiction does not affect
its validity. This is clearly documented by the Augustinian principle promulgated
by St. Augustine that was confirmed by the Roman Catholic
Council of Trent. (Sess. XXIII, Can. 7.)
as they relate to matter, form, intention and jurisdiction. Trent categorically declared that Episcopal powers come from God and cannot be rescinded
by any earthly power.
Thus, one jurisdiction may forbid bishops or priests of another jurisdiction from exercising the powers given
to them by God at the time of their ordination or consecration from practicing them within that jurisdiction. However, that jurisdiction can in no way declare such powers invalid although they may, as does the Roman
Catholic Church, declare the powers of all Catholic bishops and priests ordained and consecrated outside of the Roman jurisdiction
to be irregular.
However, the proof that even the Roman Catholic Church accepts that the priestly powers of these other Catholic
clergy are completely valid is that when these clergy from the Old Catholic Church, the Anglo-Catholic Church, and other non
Roman Catholic Churches seek incardination as priests in the Roman Catholic Church they do not have to be ordained to the
priesthood again. There is a Ceremony of Incardination where the candidate joins
the Roman Catholic Church but there is no question that he is already a priest.
SYRO-JACOBITE SUCCESSION
Succession from St. Peter to (126) Mar Ignatius Peter III 1872
Who on December 4, 1877 consecrated
(127) Paulose Mar Athanasius (Kadavil Kooran),
Syrian Antioch Bishop of Kottayam and Metropolitan of Malabar,
India
Who on July 28, 1889 consecrated
Under the authority and dispensation of
Mar Ignatius Peter III
(128) Mar Julius I (Antonio Francis Xavier Alvares),
Archbishop of the Latin Rite Independent Catholic Church of Ceylon,
Goa and India
Who on May 29, 1892 in Colombia, Ceylon at Our Lady of Good Death Cathedral
Under a Bull of Mar Ignatius Peter III consecrated
(129) Joseph Rene Vilatte,
To serve as archbishop of the Old Catholic Church of North America
Who in 1920 consecrated
(130) Frederick E. Lloyd,
Bishop of the Old Catholic Church in America
Who in 1923 consecrated
(131) Gregory Lines,
Schismatic Bishop of the Old Catholic Church of
America
Who ca. 1925 consecrated
(132) Robert Raleigh,
Schismatic Bishop of the Old Catholic Church
of America
Who ca. 1927 consecrated
(133) Lowell Paul Wadle,
An independent Catholic Bishop
In 1940 Bishop Wadle affiliated with,
Bishop Percy Clarkson,
Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church of Antioch
In 1957 Bishop Wadel was a co-consecrator of
Herman Adrian Spruit,
Founder and Patriarch of the Catholic Apostolic Church
of Antioch - Malabar Rite
