Bethany Ashram, Perunadu, Ranni is the first Ashram of the

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an Autocephaly, autocephalous Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in #Catholicate ...

. It was established by P. T. Geevarghese, later Archbishop Ivanios and Alexios, later Alexios Thevodosios. The Ashram follows the

religious order A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their Organizational founder, ...

called Order of the Imitation of Christ (O.I.C.).

Foundation of the ashram

At Serampore, P. T. Geevarghese had more time for prayer and contemplation. He came across the writings of St. Basil on monasticism. The Basilian monastic vision had a great influence on him. Besides the visits to the

Sabarmati Ashram Sabarmati Ashram is located in the Sabarmati suburb of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, adjoining the Ashram Road, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, from the town hall. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gandhi who lived at Sabarmati (Gujar ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

and

Santiniketan Shantiniketan (IPA: Help:IPA/Bengali, �antiniketɔn is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendra ...

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

gave him a new vision of Indian

Sannyasa ''Sannyasa'' (), sometimes spelled ''sanyasa'', is the fourth stage within the Hinduism, Hindu system of four life stages known as ''ashrama (stage), ashramas'', the first three being ''brahmacharya'' (celibate student), ''Gṛhastha, grihast ...

(monasticism). These experiences made him reflect upon starting an order of missionaries to carry out the task of evangelisation in India. Slowly the residence of P. T. Geevarghese and his followers at Serampore became an

Ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Indian culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse nation of India, pertaining to the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and the Republic of India post-1947. ...

.Fr. Thomas Kuzhinapurath, "Mar Ivanios: Bharata Christava Sanyasathinte Pravachakan", ''Deepika'', 15 July 1997. As he accepted this as his way of life, he resigned from the Serampore College. On his return from Calcutta, Geevarghese looked for a location to establish an ashram. One of his friends, Advocate E. J. John, donated of land at Mundanmala, Ranni-Perunadu,

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

at the meeting place of the rivers Pampa and Kakkatt. The adjacent area of was bought from the Government of Travancore at a rate of 5

rupees Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Afr ...

per

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

using a fund of about 2000

. The place was thickly filled with thorny bushes and herbs. In 1918 Fr. Alexios along with Oomman Vadhyar reached Mundanmala and made the necessary arrangements to establish the Asramam and started an orphanage at there as part of the Bethany Asramam's social activities.Later in 1919 Fr P T Geevarghese joined at Mundanmala. P. T. Geevarghese founded the Bethany Madhom for religious women in 1925, with the help of the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

sisters, entitled Oxford Mission Sisterhood of the Epiphany working at

Serampore Serampore (also called Serampur, Srirampur, Srirampore, Shreerampur, Shreerampore, Shrirampur or Shrirampore) is a city in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Srirampore subdivision. It is a part ...

Bishop of Bethany

The Malankara Synod decided to ordain P. T. Geevarghese

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of Bethany. He was ordained by

Baselios Geevarghese I Baselios Geevarghese I ''Born in Vallikkattu Karuchira family in Vakathanam.Geevarghese'', consecrated bishop as ''Mar Philoxenos'' (11 January 1870 – 17 December 1928) popularly known as Vallikkattu Bava, he was the second Catholicos ...

on 1 May 1925. He received the name ''Mar Ivanios''. Bishop Mar Ivanios, one of the founder of the Bethany Asraman left the Malankara Church and the Bethany Asramam in 1930 joined Catholic Church. Fr.Alexios became the superior of the Aramam in 1930.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethany Ashram Christian organisations based in India Syro-Malankara Catholic Church Christian organizations established in 1919