Timotheus, Abimalek (1878–1945) [Ch. of E.]

Metropolitan of India.

Metropolitan of India. Abimalek was born in Marbishu in Turkey and graduated from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Assyrian Mission school for priests in 1901. He was made an archdeacon in 1904. In 1907, in reply to a petition sent three years earlier from the community at Trichur, Mar Benyamin Shemʿon consecrated him for the see of Malabar. In India he was an autocratic leader and his career was marked by litigation. As the senior bp. in the church he visited Iraq in 1919, 1920–1, and 1927– 1928. On the second visit he protested against the consecration of Mar Eshai Shemʿon and was made regent to the boy patr. But his claim to keep this title in 1927 was rejected by the family, and he was deported back to India. His special achievement was the foundation of the Mar Narsai Press in Trichur, which became the main church printing office in English, Syriac, and Malayalam.