Malankara Orthodox Catholicos concludes Ethiopia visit after Meskel Festival

Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, returned to India on Sunday after a four-day apostolic visit to Ethiopia, during which he served as chief guest at the Meskel Festival of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Addis Ababa.

The visit followed an invitation from Abune Mathias I, head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Patriarch of Ethiopia. The two Church leaders jointly led the religious services held as part of the Meskel celebrations.

In his message, the Catholicos said that although India and Ethiopia are geographically distant, the two Churches are bound by close spiritual ties. He described the Ethiopian and Indian Orthodox Churches as sister Churches within the Oriental Orthodox family, sharing a heritage rooted in apostolic faith, prayer and the Cross of Christ.

He also recalled the 1965 meeting of the heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in Addis Ababa, describing it as a significant milestone in relations between the two Churches.

The celebrations at Meskel Square drew government representatives, metropolitans, clergy, monastics and hundreds of thousands of faithful.

The Meskel Festival blends religious observance with Ethiopia's cultural traditions and commemorates the discovery of the True Cross, on which Jesus Christ was crucified, by Queen Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century.

After the festival, the Catholicos attended the Holy Qurbana at Bole Medhanealem Cathedral.