Gregorios of Parumala

Geevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala, also known as Parumala Thirumeni, was a Metropolitan of the Malankara Syrian Church. Parumala Thirumeni became the first person of Indian origin to be canonised as saint. In 1947, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church declared Mar Gregorios as a saint, making him the first saint from India canonized by that Church. On the 20th of October, 1987, His Holiness Ignatius Zakka I, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, solemnly proclaimed the canonization of St. Gregorios of Parumala, thereby confirming his sanctity and establishing his veneration throughout the Syriac Orthodox Church.