Catholicos Aboon Mor Baselios Thomas I, the spiritual head of the Syrian Orthodox Church’s Jacobite faction in India, died on Oct. 31. He was 95. The prelate passed away while undergoing treatment for age-related ailments in southern Kerala state, where the Damascus-based Church has more than 2 million followers. Thomas, affectionately called Bava, “was an ardent supporter of ecumenical unity,” said Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, head of the Kerala-based Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church. “He led the Church in the most challenging period” and served the Church “even at the cost of his life,” added Thattil. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) said his death “has left a void in the Christian community.” “He was an iconic figure in the Indian Christian community, having completed 50 years of dedicated Episcopal service,” the bishops said. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the late prelate dedicated his life to the service of humanity. He made “unparalleled contributions to the growth of the Church,” Vijayan, the only serving communist chief minister in the country, said in his condolence message. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said the prelate was known for his compassion and commitment to the community.  The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch was based in Turkey. However, after World War I, the patriarchate was transferred to Homs in Syria in 1933. In 1959, it was shifted to Damascus. In 1911, the Church in India witnessed a spilt over its leadership, which led to a protracted dispute over Church properties.  Thomas headed the Jacobite faction, which owed its allegiance to the Church’s head in Damascus. The rival Orthodox group’s supreme head is based at its headquarters in Kerala. In 2017, the Jacobite faction suffered a setback when, in a protracted legal battle, it lost almost all its temporal properties to the Orthodox faction.