His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Mathews II Cathojicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan completes eighty three years of age on January 30, 1998. It was on April 29, 1991 at Parumala Seminary that he was installed and enthroned as Catholicos of the East. He is the eighty ninth successor seated on the throne of St. Thomas as Catholicos. He is the sixth Catholicos in Malankara after the establishment of the Catholicate here in 1912. As Supreme Head of the Malankara Orthodox Church, he now assumes two titles "Catholicos of the East" and "Malankara Metropolitan". 

The Malankara Metropolitan is the head of the Malankara Arch Diocese, the President of the Malankara Syrian Christian Association and the Managing Committee. The Prime Jurisdiction regarding the temporal eclesiastical and spiritual administration of the Malankara Church is vested in the Malankara Metropolitan subject to the provisions of the Church constitution.  

Born on January 30, 1915 at Perinad in Kollam District of Kerala he had his early education in a local school. After his High School education he had his training at Old Seminary Kottayam and also at Basil Dayara, Pathanamthitta. Later he joined Bishop's College, Calcutta for his B. D. Degree. He had his higher education in Theology at General Theological Seminary, New York. 

He was ordained as Deacon in 1938 and as Priest in 1941. It was during his stay at St. George Dayara. Othara that Father Mathews made a mark as a devoted and an able priest of the Orthodox Church. He was noted for his spiritual leadership and loving nature and could endear himself to everyone who came in contact with him. He was known as "Father Angel" at that time.