Background
He was born in Pandalam, Kerala on 16 August 1935.
He was born in Pandalam, Kerala on 16 August 1935.
He received a doctorate in canon law from the in Rome in 1965, after taking a master"s degree in psychology from Saint John"s University in New York City. He taught at Saint Thomas Apostolic Seminary in Kottayam and Saint Joseph"s Pontifical Institute, Mangalapuzha, Aluva.
His birth name was James Malancharuvil. In 1951 he entered in the Order of the Imitation of Christ (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) and took the religious name of Cyril. Education He was named as Eparch (Bishop) of the suffragan Diocese of Bathery on 28 October 1978, and consecrated on 28 December 1978 by Benedict March Gregorios with the name Cyril March Baselios.
He was made Metropolitan Archbishop and head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church on 6 November 1995.
He received the archiepiscopal pallium from Pope John Paul II on 9 January 1996 in Vatican City. Major Archbishop 335.
The Holy See of Rome approved of this by giving recognition to the "Code of Particular Canons of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church". He was the first Syra-malankar to bear the title of Major Archbishop, which was earlier granted to the Syro-Malabar metropolitanate of Ernakulam–Angamaly and the Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitanate of Kyiv–Halyč and shortly after to the Romanian Catholic Metropolitanate of Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia.
Baselios died suddenly of a heart attack on 18 January 2007, in Trivandrum.