(07-10-1917 to 22-12-2007)
Rev. Fr. Ephrem Parathazham OCD expired on 22nd December, 2007, at the age of 90 in 60th year of his Religious Profession.
Rev. Fr. Ephrem Parathazham OCD was born on 7th October 1917. His parents were Varghese and Teresa. After his studies, he joined the Carmelite Order. He entered his Canonical Novitiate on 28th November 1939 taking the name Br. Ephrem Parathazham OCD and made Simple Profession on 29th November 1940. On 29th November 1943, he made his Solemn Profession. He received his Sacerdotal Ordination on 8th March 1947.
Malabar Province became impoverished by the demise of Rev. Fr. Ephrem Parathazham OCD. Fr. Ephrem, one of the few non-agenerians ever in our Province, whose eventful life and peaceful death bear witness to genuine Christian sanctity, was an architect of our Province in the present form. Having been Provincial for three times and having held most of the responsibilities in the Province for over half a century, he had left a unique heritage to our Province. He served as the Mission Relator for a number of Triennium until his death. Pioneering the most vital dimensions of the Malabar Province, such as – Mission in the North India, St. Joseph’s Press, Adhyatma Vidya Pitam in Bengaluru, founding many of our present house and consolidating a sustainable economy for the Province – Malabar Province would have had a different history, had it been deprived of his practical sagacity and unparalleled love for the Province.
His love for the Province expressed uniquely and meaningfully through his commitment to Vocation promoter. He was personally involved in Vocation promotion going through schools even when he was the Provincial. The paternal care and love he showed to all our brothers from the Aspirancy until the completion of the Formation must be an example for our friars. The members of our Province, young and old alike, could find in him a father with a heart full of love and care.
Though God had given him a long span of life, his death deprives the Province of a unique gift, full of love for the Province and all its members, person endowed with wisdom and vision, whose life was multifariously prodigious and whose death celestially peaceful.
+ May the Lord reward His faithful Carmelite Friar!!
REQUIEM IN PACEM!!