Among all the saints of the Church, St. Mary occupies a preeminent position. This prominence is the consequence of her role as the Mother of God (Theotokos), a title that was underscored by the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431) and firmly establishing it in the spirituality of the Church. St. Mary thus appears not only as the person who was favoured to bear the Son of God, but because of her acquiescence to God’s offer, she represents the pinnacle of synergy, the process by which human beings cooperate with God for the advancement of the salvific plan. Thus, she represents the reversal of the fatal fall of Eve in the Garden of Eden, and so is also given the designation “the second Eve.” The concept and role of St. Mary in the Malankara Orthodox Church can be appreciated only in the connection with its Christology and ecclesiology.

Zacharias and Elizabeth were both righteous before God. They had no children because Elizabeth was barren and they were both of old age. They asked God often to grant them offspring. So it was, while Zacharias was serving as a priest before God in the order of his division, Gabriel the angel of the Lord appeared and announced to Zacharias the birth of a son. Shortly after, Elizabeth conceived. While the people were waiting, questioning in their hearts if John is the Christ, John answered them saying: "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to decline saying: "I have need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" But Jesus answered and said to him: "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." John accepted and carried out Jesus’ request. When Jesus had been baptized, immediately He came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove upon Him. Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." St. John rebuked King Herod because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Phillip whom he had taken as a wife, while her husband was still alive. St. John rebuked King Herod because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Phillip whom he had taken as a wife, while her husband was still alive. Then an opportune day came when Herod, on his birthday, threw a feast for his nobles, the high officers and chief men of Galilee. Herodias’ daughter herself came in and danced and pleased Herod and those who sat with him. So the king said to the girl: ‘Ask me whatever you want, and I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.’ The girl went out and spoke to her mother and asked her: 'What shall I ask?' Her mother replied: ‘The head of John the Baptist on a platter'.When the king heard the request, he was exceedingly sorry, but because of those who sat with him, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately he sent out an executioner and commanded John’s head to be brought to him.St. John was beheaded in prison, and indeed his head was brought on a platter, and presented to the girl. She gave it to her mother (Mark 6:19-28).

In order that the Twelve might devote themselves without distraction to prayer and to teaching as the number of disciples continued to increase, they decided to appoint seven of the brethren, who were well-respected for their wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit, to relieve them of the task of looking after the material welfare of the community, especially of waiting on the brethren when they ate together and of assisting the widows and the needy. The seven deacons upon whom the Apostles laid their hands were Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas (Acts 6:1-6). The activity of Stephen, who was their head, extended well beyond providing for the material needs of the community. Being filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, he worked miracles and spoke with the authority of a messenger from God. These inspired words sprang from Stephen’s mouth through the grace of God, which filled his heart and made it heavenly, while also spreading over his body, and illumining his face with a divine light as it illumined the Savior on the day of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:6; Luke 9:29). Unable to bear this revelation of the exaltation to Heaven of Jesus Christ and of His dwelling bodily in the Blessed Trinity, the Jews stopped their ears and, rushing on Stephen, they took him out of the city and stoned him. Stephen exulted with joy to be put to death after the example of his Master; and for him the stones they threw were so many steps up to the glorious vision of Christ which he had just caught sight of. He breathed his last like Jesus on the Cross, calling upon the name of the Lord with the cry of supreme love for his enemies: Lord, do not hold this sin against them (Acts 7:60; c.f. Luke 23:34). Adorning the Church with the costly pearls of his blood, Stephen was the first to take the path to Heaven that Christ opened by His Passion. His voluntary death for the Truth opened Paradise to him and enabled him to see the glory of God. The body of Saint Stephen, which pious men had buried, was discovered by the priest Lucian at Caphargamala in 415, following an apparition. It was translated to the church that the Empress Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius II, built in honor of the Protomartyr in Jerusalem. Saint Stephen’s relics were later taken to Constantinople.