Muthyala Theophilus
M. Theophilus (7 May 1895 – 10 December 1946) was a Baptist Patriarch and Spiritual Formator of the Protestant Convention of Baptist Churches of Northern Circars, a major congregation along the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh, India that extends from Srikakulam District in the northern tip through Guntur District in the middle.
[6] Both Theophilus and his companion Gordon P. Barss took the lead[6] to take up conversations between the Baptists and a few other Protestant congregations comprising the Anglicans, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Presbyterians for forming a Union.
The untimely death of Theophilus in 1946 toned down the strength of the dialogue and the Baptists could not join the Church of South India that was inaugurated in 1947 at St. George's Cathedral, Madras.
In one of the chapters, Lorne highlights the personal prayer and devotional life of Theophilus who seemed to take much interest in reading titles on St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis de Sales, Sadhu Sundar Singh and other devotional reading material.
[1] For collegiate studies, Theophilus enrolled at the local Pitapuram Rajah College in Kakinada in 1915 and also taught as a Teacher in 1917 at his alma mater, the CBM-McLaurin High School.
The study companions of Theophilus included P. K. Abraham, V. T. Chacko, M. I. Daniel, A. Hyder Ali, J. S. Choudhary, G. M. Kanagaratnam, D. Naik and P.
In July 1924, Theophilus moved to Ramayapatnam, a mission station of the American Baptists in southern Andhra Pradesh.
Theophilus moved from Ramayapatnam to Kakinada in East Godavari District where he taught at the Baptist Theological Seminary from 1926 onwards along with C. Bhanumurthy.
In 1947, when the Convention of Baptist Churches of Northern Circars was formed, the Clergy led[17] the Society in line with the wishes of Theophilus.
[20] The period 1942–1946 when Theophilus was Senator of the university was a crucial one and managing a university during that period required great amounts of courage, patience and persistence on part of the Senators as the Second World War was already underway and India unwittingly became a participant in the World War II fighting the advance of the Japanese who launched the 'Operation U-Go' assisted by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose of the Azad Hind Fauj in the South-East Asian Theatre and as a consequence, it led to the Bengal famine of 1943 during which lakhs died[21] as the Government sought a major portion of the harvest to help sustain the food supplies of the British Indian Army.
[20] Prof. K. R. Chatterjee records that by July 1946,[20] Serampore College was able to open its academic year in its usual manner.
[1] In 1931,[24] Theophilus became Honorary President[24] of the Andhra Baptist Church in the neighbourhood of the Seminary in Kakinada and held the position for four years until 1934 coinciding with the Pastorships of The Rev.
[24] In 1923, when Tuberculosis first struck Theophilus in Serampore while he was studying, he was able to recuperate at the Church of South India-Sanatorium in Madanapalle.
However, Tuberculosis once again struck Theophilus in 1936 when he was teaching at the seminary in Kakinada from where he moved to Gopalpur-on-Sea to a mission station of the Canadian Baptist Ministries for rest and again to Rajahmundry, the same year, where he was admitted to the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church-Sanatorium and then moved to Vengurla in 1937 to the Church of North India Sanatorium.
[1] For nearly twenty years', Theophilus endured Tuberculosis until his death on 10 December 1946 at the ground floor of the administrative building of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Kakinada where he lay motionless in his chair until a student who came out from the classroom that morning to enquire about his Professor who was unduly delayed, but to his shock, discovered his Professor lying in a chair, calm and motionless,[1] an incident which remained etched in the history of the Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada.
T. Gnananandam writing in the Silver Jubilee Souvenir of the CBCNC in 1972[29] brings to light the fact that Theophilus was involved with the administration of not only the CBCNC which worked with the Telugu people but also with the other[29] three vernacular associations in Odisha, T. Gnananandam wrote, Theophilus was considered a very important member of the Telugu-Odiya Council.
