Yuhanon Mor Meletius was born on 4th July 1954, the first-born child of M.J. Markose, a farmer and a social worker, and Saramma Markose in Ezhakaranad, Ernakulam district, Kerala.
St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s Orthodox Syrian Church, Chalissery, was in Kochi diocese when the Malankara Church faced a split in the early 1970s and opted to be part of the Patriarch faction. In 1982 this became one of the Churches in Thrissur diocese after Kochi diocese was bifurcated to form Thrissur diocese in the Patriarch faction. I became a bishop of the diocese that included this church in 1990 December. But the Hon. Supreme Court verdict that came in 1995 with a final and inconclusive word on the matter, the diocese decided to opt for unity in the Church as directed by the Hon.