The man who would be Dionysius was the nephew of his predecessor as Malankara Metropolitan,
Mar Thoma V, and a member of the
Pakalomattom family. In 1757, as part of a play to assert his authority and autonomy in the Malankara Syrian Church, Thoma V consecrated his nephew as
coadjutor bishop and named him his successor, in contradiction to the wishes of the Syriac Orthodox hierarchy. Upon Thoma V's death in 1765, the younger Pakalomattom was ordained as Metropolitan on 8 May, taking the name Thoma VI. As with his predecessors as Metropolitan going back to the first,
Mar Thoma I, Thoma VI's critics charged that his succession, and therefore his position, was invalid. To overcome this criticism, in 1772 Thoma VI underwent a second ordination at the hands of the Syriac Orthodox bishop Gregorios in the church in
Niranam. He received all the
Holy Orders, from the
tonsure to the episcopal consecration, and thereafter took the name Mar Dionysius. Syriac Orthodox and other critics of Thoma VI saw this as his only ordination, while his supporters saw it as a "re-ordination", but either way, it ended the controversy over the validity of his position. This done, Dionysius focused on his second primary aim of securing his place as the sole head of the Malankara Church, a measure opposed by some in the Syriac Orthodox hierarchy. To this end, Dionysius appealed to both the
Catholic Church and the
British colonial government in India. Several times he contacted the Catholic hierarchy, both locally and in Rome, seeking to have his church, with him as its designated head, brought into full communion. This would have the double aim of solidifying his authority and re-uniting all the
Saint Thomas Christians, who had been split into
Pazhayakoor (Catholic) and Puthenkoor (independent) factions since the
Coonan Cross Oath of 1653. His appeals were considered in Rome, where the Church was willing to grant him temporal but not spiritual authority over the Saint Thomas Christians. In the end, however, no satisfactory deal was ever made and the factions remained separate. In 1771, Gregorios consecrated a second bishop, Kattumangatt, who took the name
Cyril (Koorilose). Dionysius saw Cyril as a threat to his authority and appealed to the colonial authorities to suppress the rival bishop. Cyril left for
Thozhiyur, outside of the colonial jurisdiction, and established what would become an independent church. This body is now known as the
Malabar Independent Syrian Church. Subsequently, however, Gregorios and the other Syrian bishops died and were not replaced, leaving no further internal challengers to Dionysius. ==Invasion by Mysore==