His Eminence The Most Reverend Lord Archbishop Mar Timotheos 1st, 1st Old Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of North America

Mar Timotheos, born Joseph Rene' Vilatte near Paris, France on January 24, 1854, started out life early as an Old Catholic Church Christian. When both of Mar Timotheos’ parents died while he was very young, he was then raised in an orphanage in Paris run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, growing up seeing the Franco-Prussian war. Vilatte received training for the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church St. Laurent College near Montreal, Canada. Due to his Old Catholic roots however, he as a young seminarian had theological objections to some of the dogmas that were ratified in the Vatican I Council in 1870 such as the Roman Catholic teachings of 'papal infallibility'. After three years at St. Laurent College, he turned away from Rome, unable to reconcile his views of apostolic catholicity in comparison to Roman Catholicism. In his memoir Vilatte wrote, “the teaching of the seminary was so rabidly Romanist that all other beliefs were condemned as heresies, which brought eternal damnation to all that accepted them.” This universal condemnation by Rome at the time before the Second Vatican Council included any Church outside of its jurisdiction, including the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches.

Vilatte had a vision for a church in America that would return to the ancient apostolic roots of Christianity, while at the same time remaining autocephalous (independent and self-governing). Vilatte embraced the notions of the historic episcopacy, a sacrament and conciliar Church. He deeply believed at the time that the Roman Church traditions had obscured the ancient faith, while, in great rebellion against Rome, the Protestant Christians had abandoned it altogether. He once said “I saw plainly while on the one hand Romanism has added much error and corruption to the primitive faith, Protestantism had not only taken away Roman errors, but also a part of the primitive deposit of faith.”

Vilatte befriended Bishop J.H. Hobart Brown, the Episcopal Church Bishop of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, gaining support for his mission to the ethnic settlers from Europe in the region. Initially, Bishop Brown tried to convince Vilatte to join the Anglican (Episcopal) Church as a priest. Despite their bond, Vilatte was against joining the Anglican Communion due to the Roman Catholic view that Anglican Orders were considered invalid, and the ethnic settlers that Vilatte was serving at that time were Roman Catholic. This was on top of his rejection of some of the reformation teachings of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It was determined that the more conducive option was to bring these congregations into the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Churches. It was arranged that Bishop Herzog of the Old Catholic Church of Switzerland agreed to his nomination, and Joseph Rene Vilatte was ordained into the priesthood in Bern, Switzerland on July 7th, 1885. Fr. Vilatte returned to the United States where he immediately began to establish missions in the Midwestern States including the Church of the Precious Blood in Green Bay, Wisconsin. These new American Catholic missions served settlers from countries such as Belgium, France, Poland, and Italy. Fr. Vilatte also attracted French speaking settlers by offering church services in their native tongue.

Bishop Brown continued to support Vilatte's ministry until his death in May 1888. The new Anglican Bishop of the diocese, Dr. Charles Chapman Grafton, proved hostile towards the mission, and even used his political influence to seize several of Fr. Vilatte’s church properties. It was also during this time that the Anglican Church and the Old Catholic Church were considering the possibility of some type of union. The issue of Fr. Vilatte’s disputes with the Anglican Church became a point of contention between these jurisdictions, and due to pressure, the Old Catholic bishops decided to withdraw from any further development with Fr. Vilatte. Further persecutions were initiated by the Roman Catholic Bishops, however Fr. Vilatte was vigilant in his belief that the New World needed its own orthodox catholic church. Thus, Fr. Vilatte began to look eastward for an apostolic body that would support his missionary work in America. This search finally led him to India where he found the support of Mar Julius Alvarez, Archbishop of Ceylon, Goa, and India for the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, submitted to the Patriarch of Antioch. On May 28th, 1892, by the permission and decree of the Syriac Prince-Patriarch of Antioch, His Eminence consecrated "Old Catholic Archbishop and Metropolitan of North America" at the hands of three prominent Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Metropolitan Bishops. He would take the sainted name “Mar Timotheos”, and go on to consecrate Bishops for various independent Catholic jurisdictions. Several years later however, after an unfortunate coup within the Patriarchate of Antioch, and tampering performed by the Protestant Episcopal Church, Mar Timotheos was uncanonically deposed and denounced by the next Patriarch of Antioch. The consecrations he performed on the various bishops however remained intact and valid according to the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Holding hands from consecration to consecration down through the generations of Church history and the ministry of the All-Holy Spirit, the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church of Trinidad and Tobago shares in the historic apostolic succession and grace filled ministry of Mar Timotheos by way of the teachings and episcopal ministry and lineage of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch Church, and the Old Catholic Churches who have passed on his succession with power and faithfulness.