A serving Bishop of Kerala's influential Syro-Malabar Catholic Church on Wednesday gave a new lease of life to a man by donating him one of his kidneys.

The surgery was successfully performed at VPS Lakeshore hospital in Kochi.

Auxiliary Bishop of Pala diocese Jacob Murickan and the recipient, a 31-year-old man belonging to a poor Hindu family, are recovering after surgery, hospital sources said.

The organ transplantation surgery was performed by a team of doctors led by Dr George P Abraham, Urologist and Dr Aby Abraham, nephrologist of the hospital, they said.

Last week, 52-year-old Bishop Murickan had finalised plans to donate one of his kidneys to E Sooraj, an employee with an Arya Vaidya Sala.

He is the sole breadwinner of his family, comprising his mother and his wife.

An authorisation committee for unrelated donors at Kottayam government medical college had cleared Bishop Murickan as the donor for Sooraj.

Hailing the Bishop's noble gesture, Kidney Federation Chairman Father Davis Chiramal had said this was perhaps for the first time in the history, a serving Bishop is donating one of his kidneys to save a valuable life.