During the later Old Testament times the Malabarian coast had trade relations with West Asia. These trade routes later enabled Christianity to reach Kerala, a state on the south western coast of India. Tradition states that the Apostle Thomas preached the Gospel to the locals (which included Jewish settlers in Kerala), baptized many, ordained some as priests and founded eight churches. These churches remain the major Christian centers in Kerala. The Christians of this ancient tradition were and are known as either Nasranis or Syrian Christians. The Indian Church was related to the Church of the East in the early centuries, and this church sent "East Syrian" bishops to India. The head of the Eastern church was the "Catholicos of the East" in the lineage of Apostle Thomas. In AD 431, the Council of Ephesus condemned the teachings of Nestor, who was the Patriarch of Constantinople. A section of the Church of the East rejected the decisions of the Council of Ephesus and accepted the Nestorian teaching. In AD 544, Pope Theodosius I, the Patriarch of Alexandria, ordained Mar Jacob Baradaeus as a general bishop. In AD 559, Mar Jacob Baradaeus visited the east and consecrated a Catholicos for the non-Chalcedonies who accepted the Council of Ephesus and rejected the Council of Chalcedon.
The Portuguese who colonized India in AD 1498 tried to convert the St. Thomas Christians to Catholicism. By AD 1599 they succeeded in forcibly converting some to the Roman Catholic Church, but in AD 1653, a section of St. Thomas Christians revolted and resolved against accepting foreign authority famously known as “Coonan Kurishu declaration “ at Mattanchery. The party that sought to preserve the Church's freedom appealed to several Eastern Christian Centres for help in restoring its Episcopal succession. The Antioch Church responded and sent to India a Bishop, Metropolitan Mar Gregorios of Jerusalem who came to India in AD 1665. The Archdeacon who had been declared in the meantime to be Metropolitan Mar Thoma by the laying on of hands by twelve Presbyters was now confirmed by him in his Episcopal rank, and both of them worked together to organize the church on firm footing. Mar Thoma I was followed in succession by a series of Prelates with the same name till AD 1816 when the last of them namely Mar Thoma IX came to the scene, but was soon replaced by Mar Dionysius II.
Later in the 19th century, exposure to the doctrines of the Anglican Church inspired a reform movement led by Abraham Malpan. This was largely unsuccessful and ended in schism with the reformers founding the Marthoma Church. In AD 1912, the Catholicate of the East was revived in India with the co-operation of Mar Abdul Messiah, the deposed Patriarch of Antioch, Mar Dionysius VI, the Metropolitan of the Indian Church, Kottayam and the Bishops of the Church. The ceremony was held at St. Mary's Church, Niranam on 15 September 1912. The universal Syrian Orthodox Church did not accept this consecration as valid which is the historical root of the present schism in the Malankara church. Despite several schisms, the Indian Orthodox Church remains a stronghold of Oriental Orthodoxy in The Subcontinent.
The Nasranis are an ethnic people and in that sense a single community. However the Nasranis have various denominations as a result of Portuguese persecution. As an ethnic community they refer to themselves as Nasranis referring to the common cultural heritage and cultural tradition. However as a religious group they refer to themselves as the Mar Thoma Khristianis or in English as Saint Thomas Christians referring to the various and diverse religious denominations between them in terms of their religious tradition, despite a common ancestory of being the descendants of the early Mar Thoma church or Saint Thomas tradition of Christianity. These first century churches, according to tradition, were, from north to south: Palayoor near Guruvayoor/Kunnankulam, Cranganore (believed to be the ancient Muziris of Pliny, and the Periplus, on the north bank of Periyar River today), Paravoor on the south side of Periyar, Gokkamangalam or Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Chayal or Nilakkal (the only inland church) and the Lakes (Kaayals), Kollam and finally Thiruvithamcode(Kanyakumari). The visit of the Apostle Thomas to these places and to Mylapore on the East coast of India can be read in the Ramban Song of Thomas Ramban, set into modern writing c. 1500.
Modern developments in archaeology, anthropology, numismatics, place-name studies, geography and trade route investigations have revealed evidence of the trading which forms the background to the St. Thomas tradition of India. The lure of spices attracted traders from the Middle East and Europe to the many trading ports — Calicut, Cranganore, Cochin, Alleppey and Quilon — long before the time of Christ. According to tradition, it was on a trading vessel plying between Alexandria and the Malabar coast that St. Thomas, the Apostle arrived in Cranganore in AD 52. According to the first century annals of Pliny the Elder and the author of Periplus of the Eritrean sea, Muziris in Kerala could be reached in 40 days' time from the Egyptian coast purely depending on the South West Monsoon winds.
The Sangam works Puraana nooru and Akana nooru have many lines which speak of the Roman vessels and the Roman gold that used to come to the Kerala ports of the great Chera kings in search of pepper and other spices, which had an enormous demand in the West. There St. Thomas the apostle is said to have begun preaching the gospel to the already existing Jewish settlers in the Malabar coast and other local people. According to the Acts of Thomas, the first converts made by Thomas in India were Hebrew-Jewish people (Jews in India). St. Thomas established eight Christian communities or churches in Kerala. They are in Cranganore, Paravoor (Kottakavu), Palayoor, Kokkamangalam, Malayattoor, Niranam Kollam (Quilon) and Thiruvithamcode. legend is that the Apostolate of St.Thomas arrived in Kerala in the 1st century, and contact with some Brahmins in Palayoor and converted them to Christian faith in the first Century. These Nambudiri Brahmins were India's first St.Thomas Christians. The Brahmin converts include Kalli, Kallarakal, Kalliankal, Manki, Madathalan, Plavunkal, Mattamuk, Manavasri, Pakalomattom, Sankarapuri, Thayil etc In the 4th century, a settlement of Jewish Christians was founded in Kottayam by Thomas Kynai at the behest of the Catholicos of the Assyrian Church of the East. They became known as the Knanaya. Currently, there are no independent Knanaya religious organizations but look either to the Pope of Rome or the Syrian Orthodox Church for ecclesiastic legitimacy. Nevertheless, this community has rigidly maintained its distinct ethnic identity to the present day, vehemently prohibiting intermarriage with non-Knanaya even within their own religious jurisdiction while freely permitting Knanaya marriage between Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Place in Indian culture Throughout Kerala, one can find Christian families that claim their descent from Jewish ancestors who were baptized by Apostle Thomas.
St. Thomas Christians were classified into the caste system according to their professions, in accordance with the Hindu tradition, with special privileges for trade granted by the benevolent Hindu kings. People in Hindu kingdoms, regardless of religion, were expected to strictly abide by stringent rules pertaining to caste and religion. This is why St. Thomas Christians had such a strong sense of caste and tradition, being the oldest order of Christianity in India. The archdeacon was the head of the Church, and Palliyogams (Parish Councils) were in charge of temporal affairs. They had a liturgy-centered life with days of fasting and abstinence. Their devotion to the Mar Thoma Cross was absolute. Their churches were modeled after Jewish synagogues. In short, the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala had blended well the ecclesiastical world of the East Syriac Church with the socio-cultural environment of their homeland. Thus, the East Syriac Church was South Indian in culture, Christian in religion, and Judeo-Syro-Oriental in worship.
In 1498, when the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama landed on the Malabar coast, there were an estimated two million Christians across the land, and they had 1,500 churches under the jurisdiction of a single Metropolitan who lived in Angamali. The arrival of Vasco da Gama, however, heralded a new struggle for the East Syrian Church, because the Portuguese, who later established trading posts in Goa, Daman and Diu north of Kerala, moved against the East Syrian Church in the Goa Inquisition leading to tragic, ecclesiastical incidents. According to Joas de Castro, the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa in 1548, the sword of the Portuguese was wielded "mainly against the centuries-old Syrian-Christians of Kerala" because they opposed to Roman control of their church. This was because only in Kerala did the laity stand steadfast against Western colonization, and maybe the Portuguese, who were under the Roman Church, considered everything outside Roman Catholicism as heretical, including the Syrian Christians they found in India. The move against the Syrian Church was followed by the Roman Church establishing a Roman Catholic diocese in Goa in 1534. In 1557 Pope Paul IV declared Goa an archdiocese with its supremacy extending from the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa to China, and all Christians, including the East Syrian Church, brought under its jurisdiction.
The East Syrian Archdiocese of Angamali then became a dependent of Goa and it lost many properties to Roman Catholicism. This conversion to Roman Catholic rite led to divisions in the Church, as there was considerable resistance against Roman domination of its rituals and properties. The Christian communities then split into many groups — East Syriac Catholics, West Syriac Catholics, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (in Oriental Orthodox Communion), Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church (in Oriental Orthodox Communion), Mar Thoma Church (reformed break away from Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church under influence of Anglican Church ), Chaldean Syrian Church of the East (those who accepted the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East), and the Latin-Rite Roman Catholic Church. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jacobite and other St. Thomas Christian bishops assisted at consecrations of Old-Catholic bishops who went on to form the movement of Independent Catholic Churches (one of these groupings that considers itself a co-heir of this Tradition is the Christian Essences’).
After the The Great Swearing in Ceremony, the parish elders (Idavaka Mooppens) of the Church met together and elected Kuravilangad Parampil Thomas Kathanar as Malankara Elder (Malankara Mooppen). Following the ancient custom.[25] twelve Idavaka Mooppens laid their hands on him and appointed him as Malankara Mooppen. The Catholics considered this illegitimate, because this was not their practice. So the Marthoma Nazranis were forced to send letters to various other eastern Churches asking to send a bishop. In 1854, Mar Gregorios Abdul-Jaleel, Patriarch of Jerusalem arrived. Thus began the relation between the Malankara Church and the Anthiochian Jacobites.
It should be specially noticed that the 9 Marthoma Methrans were members of the Pakalomattam family.
Following his sudden death, Anjoor Mar Piloxenos took over as Malankara Metropolitan. Later Mar Philoxenos consecrated his Vicar General Punnathra Kurian Kathanar as Bishop, and returned to Thozhiyoor Church.
First Metropolitan to be recognised by Travancore and Cochin as Malankara Metropolitan, by a Royal Proclamation to receive interest of Vattipanam (Fixed Deposit).
Opened the Kottayam Suryani Seminary.
Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) missionaries arrived to teach there.With him the reign of Marthoma Metrans came to an end and the power was transferred to Malankara Metropolitan.
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