The St. Thomas Christians (Nazranis) 52 AD until early 16th Century

1st Century 52 AD: Arrival of Saint Thomas After the death and Resurrection of Isho Mishiha (Jesus Christ), His apostles proceed to various lands to spread the faith. Mar Thoma Sleeha (Saint Thomas the Apostle) arrives in the Malabar coast of India and establishes Christian communities. Malabar is the region on the south-west coast of India that encompasses the area, both inside the modern Kerala State and its adjoining regions. Malabar is known to the outside world for its pepper and other spices. Ports of Malabar, during the first century are a hub on the Sea Silk route - connecting Malabar with both the West (including Greco-Roman) and the Far East. It is believed that St Thomas was in search of Aramaic speakers (Jews, Persians, and other middle-Eastern communities) who settled along the spice routes. Aramaic was the lingua-franca of trade in the early centuries. Traders lived in the empires of Parthia and Persia had monopoly in spices, diamonds, and other valuable materials from south India. Since the spoken language of these traders and Saint Thomas was Aramaic, it is believed that Saint Thomas won many adherants to his master's Gospel. 72 AD: Martyrdom of Saint Thomas St. Thomas is martyred in Mylapore, near Chennai on the southeast coast of India. The tomb of the Apostle becomes a centre of pilgrimage. The Christian community founded by St. Thomas the Apostle is locally known in Malabar as the Mar Thoma Nasrani. An equivalent, though not exact, translation of this Syriac phrase to English is Saint Thomas Christian. The commercial, cultural and linguistic relation between ancient Persia and India, along with the St. Thomas connection of the Churches of Persia and India paved the way for close partnership in hierarchy and liturgy. The spice cultivating Christians of Malabar and the spice trading Christians from Persia developed a very strong bond with each other. The rapport between these two groups encouraged more Christian traders from Persia to come to India and with them came many priests and bishops too. This helped the Church in Malabar to remain in good relation with the Persian Church. The Christian community in Malabar eventually developed a model of self-governance under a native leader, who was known as the Archdeacon. The Archdeacon was the religious, social, communal and political leader of the St. Thomas Christians. All the Archdeacons we know of were also priests. In later centuries, the community is described as a 'Christian Republic'. The bishops for the most part exercised the power of order only. The native Churches of the Persian Empire and the East follow the East-Syrian liturgical rite. They are collectively referred to as the East Syrian Church. The names like Persian Church, Church of the East are also used for this Church. The East-Syrian rite developed mostly outside the influence of the Greek culture of the Roman Empire. In the Persian Empire, Christianity was first preached among the Jewish communities of Mesopotamia (the area in and around modern Iraq). The liturgical language, East-Syriac (Aramaic), and thought categories, of the East-Syrian rite originate from this connection to the Jews of Mesopotamia. The Jews lived among Assyrians and Persian (Iranian) cultures. Therefore, the East-Syrian rite is the product of fusion between Judeo-Christianity and the pagan cultures of the Assyrians and Persians. However, the predominant element of this fusion was Judeo-Christianity. The East Syrian Church, also known as the Catholic (Universal) Church of the East gradually grew into a multi-ethnic Church stretching from ancient Mesopotamia to China, passing through Arabia, India, Tibet and Central Asia. 2nd Century 195 AD: Report of Pantaleunus Pantaleunus reports that he found Christians in India with Hebrew Bible (Gospel of Matthew). 3rd Century 230 AD: Documentation about the priesthood for India According to ancient Syriac documents written during this period, India receives priesthood directly from the hands of the Apostle Thomas. 295 - 300 AD: Journey of Mar David of Basra Journey of Mar David of Basra (Bishop of Maishan, southern part of modern Iraq), according to the Chronicle of Seert. Mar David left his seat to evangelise India. This is one of the early recorded instances of Persian bishops arriving in India. 4th Century 315 AD: Mar Papa Bar Aggai Mar Papa bar Aggai, the bishop of the capital city of the Persian Empire, Seleucia-Ctesiphon (near Baghdad, modern Iraq) sets himself up as the head of the hierarchy of bishops in the Persian Empire. He took the title of Catholicos (head of the Catholic (universal) Church). However, other bishops in the Empire refuse to accept such an authority and he was deposed, though later he returned to serve as bishop. 325 AD: Council of Nicea Council of Nicea - Persia and India are represented by Mar Yohannan (John). The council recognises the already established privilege of the Church in Persia to ordain its Metropolitans and Bishops without informing any of the established Patriarchates, all located in the Roman Empire. 306-373 AD: Mar Aphrem (St. Ephrem the Syrian) Mar Aphrem (St. Ephrem the Syrian) writes in length about the Apostle Thomas' visit and death in India. The remains of the Apostle martyred in India are brought to Edessa, Mesopotamia (the city of Sianliurfa in modern Turkey) by a merchant. 355 AD: Bishop Theophilus Bishop Theophilus, a native of Maldives, visits Malabar and reports about the Christian community. 5th Century 410 AD: The first general Synod of the East-Syrian Church The first general Synod of the East-Syrian Church is held in Seleucia-Ctesiphon (in Babylon, near modern Baghdad in Iraq), the capital city of the Persian Empire. This event is also known as the Synod of Mar Isaac, after Mar Ishaq (Isaac), the Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. Mar Isaac eventually becomes the Catholicos (Also called Catholicos-Patriarch or simply Patriarch) and the Supreme Pontiff of the East-Syrian Church. The Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon gains this position partly by virtue of it being the capital of the Persian Empire. The Persian Emperor, a patron of this Synod, thought he could keep a closer watch on the Christian community if its Head was present in his Capital city. Importantly, a decree to have a uniform liturgy throughout the East-Syrian Church is accepted. Though the anaphora of the Apostles (Addai and Mari) has been in use since the early centuries, the pre-anaphora and other parts of the liturgy developed gradually and the modern form of the East-Syrian liturgy has not changed since at least the 7th Century. The Church of Persia proper (Fars, in modern Iran), which is linked to India, resists the authority of the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (Babylon) over it until the 8th Century. The Church of Persia proper, like India, claims its origins from St. Thomas the Apostle. The Church in Seleucia claims its origins from St. Mari, a disciple of St. Thomas. Thus Persia claims that the See of St. Thomas cannot be under the See of St. Mari. 425 AD: Daniel, the Indian Daniel, an Indian priest helps Mar Komai in translating the Greek epistles to Syriac. Metropolitan Mana of Rew-Ardashihr in Fars (Bushahr in Modern Iran) sends copies of his Syriac and Persian translations of Greek works for use by the Indian clergy. The East-Syrian Church used Christian literature translated to various local languages though the Liturgy was in East-Syriac. A Persian translation of the Liturgy may have been used. 6th Century: 540-552 AD: Translation of the Anaphoras Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Ava translates the Anaphoras of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius from Greek to East-Syriac. This was done during a visit by the Catholicos to the Roman Empire. These two Anaphoras are used during certain periods or days of the Liturgical calendar. Cosmas Indicopleustes Cosmas Indicopleustes, an Alexandrian Greek traveller and East-Syrian monk, writes about the presence of East-Syrian Christians in Malabar and nearby regions. He also mentions about a Bishop consecrated in Persia residing in Kalliana. Kalliana could be either Kollam (Quilon in Kerala) or Kalyan (Mumbai).

The Arrival of Portuguese and the Influence of the Latin Church

The arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th Century marks a new era in the life of the Thomas Christians. East Syrian Bishops stopped coming. Archdeacon lost his position and Latin Prelates exercised full authority over ecclesiastical administration for almost three centuries. This paved way for the latinization of liturgy and ecclesiastical administration. Following the Coonan Cross oath in 1653 and the introduction of the Padroado (the Portuguese jurisdiction under the Propaganda Congregation) in 1661, the Thomas Christians got divided into two groups, of which the group who resisted Latin rule formed a separate community under the Archdeacon. Later they accepted the West Syrian theological and liturgical tradition of the West Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and came to be known as the Jacobite Church. They were further divided into several independent Churches. The group that remained faithful to Rome came to be known as Syro-Malabar Church, a name which became a common epithet only in the nineteenth century. It literally means Syrian Christians of the Malabar Coast (Kerala).

The Syro-Malabar Church

In 1886 the Padroado jurisdiction over the whole Malabar (Kerala) was suppressed and in 1887 Pope Leo XIII re-organized the Syro-Malabar Catholics into two independent Vicariates of Kottayam and Trissur. Finally, the Syro-Malabar Church obtained bishops of their own rites and nationality in 1896, when they were further reorganized into three vicariates of Trissur, Changanacherry and Ernakulam by Pope Leo XIII through his Brief Quae rei Sacrae. Later, the Syro-Malabar Hierarchy was established on December 21, 1923, by the Apostolic Constitution Romani Pontifices of Pope Pius XI (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 16 [1924], pp. 257-262), with Ernakulam as the Metropolitan See and Trichur, Changanacherry and Kottayam (established in 1911 for the Southists) as suffragans. In 1956 Changanacherry was raised to the status of a Metropolitan See, with Pala as a suffragan diocese. The restoration of the hierarchy initiated a process of liturgical reform that sought to restore the oriental identity of the Latinized Syro-Malabar rite, which was approved by Pius XII in 1957 and introduced in 1962. In subsequent years several new dioceses were established both within and outside Kerala. From 1962, the Church began to set up mission centers in Northern India, which later became dioceses. Last 40 years have been a period of steady growth for the Syro-Malabar Church.

The Syro-Malabar Church Today

Today the Syro-Malabar Church is the second largest Eastern Church in Catholic communion and constitutes the largest group of St. Thomas Christians. The other two Catholic Churches in India are the Latin Church and the Syro-Malankara Church. At present there are five Archdioceses - Ernakulam-Angamaly, Changanacherry, Trichur, Tellicherry and Kottayam and 13 eparchies - Bhadravathi, Belthangady, Irinjalakuda, Kanjirapally, Kothamangalam, Idukki, Mananthavady, Mandya, Palai, Palghat, Ramanathaapuram, Thamarassery, and Thuckalay within the canonical territory of the Major Archiepiscopal Church and 12 eparchies outside, of which Adilabad, Bijnor, Chanda, Gorakhpur, Jagdalpur, Kalyan, Rajkot, Sagar, Satna, and Ujjain in India are with exclusive jurisdiction and Kalyan and Faridabad in India and the St. Thomas Eparchy of Chicago in the United States of America and Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle of Melbourne enjoy personal jurisdiction.. There are altogether 4018204 (4 million) Syro-Malabarians within the 30 Syro-Malabar Eparchies and approximately 5,85,900 members live as migrants outside any Syro-Malabar Eparchy. There are 47 Bishops, 8547 priests (3,556 diocesan and 4,991 religious), and 32,114 women religious and 1214 major seminarians. Many Bishops, priests, religious and laity of the Syro-Malabar Church are present all over the world and share in missionary and pastoral life of the sister Churches. The Syro-Malabar Church is very actively involved in educational, social and health-related fields. The Syro-Malabar Church runs 4860 educational, 262 ecclesiastical and 2614 health and charitable institutions. The corporate contribution of the of the Syro-Malabar Church to nation-building is inestimable.

Major Archbishops