CNANAYA SYRIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
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This is a section of the Catholics in Kerala who claim to be a special ethno-religious group who are descendents of the colony of Jewish emigrants who came to Kodungallor from Edessa, in Syria, in 345 A.D. under the leadership of Thomas of Cana. They are an exclusive lot who consider themselves as Sudhists among the Syrian Catholics in Kerala who normally do not allow marriages with people outside their ethnic group. It was Pope Pius X who erected the Vicariate of Kottayam for this section of Catholics in 1911. Later, Pope Pius XI raised this Vicariate to a Diocese in 1923. This was again raised to the status of the Archdiocese of Kottayam in May 2005 by Pope John Paul II. The Cnanaya Catholics do not have any other diocese. Their total membership may be around 1.5 lakhs including the diaspora living in different parts of the world.
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